Drexel music industry professor Monika Julien is all in on orchestral psych rock, proto-ska, more for Ears We Trust

Back in May, an archived master tape of Choice 4 Inc. was released after being recorded in 1972 at Philadelphia’s legendary Sigma Sound Studios. That project was part of Drexel University’s Mad Dragon Records, which saw students Adriana Criswell, Cole Herrmann,  Harper Risch, Hayden Clark, and  Bella Kaminsky giving the Billy Jackson recorded- and produced-album a proper release.

Those students worked under the tutelage of Drexel Music Industry Assistant Teaching Professor Monika Julien. So for this week’s Ears We Trust, we asked Julien—a Drexel Music Industry program alumna who also served as program director at WKDU—what music she digs when she’s not educating future industry figures.

Here’s what she shouted out.

The Creem — “Hard To Pretend”

I am a huge Nick Thorburn fan. It all started back in middle school when my friend’s cool older sister introduced me to The Unicorns. I’ve followed his projects (like Islands, Reefer, Mister Heavenly, etc.) ever since. He has a new project called The Creem with Mike Stroud from Ratatat, and they put out an album in June. The singles they put out—”Taste of Cherry” and “Goodbye”—leading up to the full release were great, but when the full album came out, it was this track “Hard To Pretend” that really stuck with me (admittedly, it took me a while to get through the rest of the album because I kept playing it on repeat…I am unapologetic about listening to songs on repeat). There’s a build-up to this Beach Boys-y harmonic part, and I’m just a total sucker for that sound. Also, Nick Thorburn’s songwriting always gets me—I feel like he has lyrics for just about any mood I’m in (my favorite line in this song: “even when you’re breaking you can bend”). This track (and album) has been on heavy rotation for me this summer.

Phyllis Dillon — “Nice Time”

I like a lot of different music, but I will always be a ska kid. I grew up listening to ska, and when I was a student at Drexel I had a radio show on WKDU called University Goes Ska where I played everything from early ska and rocksteady to two-tone and third wave.

The first time I went to Jamaica, I spent about two weeks working out of Tuff Gong Studio in Kingston. Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to go back several times and visit some of the places where artists who shaped ska and rocksteady lived and recorded. It made me feel even more connected to music I’d loved for years.

People know Bob Marley and the Wailers for the big hits, of course, but one of my favorite songs is the early rocksteady song “Nice Time” which was originally recorded in the 1960s (as The Wailing Wailers). It’s been covered by a number of artists over the years, but one of my favorites is this version by Jamaican rocksteady and reggae singer Phyllis Dillon. Her version has a Latin vibe that I think is so fun—it makes you want to dance as soon as it starts! Songs like this make me want to be back on air!

Dark Meat — “Angel Of Meth”

This story is about my hometown, but it has a bit of Philly in it too. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and the music scene there was having a moment in the mid-2000s. Everyone was talking about bands like The Black Lips, Deerhunter, The Coathangers, and the whole underground garage rock/DIY scene there. 

There was this band called Dark Meat out of Athens that was also connected to that whole scene. I saw them a few times, and their shows are some of the most memorable I’ve ever been to. They were basically a 20-piece…what I can only describe as an unhinged psychedelic rock orchestra. Like The Polyphonic Spree on acid with some southern twang thrown in. They would play these small venues and the members would be scattered around in the crowd, playing all different instruments in what felt like some crazy jam session. There was even a guy who’d play the sousaphone! Sometimes I’d even end up with a tambourine in my hand.

Anyway, part of the Atlanta music scene lore at the time was the Whirlyball shows. Whirlyball is basically a mashup of lacrosse, jai alai, and bumper cars. Sometimes there would be shows in the lobby of this Whirlyball spot in Atlanta (and yes the bands and people at the show would be playing Whirlyball during and in between sets). It was pretty weird and wild.

Dark Meat played one of those shows and Diplo was performing too. They put out a 7-inch together that you had to buy to get a ticket. At that show, I also met the Philly band POPO (they didn’t perform—I think they were just there with Diplo and friends with the bands). A couple of months later, I moved to Philadelphia to go to school at Drexel, and looking back, it just seems like such a cool, serendipitous music moment—like a bridge between my music life in Atlanta and my new life in Philadelphia.

Here’s one of my favorite tracks from Dark Meat’s record Universal Indians. Whenever I hear it, I’m transported back to those sweaty, chaotic Atlanta shows. I like to revisit it for a bit of nostalgia, but also as a reminder of how all of these bands and music experiences shaped who I am today.