John Wesley Coleman III: Crown Tap 8/11: Interview, New Tunes and "Jim NOW"

John Wesley Coleman is:

John Wesley Coleman.

Introduction. Pt. 1
Just got off the phone with shred-master/scuzz-balladeer, John Wesley Coleman. He's down in Austin, watchin' baseball (Go Tigers!), eatin' brisket and gettin' fucked up on weed and beer... as your typical shred-master/scuzz-balladeer does. You know how some people get drunk and then sleep the whole next day and can barely function? Yeah, John Wesley Coleman is not like that at all. Apparently, he has several new LP's in the works as well as a... novella(?!) entitled "Jim NOW", for which he is currently seeking a publisher. Here is an excerpt from said novella originally posted on his own blog which I recommend "favoriting" ASAP...

The Book. Pt. 2
"JIM NOW" excerpt of my finished novel about jim morrison as if he never died.

I decided that she needed a necklace like mine, a real puka shell necklace from Venus Beach. So, I walked back to the beach where I saw this old hippy guy who looked like a Native American. I said, “ Hey Man, do you have some grass?” and sure enough, he did. So, I smoked my mind to the bone. I got triple high!

I continued on my journey to find the ultimate puka shell necklace for my future spirit mate, until I came across a dog catching a Frisbee. The dog was a Golden Retriever named Ernie (I think). I lied down next to him on the beach and watched him pee. His piss hitting the warm sand sounded different than when it hit the seashells and rocks. I thought for sure I was going to find the ultimate seashells (although, Ernie was pissing on some that were pretty incredible).

Hours later, I woke up all alone and covered in sand, on the beach. As I started to come down from being stoned, I could see the seashells disappearing into the sunset. I got up on my feet and walked over to Sally’s Sea Shop where I finally found the perfect puka shell necklace. I grabbed it and stuffed it down my pants, next to my crotch, so my soon-to-be-girlfriend would fall in love with my smell.

As I walked out of the shop, I saw her leaving with the boner, surfer dude, so I followed them to a nearby apartment building. Once I got there, I climbed up to the second floor terrace of my soon-to-be-soul-mates apartment. So, there I was: shirtless, with a puka shell necklace in my pants, looking through her bedroom window. Like a weirdo, I watched them have sex for at least an hour, thinking I could make love better than that guy.

The room was lit by candles. While I waited by the window, a warm breeze hit my back, making all the hairs on my neck stand up like candles on a cake. After the surfer dude finally left her apartment, I tapped on the window. I stood there with a boner and stared at her naked ribs stretched out across the pillows on her bed. Lit and exposed, I was ready to jump in. As I held out the necklace, my heart started to race somewhere that was unexplainable. “Wake up. I have something to give you….”

Honk, honk, honk. I snap out of my daydream to find an SUV barreling towards me in the middle of the street. I quickly scurry onto the sidewalk. I guess daydreaming will kill you (I know it happens to us older folks), but I just can’t stop thinking of the past and how much I loved that girl…. But, now that the girl is gone, I’m off to the chicken races because I have a jingle that’s going to sell their socks off!

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What did you think? Awesome, I know. He seems stoked about it. I feel stoked about it. This book will be psychedelic. It will be fun. He wants to do a nation-wide book tour in which he will play acoustic sets and do readings from "Jim NOW". I will definitely be there with flask in hand because shit, it's John Wesley Coleman, not Faulkner. And shit, I might get all drunk and confused but with Faulkner I'd wind up all confused even without the whiskey and frankly, I would rather just have the whiskey. And shit, this is going to be better than "The Sound and The Fury," guaranteed, so you better be there too.

The Music. Pt 3

Technically, this was my first ever interview for DedChicago, a milestone to be sure. May there be many more to come. Caught me at work so I wasn't able to record but next time, I will transcribe. Here's the story of how it came to be...

I bought John Wesley Coleman's LP, Bad Lady Goes to Jail, on a lark about a year ago. Reckless Records had described his music as sounding like Daniel Johnston and Pavement (industry codewords for "good"). After listening, I was pleased to discover that it bears only the slightest resemblance to either of these two artists in that it is melodic and uninhibited and that JWC's music is really quite unique. I ended up getting hooked pretty quickly and when I heard he was gonna' be playing just down the street from me at Crown Tap I grabbed my good friend, Andrew, and off we went. We must have been pretty thirsty because we had about four beer and shot combos each in about a two hour time span... which is a lot. Thanks again, Andrew!  I ended up talking to John Wesley's backing band which happened to actually be another Hozac band called Rayon Beach who also played and totally impressed the heck outta' me. Check their totally insane music video here:

I bought JWC's split 7" with Timmy's Organism, and shouted for them to play my favorite song, "Come On Cops." I danced and felt kinda' stupid. John Wesley's guitar playing was spectacularly good. Later, I pitched my bartending skills to one of the owner's family members and made a complete ass of myself. I then waited outside the venue for JWC to appear and when he did I, again, made such an ass out of myself that he felt bad for me and gave me a copy of his newest LP, Little Miss Keith Richards, for free... out of pity, I'm sure. This gesture is a testament to the kind of guy he is. He's a rad dude, been playing guitar every day for twenty years and he's got a great voice. He's written more than a handful of songs I consider to be classics. He is one of those ultra creative types who never stops going, going, going and even has a book of poetry out there somewhere too called, American Trashcan. This is him reading and performing from it in 2008:

His newest LP is being pressed right now for Tic Tac Totally and should have a release date soon. It's called Trans Am Summer Blues and here's a demo from it which has NEVER been available before, anywhere. Thanks, John Wesley Coleman. Click to d/l.
John Wesley Coleman - Trans Am Summer Blues