Featured Artist: JUKEBOX JUNKIES

Jukebox Junkies is the latest incarnation of singer/songwriter Marc "Doc" Dauer, who previously led the T-Bone Burnett-produced band, Five Easy Pieces. Dauer has also produced and/or performed on albums by Pete Yorn, Peter Himmelman and Minibar. His other credits include original songs in the movies "American Pie", "Mystery Alaska", and "The Girls Room". These days he works very closely with his business partners Rami Jaffee of The Wallflowers and solo artist Pete Yorn to build their new label, Trampoline Records.

"No consequence, no grown up innocence, only what if and what could be if only" ("Wrecking Ball")
These words aptly describe the path that singer/songwriter Marc Dauer has taken on his way to making Jukebox Junkies debut record Choose Your Fix. Growing up in Long Beach, California, the eldest of five children, Dauer was classically trained on the violin as a child before picking up the guitar in high school. Dauer attended college in New York where he started his first rock band, The Scam. "We basically played anywhere we could get a gig," he recalls, which included venues from coffee shops to the Limelight. He then went straight to Medical School from college." I enjoyed science and didn't really have a plan so I decided to go for it," Dauer explains nonchalantly.

"Been broken, put back together, changed directions, fast as the weather" ("Uptown Train")
During his first year in a Head and Neck Surgery residency at UCLA, Dauer consistently found himself working 36 hour shifts in the hospital with little time to sleep, let alone make music. "It was definitely the hardest year of my life, and I started to question what I was doing," he recalls. At the end of that year, he resigned to pursue his passion for music and songwriting full time. "My family thought I was crazy, but it was something I had to do," he says.

Shortly thereafter, Dauer formed the band Five Easy Pieces. They recorded a self-produced album on indie Fish of Death Records that led to their signing by MCA Records. Their subsequent MCA release was produced by T-Bone Burnett (Wallflowers, Counting Crows) and Don Smith (Rolling Stones, Tom Petty). "Working with T-Bone and Don taught me so much about how to make an album, and more importantly, how to refine a song. Plus, I got to have some of my rock heroes play on it," says Dauer. The album won critical praise with Billboard commenting "led by the wildly charismatic Marc Dauer, Five Easy Pieces leaves the frills to the competition," and the All Music Guide stating, "Five Easy Pieces have emerged with what may very well be the best debut album of 1998." The band spent the better part of two years on the road in the U.S. and in Europe attracting a loyal following.

"Change is changing the minors to majors, time to be recovered is time to be discovered" ("Over and Over")
The band split with MCA in the midst of the corporate restructuring that wreaked havoc in the record industry, and Dauer decided it was time to start anew. He assembled a lineup of musicians for the album consisting of members of The Wallflowers, Minibar, and Five Easy Pieces, and was given time at the legendary Ocean Way Studios to record the basic tracks. He then did all the overdubbing in his garage. Almost everybody involved in the project agreed to work on spec which made it financially viable without a major record company's backing. "I got the opportunity to make the album I wanted, for less than the food budget on my last album," says Dauer.

The name Jukebox Junkies came from a song Dauer wrote. "It's a song about starting over and celebrating life. Plus I thought it sounded cool." The 11 song album, produced by Dauer, is an amalgamation of many different influences that he cites as musical inspirations. "I have always been a huge fan of Alt-Country bands like Wilco and The Jayhawks, as well as classic pop bands like Big Star and of course The Beatles." Combining those influences the songs range from the power pop of "Uptown Train" and "A Wish," to the country stylings of "Nothing Gets Me Down" and "Wrecking Ball," to the Britpop of "One More Song," to the classic Americana of "Sentimental Tattoo". "I like to call it Alt Country Pop Rock" says Dauer. "It's cohesive as a unit, but diverse at the same time." The lyricism of each song on the album effectively translates the deeply personal into the universal.

Dauer's other musical credits include original songs in the movies "American Pie," "Mystery, Alaska," and "I'll Be Home For Christmas," as well as performances on "Melrose Place" and the theme song to Fox's "Significant Others." He also provided the musical score for the independent film "Preston Tylk" and the string arrangement on the score to "Me, Myself, and Irene." He has performed and produced songs with other artists including Pete Yorn and Minibar.

Currently, the Jukebox Junkies lineup rounds out with Zak Schaffer on bass, Shawn Beste on guitar, and rotating spots on the drums and pedal steel. Their live shows commonly include guests that played on the album, as well as others. Jukebox Junkies are certainly making the most of their addictions, and this album is sure to hook music junkies the world over.

To learn more about Marc Dauer, Trampoline Records, and Jukebox Junkies, check out the links below:

jukeboxjunkies.com - the official Jukebox Junkies website
chooseyourfix.com - the Jukebox Junkies fan-site
trampolinerecords.com
himmelfans: Marc Dauer of Trampoline Records and Jukebox Junkies

To learn more about Trampoline Records and the other artists represented on Volumes 1 & 2, check out http://trampolinerecords.com