Abby Jeanne is too young to have bought much of her favorite music at the late, great Atomic Records. So, she did the next best thing. She built a time machine.
On Saturday, October 12 she will hold a release party for her new 7”/cassette “Get You High” at Bay View’s Hi Fi Café. Only for this day, the café will be decked out with Atomic’s neon signs and her new record will be on the juke box – released on the Atomic Records label.
Both of the iconic store’s neon signs will be on display along with other Atomic memorabilia; t-shirts will also be available. Abby Jeanne will have the new record/cassette for sale and Atomic owner Rich Menning will also make an appearance.
“I was flattered that an artist as multifaceted and celebrated as Abby would approach me to dust off the Atomic vibe and throw a bit of a party,” Menning said. “I thought 'What a fun idea!'”
Currently living in New York City working on songs for her next album, Abby Jeanne spoke the night after playing the Mercury Lounge.
“I’ve been listening to New Wave music for a long time. This song just fell out and maybe came from my subconscious from all that listening,” she said. “I wanted to release it for the Fall. Talking to my manger and my friends at Hi Fi, it made sense. I grew up at that café and thought, ‘How cool it would it be to revive Atomic for Halloween.’ I get to live in my little time warp for a day.”
All of Abby Jeanne’s previous three 7” are on the Hi Fi jukebox. “Putting out records is my favorite thing. I care about it more than just putting out a song. I grew up wanting to buy a record.”
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Abby Jeanne’s manager Dan Backhaus, a West Bend native, frequented Atomic Records. He said she recorded the single and realized it didn’t fit with the next album stylistically. The new wave sound was paired with a cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees “Spellbound.” The cassette version includes a remix of “Get You High” by Bauhaus/Tones on Tail guitarist Daniel Ash. Abby Jeanne calls it a “dream come true.”
“The Daniel Ash and Siouxsie connections on Abby's single made for a natural fit since goth-rock was such a big part of Atomic's makeup in the late-80s and early-90s,” Menning said, “So in a roundabout way it made perfect sense.”
The future? Abby Jeanne hears her first album as “me getting to whine about my life and the idea for the next record is to preach -- an opportunity to say to the world what I think this whole thing is about: Life. And what I think we should be focusing on and connecting with the world and affect people positively.”
“Get You High” is streaming on 88.9 and will be released digitally on October 4.
