Edison Rocket Train – East River Delta (LP, FRANCE)

B1. Sugar Baby
B2. Milk Cow Blues Boogie
B3. Another Man Done Gone
B4. Beep! Beep!
B5. Strut (Parts III & IV)
B6. Interstellar Stomp
B7. Future Blues

Only released on vinyl originally but also scheduled to appear on CD at a later date. Available on 10 May 2005 for sale direct from rockettrain.com.

Jon Spencer produced this album and performs on Monster Free Tokyo, Milk Cow Blues and This Train which was released as a single in France with non-album B-Side Low Down Ways.

This album was recorded by and features Matt Verta-Ray of Heavy Trash / Speedball Baby.

Matt Verta-Ray, Ron Salvo, Jon Spencer and Mike Edison appear on the Speedball Baby track on A Salvo of 24 Gunshots (2xLP/7″, FRANCE).

Jon Spencer, Matt Verta-Ray and Mike Edison all appeared on The Lost Crusaders album Have You Heard About The World?.

Mike Edison also published his memoirs and released the I Have Fun Everywhere I Go “sonic companion” which featured Jon Spencer on Guitars, Synthesizers, Drums, Theremin and Tire Iron.

PRESS RELEASE: “IN DOWNTOWN NEW YORK CITY, somewhere between 14th St and the Brooklyn Bridge, lies the heart of the East River Delta. As mysterious as it is powerful, this is the illusive center for a new kind of blues. EAST RIVER DELTA, the new LP from the EDISON ROCKET TRAIN, has drawn on the spirit of the mythological power of the East River to create an album of unprecedented soul and depth.

Along with producer JON SPENCER, MIKE EDISON (ex Raunch Hands) ripped apart the roots of whisky-driven rock’n’roll and dug deeper into the blues than anyone before him.

While songs like PASSIONATE MAN scream old-school boasting in the Jerry Lee Lewis tradition (I know how to drink, and I know how to fuck, I know how to roll, and I know how to rock… I’m a passionate man!), slide guitar numbers like HOLLER and MILK COW BLUES recall the Mississippi Delta and ANOTHER MAN DONE GONE harkens back to African Slave songs. INTERSTELLAR STOMP is like the SONICS in outerspace, and STRUT combines New Orleans street rhythms with STOOGES-like attituded and guitars. Edison plays SUGAR BABY, an old Kentucky banjo song from the 1930s, on his two-string guitar which he calls a Diddley Bow.

On THIS TRAIN, Edison leads a gospel choir along with Jon Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray on guitars and MR AIRPLANE MAN on vocals.

But the real surprise on the record is MONSTER FREE TOKYO, an accoutic song Edison wrote about September 11 using a science-fiction metaphor.

“I was nervous about singing it,” says Edison, who rarely seems nervous about anything. “But Jon (Spencer) told me that if I had something to say, I should say it. I should sing it. Besides getting great sounds and getting them down on tape and all that, his faith in me singing, especially a dark song like this, is what made this record so great.”

As usual, the version of the Edison Rocket Train that performs on EAST RIVER DELTA had no bass and no cymbals… just drums and maracas and tambourines. And yet the sound is complete and full.

“Heavy strings and a lot of percussion,” that’s the secret, says Edison.

He also plays a stylophone, a primitive electronic toy, on Beep! Beep! “I wanted to sing that song in Spanish,” says Edison, but I never finished translating it. One night Jon said just do it the way you have it, half English, Half Spanish. I was very drunk. It came out Spanglish!””
– humanbretzel.com

Jon Spencer has appeared on the Edison Rocket Train releases This Train, Yes!, Yes!!, Yes!!! , East River Delta, I Walked With a Zombie, the I Have Fun Everywhere I Go and audiobook of Sympathy For The Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters.

Michael Lavine filmed a Mike Edison and the Interstellar Rendezvous Band (featuring Jon Spencer on guitar). The songs are based on the book Dirty! Dirty! Dirty! and videos of Hugh Hefner Hates Girls and Do Right Man (Dirty Blues) can be seen on the Delta Science youtube.com account.

Mike Edison receives a credit for ‘The Good Word’ on Damage and has worked with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “as their “Minister of Information,” writing the band’s press releases and industry propaganda, fan communiqués, and dedicated web copy.” along with the extensive sleeve notes for the 2010 deluxe releases of Year One, Extra Width + Mo’ Width, Orange + Experimental Remixes, Now I Got Worry, Controversial Negro, Acme + Acme Plus and Dirty Shirt Rock N Roll: The First Ten Years.

A1. Tattoo
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

A2. Passionate Man/Holler
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

A3. Ride Your Pony
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

A4. Monster Free Tokyo
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed
Acoustic Guitar: Jon Spencer
Six String Space Soul Invasion: Matt Verta-Ray
Electric Organ: Lily Wolfe

A5. Strut (Parts I & II)
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

A6. This Train
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed
Zap Guitar: Jon Spencer
Steel Finger: Matt Verta-Ray

B1. Sugar Baby
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

B2. Milk Cow Blues Boogie
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed
Tic Tac Bass: Jon Spencer

B3. Another Man Done Gone
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

B4. Beep! Beep!
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

B5. Strut (Parts III & IV)
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed

B6. Interstellar Stomp
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed
Electric Organ: Lily Wolfe

B7. Future Blues
Produced: Jon Spencer
Recorded: Matt Verta-Ray at NY Hed
© Mike Edison/Zero Gravity Research 2005

BARCODE: n/a

RUN-OUT GROOVE ENGRAVING:
A: “ELDORADO HBZ – 12001 A DMM UP. -12049-”
B: “ELDORADO HBZ – 12001 B DMM UP. -12049-”

The final ‘-12049-‘ at the end is machine-stamped and the rest of the text is hand-written and, in-comparison, upside down.