Album of the Week: In Real Life

This happened six and a half days ago, so it's old news, but hey—Record Club was represented well at Super Bowl LVIII. Post Malone sang "America the Beautiful," Reba McEntire sang the National Anthem, Taylor Swift shared a box with Jason Kelce, Beyoncé announced a new album, Janelle Monáe and Gwen Stefani and Bob Weir were all in attendance. This introduction will be helpful to refer to when RC finally covers Ice Spice.

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WEEK 264 — February 18-24, 2024

In Real Life

by IKE

LISTEN:

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PICKED BY GARY

GARY'S COMMENTS: Gary hit me up one night to ask what I thought of the song "Into Philadelphia." He said that he used to work with a guy who used to be in this band (and whose wife was also in the band, and I assume also kicked out). This was seventeen years ago, says Gary, but he's followed the band ever since. Just the other day, I was sent a screenshot of an IKE Facebook post, which talked about opening for Bon Jovi at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Welcome back to Record Club, Gary.

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ALBUM DETAILS

GENRE: Power pop

RELEASED: 2005, no exact date known

LENGTH: 40:24

TRACKLIST:

1. In Real Life
   
2. Into Philadelphia
3. Just a Moment
4. I Knew You When
5. Beautiful Thing
6. Cinderella Spark
7. Red
8. Better Off Alone
9. All Along
10. Nothing's Gonna Come Between Us
    

LYRICS: Nothing on Genius; this one might be the lyrics to the title track, but I won't know until I listen to the album

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ARTIST DETAILS

PRONOUNS: I don't know

ABOUT: Musician John Faye formed the project in 1999 in Philadelphia. First called the John Faye Power Trip, they changed their name to IKE at some point prior to 2003. The lineup at that time, and for this album we're listening to this week, was Faye on guitar and vocals, Cliff Hillis on guitar, Joann Schmidt on bass, and Dave Anthony on drums. WMMR apparently played the song "Into Philadelphia" a bunch back in the day, and sources indicate that the major sports teams have at one point or another used the song as the entrance song for the teams at the beginning of the game (no specifics, but, like, I didn't see anything about the Eagles playing it at the Super Bowl last year, for example). IKE more or less broke up in 2008, per an email to fans. However, in 2010, John Faye restarted IKE with a completely new lineup, and released two more albums. No new music since 2011, but social media is apparently still active.

DISCOGRAPHY: In Real Life is their second LP. The first, Parallel Universe, was released in 2003. 2007's Where to Begin was the final album with the original lineup. The final two albums—Tie the Knot With All That You Got in 2010, and The Little People, Church and the Steeple in 2011—were made with the second iteration of IKE.

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ADDITIONAL INFO

READING SOME SHIT: You can read the entirety of John Faye's book if you have the time

WATCHING SOME SHIT: "Into Philadelphia" performed live in 2010

PREVIOUSLY ON RECORD CLUB: We had a Philly-centric Gary pick last year around this time too, with Hall & Oates (at least this time around we're not stung by the Eagles losing in the Super Bowl). Philly bands abound in Record Club. I'm not going to list them. Special shout out, though, to Little Big League, whose frontwoman Michelle Zauner might find some kinship with John Faye, based on the fact that they both wrote memoirs about growing up with music in the Philadelphia area while being half-Korean.

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RC CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK

Every week from now on, we're giving a quick re-listen to the RC album we covered five years ago exactly. Check out the quick reevaluation every Friday morning, before the regular reviews. Reevaluation, reflection, something like that. We'll see.

WEEK 3: February 17-23, 2019

Wanderer by Cat Power

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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!