Welcome to this week’s Launch Box featuring Diane Coffee
If you like: Foxygen, Broken Bells
A listener introduced me to Diane Coffee (thanks Suzi! – feel free to suggest bands YOU love)
Diane Coffee (born Shaun Fleming) is a musician and producer from Agoura Hills, California. The name Diane Coffee was created as an homage to singer-songwriter Nathan Pelkey’s song “Mr. Coffee”, as well as to the musical influence of Diana Ross. He’s best known for being the drummer of schoolmates Sam France and Jonathan Rado’s band, Foxygen.
Following Foxygen’s debut album Take the Kids Off Broadway, Fleming helped aid the success of Foxygen’s breakthrough album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic.
In late 2012, Fleming left Agoura Hills for New York and began writing and recording what would become the debut Diane Coffee LP My Friend Fish. Though his means were limited (recording a makeshift drum set with his iPhone voice memo app, using detuned guitars in lieu of a bass), he was able to complete the album in just shy of two weeks.
Fleming’s second album as Diane Coffee, Everybody’s a Good Dog, kicks up the production values a touch, but doesn’t venture outside the psych rock pen he’s built for himself. Everybody’s A Good Dog is the first true realization of Shaun Fleming’s Little Shop of Horrors -meets-Aladdin Sane vision, recorded in a proper studio with an assortment of guest artists, horn section, and string ensemble (all firsts for Fleming).
The resulting 11 tracks are a sky-scraping sound kaleidoscope, touched with euphoric instrumentation and dark lyricism. The songs on Everybody’s A Good Dog channel the New York Dolls or T-Rex at their strutting-est and Meatloaf at his most theatrical, with shades of Motown-worthy soul.
The gentle psychedelia on opener “Spring Breathes” gives way to a pounding prog breakdown:
“Mayflower” leads with a monster funk-fueled horn riff.
On “Tams Up” Fleming fronts his own one-man doo-wop group.
The real magic comes in the live performance. There’s no elaborate light show or other orchestrated theatrics. The main attraction — and the reason you’ll want to watch and hear more — is Diane Coffee’s fantastically flamboyant lead singer, Shaun Fleming.
Conjuring both Mick Jagger and David Bowie, Fleming swaggers and shimmies on stage. He strikes playfully defiant poses, hands on hips, while his face does its own dance, with wildly exaggerated expressions: raised brows, eyes wide open, mouth enunciating every word.
See what I mean in this video from NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert: