I’ve avoided Southern Spain for years now as it became infested with the lowest kind of British holiday-maker, but my advance scouts had told me about the most lovely young lady they had ever laid collective eyes on.
No one knew who she was or where she came from, only that she had spurned the advances of every man in Marbella, that she liked to hang out at a very un-trendy bar in the old part of the city, and that her dark hair and green eyes had shattered souls and left a trail of rejection all across the city. In a way she sounded like my wife, Coverton, of whom we shall speak no more.
Theo gassed up the G5 and we landed in Marbella at sunset, my favorite time to touch down. On the mighty bird’s Hi-Fi was my newest obsession, and secret weapon. Junior Senior are a Danish dance band with a song called “Move Your Feet” which burrows into your brain and dances around like a mole pumped full of ecstasy. The catchiest and happiest dance number in years, it is poised to become the song that is both most loved and most hated by the end of the summer. But it was April in Marbella and the track was just starting to make inroads…
Built on a seemingly crazy mixture of sounds, Junior Senior’s debut album “D-d-don’t Don’t Stop The Beat” builds instant dance floor classics by committee, using funky beats from the last 50 years of popular music, all filtered through a hedonistic sensibility and a singular vision of everyone dancing in ways never before seen. This is 60’s pyschedelic Danish beach party gogo bongo chemical music at its finest.
Junior & Senior
Arriving in my villa just outside town, Junior Senior still colonizing my brain with their beats and hooks, I sat out on the terrace and watched the last of God’s light disappear. Someone brought me a few joints and I smoked them down until it was time to make my entrance in town. An all-white 1980’s Citroen CX was procured, but I decided to give Marcello the night off and drive myself. Speeding past the seashore, Junior Senior blasting, it hit me that this music needs people, seeks people, thrives on people. Unlike some of the Macintosh tracks that have dominated dance floors for the past couple of years, cooked up by some wizard behind a curtain, this is out-in-the-open stuff, collaborative, flawed and utterly human, which is what gives it its utter joy.
The streets of old Marbella were lightly trafficked, with people spilling out of restaurants and tapas bars, toasting each other, enjoying the night. I located the bar where the mysterious local beauty was reputed to hang out, and took a seat. “Ketel Uno con Tonico y Limon” was my order, happily taken by the bartender who looked board and complacent. We’d soon see about that. Scanning the room I saw a couple of older Spanish ladies kibitizing around a table, telling tales out of school. There was also a gaggle of Brits, a few young blondes, and a small group of Americans talking loudly about nothing. No sign of Spain’s hottest girl.
I turned back to face the bar, and sitting down next to me was the picture of loveliness. Lightly tanned, green eyes flashing, dark hair pouring down her back, intriguing smile… I was hooked. She looked at me briefly and I seized the chance.
“Would you care to dance?”
She looked around the sleepy bar then back at me and laughed.
“But there’s no music.”
I looked at the bartender and nodded. I had previously sent an ipod over with Junior Senior’s album and a playlist that started with an extended mix of “Move Your Feet.” The tune started and I began to bust some of my signature moves, which inspired more laughter but penetrated her beautiful girl defenses. She jumped onto the floor with me and began to shake it, driving me wild. I threw my hands in the air and yelled “no pares, sige sige” and invited the entire bar onto the floor. Soaked in the good-time Junior Senior beats, they followed, laughing and smiling. Passersby wandered in, entranced by the music and the infectious joy we exuded on the floor, and soon we were all pressed close together, reveling in the good time ass-shaking grooves.
Needless to say, we turned that mother out and the sleepy bar is now one of Marbella’s hottest miniature dance clubs. Junior Senior can be heard there (and pretty much every other place in town) nightly, commanding everyone to come together, because you only live once.
And Marina (the mysterious girl who brought me back to Spain) now lives at my villa, anxiously awaiting my return…
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Download the Video for “Move Your Feet” HERE
Find out more about Junior Senior HERE
Junior Senior is Danish! and they recently signed the biggest US recording contract in all history for Danish bands… yeah hu for them! DK is the place of music mayhem dont forget it!!!
I heard this on Hot97 and was like… what?~! is this the worst or the best thing I’ve ever heard? I’m still not sure!
this is the greatest review i have ever read. Phillippe you are my new archetype of loving and living. merci
brilliant… phillippe if you ever make it to america, you can stay with me… i would be a good lady to you
I saw Junior Senior in concert in Eugene, OR and I fell in love with them! When the concert was over I went out and got their album. It’s the best thing ever, I listen to it everyday more than once.
This is a brilliant review of a fantastic band. Good stuff, I’ll look for more!