Stacking The Deck with The Dream Eaters
Stacking The Deck is a feature exclusive to Adam’s World where I bring packs of 1991 Pro Set Superstars MusiCards to artists, and we discuss who they find in each pack.
Whether they’re bleeding all over the floor of a Walmart store (“I Am Bleeding Internally”), or adding pictures to their “Spank Bank,” one thing remains constant for East Coast duo The Dream Eaters – normal simply isn’t their thing.
For the past decade, Jake Zavracky and Elizabeth LeBaron have been crafting bizarre, yet wonderfully magnetic tunes with pop sensibilities that create earworms out of lyrics you might get in trouble for singing along to in public – that is, unless you actually are bleeding all over the floor of a Walmart store, in which case … well, I assume someone should be helping you.
Describing themselves as The Carpenters meet Slayer, The Dream Eaters closed out 2024 with the release of their latest EP, Deathbed Visions, and in March they’ll be kicking off a tour that starts in Boston, and will hit major cities across North America.
Recently, I caught up with both Jake and Elizabeth to open up some packs of MusiCards, and the artists we found sparked conversations about the potential for “Spank Bank” to ascend 30,000 feet, a “Weird” way to discover Madonna, and eschewing playlists for albums while on the road.
Let’s start with Hall & Oates because they’re a legendary duo, and you are a duo.
Jake: Yeah. Not legendary, though.
Working your way there.
Jake: Yeah, that’s right.
So tell me about your Hall & Oates connection.
Jake: Well, the first record I ever had was H2O. I was eight.
I thought Hall & Oates was absolute magic when I was eight, and I still do. I mean, it never went away. I have loved Hall & Oates consistently, and I can’t imagine ever not loving them.
It’s really sad the way they broke up, with the lawsuit, and Oates wanting to sell the songs, which I assume would’ve end up in commercials. Speaking of which, the music being used in commercials has become wild, with songs like M.O.P.’s “Ante Up,” Run the Jewels’ “Ooh LA LA,” and Khia’s “My Neck, My Back” all currently being used in ads. With that in mind, what could you imagine “Spank Bank” selling?
Jake: Oh, I’d never thought of that before. It’d be great for like a vibrator, or something.
Elizabeth: Yeah, or lube.
Jake: I was going to say lube, too, but I’m like, who uses lube when they’re … I guess some guys might, but lube sounds like it makes just as much sense as anything.
Any kind of sex toy that you use on your own.
No actual banks?
Jake: Oh, that’s interesting. I don't know how much in reality we’re being … but that would be funny – HSBC, “Spank Bank.”
Elizabeth: I feel like Virgin Airlines would be would potentially be into it. Have you guys flown with Virgin recently?
No, but I flew Virgin America back in the day, which was amazing.
Elizabeth: I just took a flight from London to New York on Virgin, and I had never flown them before. I didn’t know that they were kind of edgy, kind of cool. All of the safety instructional videos were very cool, and diverse. There were a lot of freaks in all of their videos.
Jake: What do you mean by freaks?
Elizabeth: There were people dressed with big mohawks, and people who didn’t look like your typical, generic, “I’m taking an airplane today” people. It was like a lot of misfits.
I can’t believe I’m going to go from asking about “Spank Bank” to asking about Madonna, but yeah, let’s talk about Madonna.
Elizabeth: I think my first introduction to Madonna was through Weird Al.
I have three older brothers, and when I was a kid they would always play Weird Al, so I heard … what is his cover of “Like a Virgin?”
“Like a Surgeon”
Elizabeth: I think I heard “Like a Surgeon” before I ever heard “Like a Virgin,” so I didn’t even really get the joke until much later.
Jake: I find that odd because that was well before you were born, when that came out. I know, obviously, you can hear songs that came out before you’re born, anybody can, but usually Weird Al is just so contemporaneous with the release of the (song he’s parodying), and then it kind of just goes away.
I think it’s interesting that you would even have been aware of that.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I was like, “I don’t really get it,” and they were like, “Oh, well, the real song is ‘Like a Virgin,’” and I was like, “What’s a virgin?”
I remember me and my best friend Evan watching a movie, and they said the word virgin, and we like stopped the TV, and went upstairs to be like, “Mom, what’s a virgin?” and she’s like, “What are you watching???”
Then when Madonna and Britney did their famous kiss at the VMAs, that was probably the next time that I was like, OK, this is clearly a very iconic (artist). I was probably, what, 10 when that happened, and I was just like, oh, I guess this lady is a big deal.
From there, I guess I figured out who Madonna is.
Jake: Hmm. I feel I don’t think you were even 10.
I feel so old right now.
Elizabeth: What year did Madonna and Britney kiss? It was 2003, so I was 13.
Jake: Oh, it was 2003. That’s so much later than I would have expected. OK.
Elizabeth: It was probably the beginning of my bisexual awakening.
I’m sure a lot of 13 year olds were affected by that kiss.
Elizabeth: Totally.
Jake: Madonna, for me, is an enormous influence. I’ve probably listened to a lot of Madonna while writing Dream Eaters stuff, so she’s been very important.
Even if I didn’t like her, which I do, she’s just so ubiquitous that I don’t think I would have been able to avoid letting some of her music seep into my writing. I love her. I always have. Can’t imagine ever not loving her.
Up next, an iconic band, INXS
Jake: {turning to Elizabeth} Had you never heard them before?
Elizabeth: Not consciously. It’s one of those things where when you hear songs in the background, and you’re like, sure, I’m familiar with the sound of that, but I would never know who the artist was.
When we were on the road, we would just take great albums, and listen to them from front to back. I feel like INXS was one of the ones that we listened to on the road, and I was like, oh, I just never knew who it was.
Jake: Yeah. Michael Hutchence was, you know, a great singer, and they’re a really good band.
When they were at their zenith, I would not really call that the best example of their work. Their work before that is quite good, and after that they did some interesting stuff.
They’re obviously a great band. They have a great presentation. They have a great sound.
When I say like INXS, their songs were more melodic, and tuneful prior to when Kick came out. So that’s what I think.
I want to rewind a bit, because Elizabeth mentioned that when you two are on the road you listen to entire albums front to back. I think in this day and age that’s unique, because people usually put on a playlist. Is listening to full albums how you guys share music, and what do you get out of playing albums, rather than playlists, while on the road?
Jake: It’s interesting. On the road there’s a ton of time to kill. You’re driving in a car for four, or five hours a day.
Elizabeth is so much younger than me that she doesn’t know things that I just accept as, “Oh, everyone knows that.”
She didn’t know who Tori Amos was, and I was like, “You don’t know who Tori Amos is? How is that possible?”
Elizabeth: It was the same thing where once we started listening, I was like, oh, I know this music.
The way that we consume music now, and that I grew up consuming music, yes, I got CDs at first, but then everything went to downloading MP3s, individual songs, and now it’s streaming, so now I just hear music without looking at the name of the record. So it’s more that I just haven’t connected the dots to like who’s who.
The other thing I was going to say was I think the reason why we started listening to full albums was just because we were so sick of having to pick up the phone and change the song, like “I don’t feel like listening to that right now.”
One card I didn’t expect you to choose was Bob Marley.
Jake: Yeah, well Bob Marley is in me, as well. I mean, again, he’s so ubiquitous that I don’t know how he wouldn’t seep in some way, or another.
I’m a huge fan of Bob Marley. I always have been, and I always will be.
I don’t know what Elizabeth thinks.
Is there a reggae side of you?
Elizabeth: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I’m from Calgary, Canada, so I grew up with Cool Runnings. That’s my reggae connection.
Jake: I don’t think you have to be a reggae fan to like Bob Marley. I think he’s one of the exceptions.
Elizabeth: Yeah, I think he is.
I feel like my first memories of like Bob Marley are from going to HMV, which was our local record store, and where you’d get posters and stuff, and I remember flipping through the posters, and seeing a Bob Marley poster, and being like, wow, that guy looks really cool.
Finally, Led Zeppelin.
Jake: It would be impossible not to be somewhat influenced by Led Zeppelin, especially for a guy of my age growing up in Boston, with the classic rock radio we had that was just Led Zeppelin basically every other song. Then, of course, I listen to them a lot on my own. Certainly one of my favorite rock n roll bands of all time.
I will say … here’s my slightly unique take on Led Zeppelin – they sort of went downhill with every release. You could make a case that Led Zeppelin II is better than Led Zeppelin I, very easily, but (Robert) Plant’s voice is already starting to to change by Zeppelin II. With Zeppelin III, Zeppelin IV, he’s still kind of hanging in there. Houses of the Holy comes, and he is no longer what he was. He’s already lost a lot of his power. Then the rest of the catalog, he can’t sing anymore. He basically cannot sing the way he used to, and I don’t like his voice when he doesn’t have the range.
His voice is absolutely astounding on the first album, and it never was quite as good as that, which I never hear anybody saying, but it seems kind of obvious to me, you know, the first album is incredible.
It absolutely blows your mind the first time you hear it.
Jake: Yeah, and I almost feel the same way about (Jimmy) Page. His guitar playing is astounding on the first album, and then as he goes on, it seems like he doesn’t really care as much. The lead on “Heartbreaker” is really fucking weird, and wonky sounding, especially in retrospect. I know when it came out people thought it was like blazingly amazing, but it just kind of sounds silly now.
I always thought of him as more of a rhythm guitar player anyway, and his rhythm guitar playing remains amazing throughout their whole career.
But, yeah, my favorite albums of theirs are the first four albums, and I do love Houses of the Holy, too, but Plant’s voice is not the same on that one, and also Physical Graffiti, but Physical Graffiti is half old stuff, and then the new stuff, and I don’t like the new stuff as much.
That’s really enough albums to absolutely adore a band. That’s six albums, so that’s fine with me.
For more of The Dream Eaters, check them out on Bandcamp.
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