Pauly explains what Emitt Rhodes and Norovirus have in common.

Snacks and drinks. Mmm snacks. Aahhh drinks.

That’s what our friends were bringing to our home each week back when Tori and I were hosting a weekly Twin Peaks marathon, some 12 years ago. And that would have been enough; however one week our friend Lukebrought a CD for me to check out. A compilation of a guy named Emitt Rhodes. I didn’t know anything about it. Friends had recommended unknown stuff to me in the past with varying degrees of success, but I trusted Luke’s taste of music and after a few days, sat down to listen to Mr. Rhodes.

Wowzers.

I felt like I had found a lost Paul McCartney from the early 70s. I instantly wanted to find out everything about this guy. Buy all his records. Start up an Australian fan club.

The trouble was there wasn’t a lot of info. Although I worked in a record store, we had nothing in stock. The only thing I could order in was a compilation.

I didn’t want just the meat and potatoes. I wanted the exotic vegetables. The condiments. I wanted the album tracks!!

Unsuccessful in tracking down the albums, I started playing the compilation endlessly, particularly the two stand out tracks in my opinion:

I started including these tracks on mix CDs I made for people, and had them in my car at all times. Every person that heard it thought it was McCartney, or at least commented on how Beatle-y it was.

I know, right?

Emitt Rhodes became a sort of infection amongst my friends. He was like pure musical gastro. He stayed with you for a while, made you poop (’cause he was so good!), and the lasting effects could be up to 10 days. Unless you got a real bad (good) case of the gastro, and ran right out to buy an album, you’d forget until you were infected with Emitt again.

Remember, this was a guy who had NOBODY blowing his trumpet for him. After 4 albums between 1970 and 1973, he hung his abilities up to dry. Abilities that included writing, producing, engineering and playing every instrument on all of his albums.

You wouldn’t read about him. You’d just kind of ‘happen’ upon him.

That’s when the excitable pooping would begin.

A year or so ago while flicking through the racks of Greville Records in Melbourne, I found his first LP. Self Titled. Pristine condition with a price tag to match. It was too good an opportunity to pass up so I handed over my hard-earned cash. A few weeks later I went to a friend’s BBQ. I knew there were going to be some records spinning so I bought my new purchase to show off. I ended up in a room with Ryan, the host, and a guy I didn’t know called Alex, along with Ryan’s very nice turntable setup.

Track 1, Side 1 started. 6 wide eyes.

Track 2. Volume increased.

Track 3. I couldn’t hold it in any more.

Air drums. Air guitar. Air everything!

And it was infectious. I bragged on Emitt’s behalf about how he’d written, recorded and played everything they were hearing.

They were impressed, and so was I with my new purchase.

Here we are a year later and on looking through the upcoming new releases, I see something called ‘Rainbow Ends’ by Emitt Rhodes. Assuming it was just another compilation, I had a quick google. I let out one of those weird noises that you don’t realise you’re making. Tori asked about it.

“A new Emitt Rhodes album! A brand new album! New songs!”

I kept reading and a warm glow came over me.

While it would have been incredible to hear him play all the instruments again, the musicians chosen were perfect. My musical hero of the last 20 years, Jason Falkner, was on guitar. Among the other guests were Roger Joseph Manning, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, Susannah Hoffs, Nels Cline. It was the first time I had been REALLY excited about a new album in a long time.

I then found out it was a PledgeMusic release. It was crowd funded. How did I not know about this?? Why oh why couldn’t I go back in time and show my support and get some of the goodies on offer! The video Emitt made for PledgeMusic got me even more excited.

I received my copy in my hot little hands a few days after its release date, a couple of weeks ago.

After 3 listens I was hooked.

While nowhere near as Beatle-y as his earlier stuff, it has loads of great songs on it, with lots of great playing.

It’s great to have you back, Emitt.

Just as I was infected via Luke, and many of my friends were infected by me (including Ryan & Alex, who I’ve become great friends with and attribute a small seed to Emitt Rhodes), you too should let Mr. Rhodes be your musical gastro. All your friends will thank you.

‘Rainbow Ends’ is out from 26 Feb 2016. Check our store for a copy.