February 7th, 2025, 8:00PM

Benny Trokan with Lemonmnm and The Shut-Ups

@ Wild Heaven Garden Club

Benny Trokan

Introducing Benny Trokan of Spoon, past member of Reigning Sound, Lee Fields, Robbers On High Street and more.

Most of us became aware of Benny Trokan’s solo work via his debut 45 for Wick Records in 2018. The b-side “Turn Back You Fool,” a 12-string-centric ballad becoming a much passed around record in the Souldies scene of Southern California. However, the recording was only the beginning of the latest chapter for Trokan, who’s been performing in bands for over 20 years. “Do You Still Think of Me” is the New Yorker’s first solo full-length release.

 

Trokan made his entry into the recording field as part of the band Robbers on High Street, releasing three LPs before hanging it up in 2011. That’s when the calls for his bass skills started coming in. Benny quickly joined the ranks of some of his favorite bands - Lee Fields’ Expressions, The Jay Vons, Reigning Sound, and Charles Bradley’s Extraordinaires. He also had a brief stint in Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings and more recently was drafted by stalwart Austin rockers, Spoon, contributing to their Grammy-nominated album “Lucifer on the Sofa.”

 

Daptone’s Gabe Roth invited Trokan out to cut the tracks that would become “Do You Still Think of Me” at his newly christened studio, Penrose Recorders, in his hometown of Riverside, CA. With longtime friends and musical associates, Mikey Post (drums) and Morgan King (bass), Trokan recorded 11 songs, cutting most of the lead vocals live. Says Benny of the process, “Gabe’s style was to go for live vocal takes.  He’d then edit the tape to make a comp based around the vocal performance - the verse from take 3 with the chorus from take 1, that kind of thing.” Trokan later returned to do additional overdubs with acclaimed Daptone producer/engineer Wayne Gordon.

 

Some of these tracks were released as “Hey Lovers” a digital EP out in 2022. The eponymous track is a cover of a Lou Rawls penned song Trokan first heard years ago on the b-side of a Five Emprees 45, and became a bit of a guiding light for his sound. 

 

“I like to think that someone discovering my music is similar to the feeling I get finding a record I’ve never heard before, or flipping over a 45 to find out that the b-side is really where it’s at.  Those are the songs that always do it for me,” says Trokan. “The ones longing to be on the a-side. Or maybe they’re just too cool or too sad to care about the a-side.”

 

There’s definitely a lot of longing in Benny Trokan’s music. From the moody teen-beat bop of “Save a Place,” the garage dwelling angst of “Nowhere to be Found,” to floaty, slow soul title track “Do You Still Think of Me,” Trokan takes us through the spectrum of 60s influenced music. All the while with his unique rasp a wail or a whisper, and his 12-string Hagstrom a-chiming a la The Dovers or The Poets.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love being a band guy, sideman, second-banana, whatever; the pressure is off and I just get to have fun and play. But I think I had a bit of frustration, being around these amazing musicians and singers without an outlet for my own stuff.”

 

The pros in the trade have known about Benny Trokan for a long time, and it felt like only a matter of time before he came into his own as a solo artist. “Do You Still Think of Me” comes through as a well-seasoned debut album, well worth the wait.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BnpZwkQNKI

 Lemonmnm

The bubblegum you like is coming back in style, straight outta East Point! linktr.ee/lemonmnm
 
The Shut-Ups
We’re a five-piece new-wave power-pop band from Atlanta and Athens, GA. We practice daily at 6AM. Ballard, Ben, Don, Jason and Thad play the New Wave. https://shutups.bandcamp.com/

 

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