Ten years ago, I saw Jessica Loves Monday’s gig, without a level stage, in the parking lot FISIP UNAIR, my campus. My recent move from Jakarta to Surabaya, with its hot temperatures and lack of musical performances, made me yearn for (independent) music gigs. Jessica Loves Monday relieved my thirst, they reminded me of a band that I often saw in Jakarta such as the Vessel, playing covers of Radiohead songs from the OK Computer and The Bends. But Jessica Loves Monday was more interesting because there were two female personnels that looked really cool. They reminded me of the Smashing Pumpkins’ Darcy.
The paths I took in my life crossed many times with the personnels of Jessica Loves Monday. One of them, Vici, I had known since we were both enjoying Bangkutaman performing during a high school arts performance in SMA 15 Surabaya around 2005. Then I got to know Andrew Rinaldy aka Gundul noise while following his musical project titled Manual that appeared in Kuta, Bali in 2008. I then met Kharis Junandharu when he joined the Manic Street Walkers during our walk to the Post Office Kebonrojo and Gedung Setan in 2012. Lastly, I came to know Raka Toton after we joined the team for a number of events—Sunday Market and Action Sunday—in Surabaya Town Square with Alek Kowalski as a project manager in 2013.
Our meetings and trajectories continue. Saturday night after the Piknik Akustik #2 featuring Kharis Junandharu as one of the performers, I met Toton in a cafe in Jalan Jawa. Incidentally there I also met Gundul who was having some time back in his hometown in Surabaya, away from his workplace in Jakarta. From our brief talk, we though of making a music gig featuring Jessica Loves Monday on Monday night. Browsing Jessica Loves Monday onthe Internet, I only managed to find one link, SoundCloud that belongs to Branandi W Madya (Call Me Nancy) who uploaded the only original song ever written by Jessica Loves Monday, “Halaman Kosong”.
Jessica Loves Monday only managed to live for two years (2003-2004), and they only made one original song (Halaman Kosong). But the song was included in the important music compilation of Surabaya, Beautiful Day 3 , produced by Toton and released by Popshop Records. According to Kharis, this song was first performed to the public this live gig at C2O Library on Monday night, August 5, 2013. After Jessica Loves Monday stayed vacuum, Kharis, Gundul, and Toton each continued their own music projects. Kharis with The Greats and Silampukau. Gundul with Klepto Opera and Manual . Toton with The Totons & Applestereo. I remember Jessica Loves Monday as a legendary band in Surabaya. Although they are “only” a Radiohead tribute band, given the context then, a tribute band was common and even cool. In early 2000s, the Internet was still scarce and expensive, and the majority of young people (in Indonesia) still consumed a limited resource from MTV relayed in a national TV station and Hai magazine. This is vastly different from today, where in the Internet era we have floods of music references, and there is greater tendency to produce original songs. Technology indeed affects the process of production and distribution of music .
And that’s the short background story behind the “reunion” of Jessica Loves Monday. To commemorate, we organised “Monday with Jessica Loves Monday” on Monday night, August 5, 2013, in the backyard of C2O library. Presenting three of five personnels of Monday Jessica Loves to play acoustic. They performed hits from Radiohead, The Doors, and Pink Floyd, and certainly their only original song they “Halaman Kosong”. An exciting and memorable reunion. With the help Adhiel Alba and Erlin Goentoro, here’s our audio-video documentation of Jessica Loves Monday.
This album uses a Creative Commons license BY-NC-SA. You are free to download, process and re-distribute it, as long as you give attribution to the original source of this material, do not use it for commercial purposes, and must use the same license. Download the songs and cover from archive.org.
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