Just Desserts
Larry Fessenden (1980-2011 7 Albums)
TOM LAVERACK, LARRY FESSENDEN,
Just Deserts is a musical collaboration between Tom Laverack (guitar and vocals) and Larry Fessenden (sax and vocals).
Just Desserts
“They say revenge is sweet, but Just Desserts is absolutely delicious”
–Dianne Pine, ROCKPOOL“beautiful, unclassifiable music that won’t be pinned down”
–Sarge Blotto, METROLAND“feels like a visit with an old friend…”
–THE HARD REPORT“emotionally charged”
–CMJ REPORT“good exciting music”
–David Hinkley, NY DAILY NEWS“I never got tired of the good stuff”
–Robert Christgau, THE VILLAGE VOICE
Just Deserts is a musical collaboration between Tom Laverack (guitar and vocals) and Larry Fessenden (sax and vocals). They have recorded numerous tracks over the course of their seventeen year association, and have played with and without a backup band in venues including CBGB’S (on the bill with Tom-Tom Club and The Mekons) , Mercury Lounge, The Knitting Factory, The Pyramid Club, Tramps, The Rodeo Bar (with Freedy Johnston), LaMama (with Phillip Glass), Chameleon Club, Nightingales, P.S. 122, and Dixon Place. Their albums play extensively on college radio.
Their recent album, GIVE UP THE GHOST is NOW PLAYING on college and AAA Radio stations accross the U.S. including KPIG, KBSU, WERU, WYSO, KSLU, WLPW etc.
DISCOGRAPHY:GIVE UP THE GHOST (CD; 1997-Earhorn Disks)
ALMOST SHOOK YOU UP b/w FLASHING BLUE (45; 1990-Bar/None)
COLD HEARTS & WHISKEY (CAS; 1989-Earhorn Disks)
SENTIMENTAL WAR (CD,LP, CAS; 1987-Earhorn Disks)
VAGUE NOTIONS (CAS; 1985)
WEEKENDING (CAS; 1983)
AMERICAN NURSING HOME (CAS; 1980)OUT ON THE TOWN IN ’99
Sunday, May 16 8:00 PM JUST DESSERTS at the TRIBUTE TO TOM WAITS at Continental Divide St. Mark’s Place, NYC.
Thursday, May 13, 10:00 PM to Midnight JUST DESSERTS UNPLUGGED!! Laverack & Fessenden Live! at The Living Room Stanton and Allen.
Tuesday, May 11, 9:30 PM JUST DESSERTS Live!! at Mercury Lounge Houston Street and Avenue A, NYC.
Tuesday, March 23, 8:45 PM sharp JUST DESSERTS Live!! at BROWNIES NYC 169 Avenue A at 11th Street
Thursday, 8th October 11:00 JUST DESSERTS Live!! at BROWNIES NYC 169 Avenue A at 11th Street
August 6 at 9:00 PM JUST DESSERTS live at HOUSE OF CANDLES, 99 Stanton Street. Join Tom Laverack, Larry Fessenden, Mark Lerner and Wharton Tiers in celebrating the Earhorn Disks release of Just Desserts new 13 song CD, Give Up The Ghost.
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JUST DESSERTS : LOST IN LOVE The latest recordings from JUST DESSERTS, a musical collaboration between Tom Laverack (guitar and vocals) and Larry Fessenden (sax and vocals). CD AVAILABLE FROM Sojourn Records | AVAILABLE THROUGH iTUNES |
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JUST DESSERTS : GIVE UP THE GHOST (1997, CD – Earhorn Disks)The latest recordings from JUST DESSERTS, a seventeen year musical collaboration between Tom Laverack (guitar and vocals) and Larry Fessenden (sax and vocals).CD AVAILABLE FROM GLASS EYE PIX #EDCD02, $15.00 | AVAILABLE THROUGH iTUNES |
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JUST DESSERTS : SENTIMENTAL WAR (1987, CD,LP, CAS – Earhorn Disks)The band’s 1987 full-length release. Also available on LP and Cassete. Please email us to order in these other formats.CD AVAILABLE FROM GLASS EYE PIX CD: #EDCD01 $15.00 | AVAILABLE THROUGH iTUNES |
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JUST DESSERTS : ALMOST SHOOK YOU UP b/w FLASHING BLUE (1991, 45 RPM – Earhorn Disks) |
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Now playing and recording as Just Desserts and on the album “Give Up the Ghost“
Tom Laverack (vocals, guitars, keyboards) is a social worker in New York City. He has written and performed music since 1975. He has numerous recordings compiled on cassette, including solo works “As You Remain,” “Longshot,” “Adolescent Soul,” and “Mercy, Mercy, Mr. Percy.” In addition to songwriting, Laverack has worked on film scores, including Fessenden’s NO TELLING. Laverack has two forthcoming solo CDs: OUT OF THE BLUE and ANTHOLOGY 1979-93.
Larry Fessenden (vocals, saxophones) works as a filmmaker out of New York. He has directed several internationally screened feature films, including HABIT, NO TELLING and HOLLOW VENUS
Mark Lerner (bass) played bass for and generally ran the 8 piece band Flat Old World, whose recordings include the CD MUSICALE (1996, Rag and Bone Shop) and an EP distributed by Hello Recording Club, a mail-order music store. He has played in numerous bands, includingLife in a Blender and Canoe full of Strangers and has produced music for the albums I’M FLAPPING AND OTHER FAVORITES by Mark Donatto (1996, Rag and Bone Shop) and THE SYCAMORES (1995 Rag and Bone Shop).
Wharton Tiers (drums) is the founder of Fun City! in New York, a studio where he has engineered and produced music for over 100 bands including Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Swans, Helmet, and Glenn Branca, and where the Just Desserts album “Sentimental War” was recorded. He produced many albums for Sonic Youth including their recent “A thousand Leaves”, and can be seen playing live with The Wharton Tiers Ensemble, promoting his recent CD, BRIGHTER THAN LIFE.
Essential band members from the past (featured on “Sentimental War”)
Mark Ellison (guitars, banjo, keyboards)
Noah Stein (bass)
Bob Muller (drums)
Laverack and Fessenden met in high school in the late '70s. When Fessenden took up the sax they started playing Laverack's songs together. In the '80s they lived in seperate towns, and they would meet for weekends after months apart and record new music live to cassette. These tapes formed the basis of a multi-track 17 song lp entitled "Sentimental War", recorded with a full band under the name Just Desserts (second "s" optional). 
With the release of the album in 1987, the five-piece ensemble toured the clubs throughout Manhattan. Just Desserts disbanded in 1989, but Laverack and Fessenden keep the name, and continue to record and perform sporadically in various incarnations while their genre of music falls in and out and back in to fashion.David Avery, CMJ Backed by an understated and cleverly arranged ensemble, singer-songwriter / guitarist Tom Laverack offers lyrical gems about everything from alcoholism ("Alcohol") to homogenized rock radio ("Last Rock and Roll Band").
For fans of Mark Eitzel, Bruce Springsteen, Replacements.
Mathew Lawton, ALBUM NETWORK Just Desserts is a truly fulfilling band. Give Up the Ghost will keep ya coming back for more.
FMQB The ecclectic folk-rock group Just Desserts' new album Give Up The Ghost (Earhorn Disks), is full of songs that express real emotions, both the good and the bad. The simplicity of the music is what makes it so enjoyable. No pretentious elitism or "artiste" airs, this band is down home and in your backyard. Check out: "Last Rock n' Roll band," "Maybe I'm the One," "Save You from Yourself," "Beautiful Life," "Alcohol," "Road to Ruin," and "Mystery."
Yves Citton, REVIEWS FOR DISCOURSE Drive, they said. Drive on! As the streets passed by, and BMWs roared their way through beggars and broken windows, I thought I'd find solace in my big stereo. I had just received a couple cds by Just Desserts. First, their 1987 album Does anybody notice this sentimental war going on or is it just us? , reissued last year as a cd. The title in itself was 10 years ahead of recent variations by Modest Mouse. The war was everywhere in that album : class wars, environmental poisonings, alcohol abuses, inner fights, family feuds and love struggles. Tom Laverack's guitars and Larry Fessenden's saxes explored all the breaks between the "New Man" of the postmodern world and the "Same ol' Stories" still haunting us. Musical influences ranged from Bob Dylan to Talking Heads, and quite a way beyond all of them, thanks to Wharton Tiers' production. I also had their new release, Give Up The Ghost. Wharton Tiers has accompanied Just Desserts - as he's done with Sonic Youth - through the last ten years. A more stable album, more focused, more serene. The acoustic side of the band has become more confident, less exposed to the outbursts of electricity periodically invading Sentimental wars. As if struggles had turned even more inwards. The class wars are still raging, but as "the walls are crumbling down", all we are now looking for is simply "a small place where we can hide out."
And as I was driving, the difference between the desolation in the streets and the inner void of our age started vanishing. At a red light I closed my eyes, and I could not tell whether I was hearing the frustration of the city, the quiet rage of the songwriters or my own disarray : "I heard a song about injustice/ On a big stereo/ That cost more than a year's worth/ To a man in the ghetto." I turned off my big stereo and opened my eyes. But the man in the ghetto did not seem to care.
So I listened to a few more songs and a few more questions. How come the worst genocides can only go as far as "almost shaking us up"? How come "we'll never be quite certain of our killer's name"? "Am I a fool to think/ That I spent my whole life/ running from this paradise?/ Haunting questions for haunting songs. These two releases are two statements of doubts, ten years apart - a reflection of our history : "No one thinks to look up/ From what they are doing/ To notice we are heading down/ A short road to ruin." Drive on, they said.
New York Press March 1992 Out comes the Cure's "Hot Hot Hot!!!"/"Hey You!!!" In goes Just Desserts' stark raving, uh, stark "Almost shook you up"/"Flashing Blue" (Bar/None). Singer-songwriter Tom LaverackÍs jagged folk-rock cuts to the bone straight through the most opportune vein, not unlike the song of American Music Club's Mark Eitzel. Recorded live, with Laverack on guitar/vocals and band mate Larry Fesenden on sax/vocals, "Almost Shook You Up" chillingly depicts a numbed-beyond-belief protagonist whose wife has split, whose daughter has vamoosed ("Said she'd rather be anywhere than in this morgue you call a home"), and whose mom just died-and still he's blank. Disturbingly real. So too "Flashing Blue," taken from Sentimental War (I'm ISO it) wherein Laverack and Fessenden trade ragged lines about the jittery dead-endedness of detox hell, accompanied-but never overwhelmed-by mood-manipulating organ, bass, guitars, and drums. Gripping stuff.
Goo Bonastia, NY REVIEW OF RECORDS, Nov 1991 "Almost Shook You Up" is a simple, direct, and honest slice of strummed melencholia. The only glitch is the high-pitched background vocals on the chorus. The earthy sax solo on the fade pushes it over the edge from good to damn good. "Flashing Blue," an unglorified look at the horrors of detox, is the sequel to the Replacements "Here comes a Regular."
Michael Eck ALBANY TIMES UNION, Jan 29, 1988 ...This is a great record. Buy it. Borrow it. Believe in it.
Sarge Blotto METROLAND, Jan 1988 This is a super record. The problem is although I've played it over and over, I've no idea how to describe it. It's a batch of beautiful, unclassifiable music that won't be pinned down.
Dianne Pine ROCKPOOL April 1988 They say revenge is sweet, but Just Deserts is absolutely delicious...they sound a little like Tom Waits fronting the Violent Femmes...There is something for everyone to get hooked on. Try it you'll like it. I sure did.
THE HARD REPORT, April 1988 New York's Just Deserts may remind you of Tom Waits meeting Buster Poindexter in a smoky jam, but their debut album, "Sentimental War" feels like a visit with an old friend...
Robert Christgau, THE VILLAGE VOICE, April 1988 ...the best of the writing-notably a detox diptych and an acrid call to arms and alms-kept me listening for the sprawling masterpiece I had somehow missed. It wasn't there. But I never got tired of the good stuff. B
David Hinkley NY DAILY NEWS, May 1988 ...There's some good exciting music here, played on everything from sax to pan flute. The tone, in general, is somber tilting to bitter. From "Same Old Stories": "But ya couldn't put a cork in that jug of gin / Behind the wheel / Ya did a whole family in." The band takes a fairly dim view of humanity, you might say; in the middle of the lyric sheet is a note that reads, "In the time it takes to listen to 'Monkey Farm,' 360 test animals will die in U.S, labs." Yet the music is catchy enough that this may be exactly the way to sell these messages: Get people interested before they even know what it's about.
CMJ REPORT Jan, 1988 Just Desserts is an eclectic five-piece unit which combines a slew of instruments and styles to carve out a sound identity for themselves. They bring a sense of old country-folk tradition (that often resembles Irish dance or drinking songs) that is mixed with a spunky urgency that suggests The Violent Femmes. Their sound often takes rhythmic twists and unexpected mood swings, not only from one song to the next (note the way "Class War"'s lilt gives way to the fierce electric power of "Final Hour"), but in the middle of a song as well, and to startling effect. Best segment: when the saxophone on "Monkey Farm" (a protest of animal testing) squonks and cackles like a hysterical monkey only to subside into the quiet lament "Silent pring." Thomas G. Laverack (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Larry Fessenden (saxophone, vocals) wrote and produced the LP, but the rest of the band-Noah Staein (bass, trumpet), Mark Ellison (guitar, banjo, accordian, harmonica) and Bob Muller (drums, tabla and percussion)-is equally skilled and versatile. The songwriting is as emotionally charged as the vocal performances, which reveal a ragged, somewhat beaten spirit that has more than enough strength and smarts to shed light on the darkest of situations. For full effect, let this one track from start to finish.
Carle VP Groome, DOWNTOWN 1988...So what you might like about this lp is that before you're halfway through side one there are enough intimations of brightnes and talent to make you think you might have something that gives you pathos instead of bathos and care instead of chaos.
PAID
(1986, 45rpm single)
"Obscure numbered limited edition single from Lower East Side NYC, featuring a guy from SWANS and done at Fun City with Wharton Tiers. Dark and moody, sort of melancholy falling-off-the-barstool drunken or otherwise-impaired rock n roll... actually sounds a lot like The Laughing Clowns... has that same sort of post-Birthday Party dirty, swampy, boozy, lurching lounge feel." —ebay
Vocals: DEWAR MacLEOD Guitar: NORMAN WESTBURG Bass: SCOTT BENFORD Guitar, Drums: RONALDO GONZALEZ (SWANS) Sax: LARRY FESSENDEN (actor/director) Drums: AMY C
Kickback b/w Bartalk: a vinyl 45rpm single with the theme song composed for EXPERIENCED MOVERS. Recorded at Fun City! with Wharton Tiers, featuring musicians from Lower East Side bands from the 80s including SWANS. Laconic vocals by Dewar MacLeod, who has gone on to become a punk rock historian. Sax by Fessenden. Hand distributed in the bygone days of vinyl. Pressing of 1000 with a hand stamped and numbered cover. A must for collectors!