Mean Jeans- Are You Serious?

There is a fine line between being influenced by a musician and manifesting a carbon copy of their style. Unfortunately, this is exactly what the ridiculously named group Mean Jeans have done. The album, Are You Serious?, asks a credible question as to what kind of affect these joke garage rockers were trying to have on listeners. Going through each track it is clear to see that this Portland band has an uncanny resemblance to that of The Ramones. And though some of the tracks are infectious and skillful, there is nothing that would suggest that this band has any potential to develop their own sound.

The album starts out with the frisky track “Born on a Saturday Night”, that showcases the band’s adolescent attitude towards life. This is displayed by vocalist Jeans Wilder singing hurriedly “I was born on a Saturday night, my momma said it would be alright she was wrong and then she died”. While the lines may be ridiculous and repetitive, the opening track actually is quite enjoyable and showcases that the band possesses musical talent. From here on in (with a few minor exceptions) each song sounds unbelievably similar to one another, not just instrumentally, but also in lyrical style.

The first problem occurs with the horrendous “Rats Roaches and Jeans” which sounds like a broken record involving the repetition of the three title words, and while this album does clearly promote some comedic value, it is never successful. The next big issue involves the tracks “Party Animal” and “No Brainer” which seem to be the accept same song with one different guitar lick in “No Brainer” and the substitution of the line “I’m a party animal” to “I’m a no brainer”. And there seems to be other situations such as this throughout most of the album as tracks sound strikingly alike.

Despite these unfortunate issues, one thing that Mean Jeans does undeniably right is create enthralling guitar melodies. One great example of this is in the track “Case Race”, where the guitar harmony in the bridge between the chorus and the second verse sounds like a country tune sped up into an elegant rock arrangement. The other highlight track of the album, “2 Much Cocaine”, exposes bass guitarist Jean Jeans’s talent as he tears through bass lines in the chorus’ of the track. Also notable in the track is the repetition of the word “too”, when they sing “She want too much cocaine) which gives a nostalgic feel to the song, almost as if it was written decades ago in the early rock era.

Though Are You Serious? certainly has some good components incorporated into it, the album feels stale and ultimately unnecessary. The Ramones are already a good enough garage rock group that it seems foolish to purchase a copy-cat group that lacks creativeness or style. Without any real flare and individual sound, it is hard to truly enjoy Mean Jeans for what they are, because the band is too busy trying to be someone else.

Geronimo! – A Different Kind Of Greatness EP

Garage rock of the Exile On Main Street variety has never sounded as groggy or as irresistible as on A Different Kind Of Greatness, the newest EP from Chicago-based three-piece Geronimo!

Operating, like so many other garage bands, without a bass player, Geronimo! instead use a keyboard shifted down a few octaves to give fuller definition to their noisy, ethereal compositions. Foregoing the traditional guitar-and-drum-only dynamic hawked by similar bands allows the multi-talented members of Geronimo! to infuse their music with piano, trumpet, and playful synth parts.

Most of the tunes here are made up of two or three distinct “parts,” as the band eschews traditional song structures for jammy, snaking subsections that nevertheless rarely push these songs past the 4 minute mark. While this may be jarring at first, subsequent listens outline a method to this madness. And though certain sections may seem out of place with others (the end of “Do the Driving” contains a gorgeous piano/guitar outro, seemingly coming out of nowhere and especially weird following one of the most up-tempo, driving songs on the album), they never ruin the overall continuity of the album.

The final song on the EP, “Ender,”  sounds the most like the type of infernal basement-rock racket created daily by the youth of America (not to say that this music is childish, of course, but “Ender” in particular carries that kind of aesthetic. And that’s also not to say that the unrehearsed sounding garage rock aesthetic isn’t awesome). Delicate, echoed vocals combine with sinewy guitar sections, fuzzy bass keyboard and pounding drums, resulting in a 6 minute opus that finishes up the EP in a grand fashion. Here, Geronimo! ramrods what seems to be every riff they’ve ever come up with into a single song, and the resulting sound is explosive, electrifying, and, above all else, exciting. In a sense the song sums up the entire EP.

A Different Kind Of Greatness ultimately succeeds because of the wild whims of the band members themselves. Feral piano freak outs, brassy horn sections, and sudden bursts of noise all come crashing together in a reckless fashion, giving birth to a fresh new sound in an already tired, overpopulated genre. This brashness, this ability to pack a song with as many ideas as possible – song structure or continuity be damned – has rewarded many bands in the past. One hopes that Geronimo! can continue in this same direction, because the sky’s the limit for a band with such an interesting sound. For now, carry on in that dimly lit basement, boys. Carry on.

MEandJOANCOLLINS – 2009 Boston Music Award Nominee

The gritty garage and glam rock stylings of Cambridge-based MEandJOANCOLLINS have garnered the band a nomination at this year’s Boston Music Awards. DOA’s review of the band’s swaggering debut LP, Love. Trust. Faith. Lust., is available here. You can also help the band clinch the Pop Act of the Year award by voting on the BMA homepage

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Jeff The Brotherhood – Heavy Days

You can definitely hear them rev up the engine a few times, but Heavy Days, the new album by Jeff The Brotherhood, never quite takes off. But that’s fine, because this little Nashville, Tennessee duo sounds like they might be on to something. Problem is they have yet to figure out just what kind of band they are. Half of this album sounds like a Queens of the Stone Age offshoot, and the other, better half sounds like power pop. This engine doesn’t purr, but the parts are still being fitted.

Jeff The Brotherhood amps up basic garage rock with a muddy, stoner surge. Beats are always steady on Heavy Days and the guitars gush distorted fuzz. The vocals, while showing limited range, suit the music well because their docile monotony rings out over those murky jams. Despite Jeff The Brotherhood’s taste for psychedelic touches, their no-frills approach approximates minimalism. Take, for example, “Heavy Days”, the album’s driving opener, and “Growing”. The latter of those tracks typifies the album’s worst. These are cruising little rock songs, but they go nowhere. And the little psychedelic effects often feel like a vain attempt to make the drive seem more interesting than it really is.

These button-down rockers are bested by the band’s forays into power pop. Punk energy and some restrained hooks flavor Jeff The Brotherhood’s best efforts, including “Heavy Damage”, “Dreamscape”, and “Mind Ride”. “Bone Jam” will give a small taste of this; hear it on Jeff The Brotherhood’s Myspace page. One of the album’s best tracks is “The Tropics,” a silly, endearing, stoner’s blend of Kiss and The Beach Boys that plods with thick, heavy chords under the awkwardly emoting vocal hook.

Given its ups and down, Heavy Days comes out even-steven. There’s miles to go yet, but ultimately Jeff The Brotherhood will be worth the trip.

Jeff The Brotherhood’s Myspace
Infinity Cat Records

Vagina Panther rock out with new album in November

Vagina Panther recorded 11 tracks of white hot guitar sludge with producer/engineer Mario “J” McNulty (Ravonettes, Anti-Flag, David Bowie) at New York City’s infamous Looking Glass Studios right before it was shuttered. The band’s self-titled debut is made to be played LOUD and to disturb the neighbors. From the stoner pop of “Dave, You Are Killing Me” to the garage rock sound of “So How We Gonna Do This?,” and the anthemic closing track “Beast,” this music is meant for the real, the raw and the reckless. Claiming influences such as signs written in poor English, bands that think they’re Jesus and fucked up train rides, Vagina Panther makes magic out of these touchstones. Vagina Panther is Dead June on vocals, Kit Days on Guitar, Johnathan Swass on Bass and Trent Good on Drums.

Darlings – “We’re Not Going”

The “garage band” ethos has existed for a few decades now, and with their new track “We’re Not Going,” New York City band Darlings is doing its part to carry on this tradition.

The song kicks off with a sludgy, rythmic guitar riff, which sounds like it could have been written on the spot. The music seems like it was written for a hot city day, and with a band that takes great pride in their hometown, the influence of their peers is obvious. With a poppy sound similar to the garage rock revival bands like the Hives or the Strokes, the song relies on guitars that intertwine throughout its entirety, and teeters on the point of falling off the tracks.

The vocals on the track range from the laid back coolness of Julian Casablancas or Carl Barât, to a more powerful Westerbergian howl when the chorus begins. While the subject matter may be simplistic, the lyrics evoke  powerful, albeit childish, imagery. In regards to the simple idea of going out, the singer rhetorts: ”I really like this couch / And I like you / So fuck that place.” Brilliant? Maybe not. But effective, catchy, and very fun to listen to? Certainly.

Chinese – The Conquest Of Tomorrow Today

I’ll be honest with you guys, if only because I love you: I’m not a fan of instrumental music. Forget arguments about music vs. lyrics and which is most important, because to me a successful band needs both. Obviously, the way a song progresses, the sound of the instruments, and how a song fits together is the most immediate part of music, but the way all of these factors work with lyrics and melody has always been of utmost importance to me. So, I went into The Conquest of Tomorrow Today, the debut album from the Seattle-based guitar/drum duo Chinese, expecting the worse, and that, unfortunately, is what I got.

There’s nothing explicitly wrong with this album; guitarist Aaron Campeau and drummer Michael Strenski are capable musicians, festooning this album with bluesy, faux Jack White riffs and solid drumming, respectively. So if it isn’t the playing, the problem must then lie in the tunes. Most of them hover around the 2:00 minute mark, never overstaying their welcome but never making much of an impression, either. In fact, the only tracks that make any sort of subconscious indentation are “In the Labyrinth” and “…Theseus Slays The Minotaur,” which consist of meandering noise. Memorable for the wrong reasons, it seems.

Most of the songs on this album are relatively anonymous, not only because they lack hooks and melody, but also because they sound the same. There are, however, a couple highlights. “Guitar Solo’s Are Counter-Revolutionary” is the longest track on the album, as well as the one that shows the most bravura. Campeau crams multiple riffs and ideas into the track, and all of them work. The closer, “Path of the Destroyer,” distinguishes itself from the pack through light guitar work and a more subdued tempo. In an album filled with the same garage-rock histrionics, the track is an unexpected gem. But these two tracks can’t salvage The Conquest Of Tomorrow Today because, in the end, being a guitar/drum band severely limits your musical possibilities, and being an instrumental band limits you even more. As a result, your band better have a few musical tricks in the proverbial hat to keep a listener’s interest; Chinese do not. This band could be on the verge of something great, but it appears as though they may have to wait until tomorrow to conquer the music scene of today.

Brian Olive – S/T

Brian Olive is a student of 1960’s rock. Employing everything from sinewy, warbling slide guitar lines to a group of female backup singers, Olive actively seeks Phil Spector’s aural ambiance and Motown’s horn-filled, bouncy rumpus in his music; he succeeds wildly in his endeavors.

After sitting rank in a number of mildly successful garage rock bands, Olive’s self-titled debut is a bundle of paradoxes: scattershot, yet surprisingly uniform; indebted to a gaggle of 60’s artists, yet wholly individual; a modern throwback record. Sporting a husky, deep-throated voice that wouldn’t sound out of place on a CCR tribute album, Olive guides his band through jazz-infused psychedelia (“The Day Is Coming”), barnstormer rock jams (“Ida Red” and “Calling All Around”),  and softer, more soulful fare (“Echoing Light” and “Killing Stone”). The most remarkable thing about this album is how the numerous influences don’t subtract from Olive’s vision; this is his album, through and through, and the disparate sounds actually unify Olive’s vision rather than subtract from it.

Special attention must be paid to the opening and closing tracks, because they rank among the best songs released this year. Opener “Ida Red” is a rollicking, up-tempo number that sounds straight out of the Muscle Shoals sound studio. Featuring vintage, 1950’s style piano work, swooping horn lines, and the required “ohh la la la la’s” from his backup vocalists, the track is a wild and exciting jam that serves as a perfect opener to the album. Similarly, the closer, “Calling All Around,” is a groovy, New Orleans style number which is the musical brother to “Ida Red”; their similarity makes them obvious choices to bookend the album, as they establish both Olive’s influences as well as his remarkable ability to reinvent genres which have been around for ages.

This album is one of the best albums of 2009, for almost all the wrong reasons: while bands like Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear seek to move music forward, Brian Olive swoops in and reminds us that classic genres are classic for a reason, and that, with all of this forward motion, it’s OK to look back once in a while.

Batrider – Why We Can’t Be Together

There are certain universal standards in my mind when it comes to evaluating great garage records.  The record in question must be tight while still maintaining a raw, live element, it should be crammed with melodies even where you might not expect them, and it must remain fresh after multiple listens (despite the inherent limited musical and technical vernacular of garage rock).  It’s a lot to ask, but Batrider’s second full-length Why We Can’t Be Together mostly fulfills these criteria, though not without some notable exceptions.

Batrider’s Why We Can’t Be Together is no Exile on Main Street (the gold standard for blues-soaked rock records) but it’s certainly something.  Before I dive into the music, there’s some important context to consider.  The Why We Can’t Be Together studio session allegedly sired around 40 songs, which was then trimmed to 14 (13 not including the hidden track).  This simple fact illustrates a couple of important notions; one, that the band fully intended to make Why We Can’t Be Together the best record it could possibly be, and, two, that they’re quite prolific within their medium.  Despite these conditions, Why We Can’t Be Together is not all it could be.

The album’s first two songs “Womble” and “Homie Gnomie” create a pace and that the rest of the record doesn’t maintain. It’s no coincidence that these songs happen to clock in well shy of three minutes, songs quick to build and surge.   Some of the following tracks, “Ha Ha” and “Can’t Keep Up” in particular, feel bloated and aimless in contrast to the record’s promising start.  “Tiadn” and “Step N Slide” deliver grand moments but also drag in spots.  I flat-out don’t understand the placement of slow stomps “Why Can’t We Be Together” and “Bluesy,” two songs shy of two minutes but somewhat disorienting and choppy.  Why We Can’t Be Together regains some steam with the pummeling “Let Me In To Down Below” and the fuzzy first portion of “Lighten Up,” but it’s not enough to elevate the record’s sleepy middle.

On Why We Can’t Be Together, Batrider’s seems to be a band content to pull their punches, to build before they barrage, to fill before they kill.  The problem is, there’s some shockingly good stuff here.  Stephanie Crouse’s guitar howls distorted riffs and Sarah Mary Chadwick’s lyrics are inflected with that twenty-something malaise that perfectly captures the spirit of the record.  When they eventually do get around to the climax, it’s noisy bliss.  While the record’s high points are too infrequent, there’s a lot to like about Why We Can’t Be Together.

The main elements of Batrider’s music should certainly be kept intact: the scuzzy, distorted guitar sound, the vocals painted with a New Zealand accent, the fact that the band’s most visible members are women.  Those characteristics show a unique sensibility and take on the genre, a sensibility that Why We Can’t Be Together doesn’t exhibit enough.  However, what inspires me about Batrider is that they’re young, they’re hungry (they’ve moved from scene to scene, from Melbourne to Adelaide to London), and they’re good, and with that combination, anything is possible.

For it’s flaws, Why We Can’t Be Together is a solid record that hints at a much larger upside, a sizable shadow of monstrous potential.

Great Northern – Remind Me Where The Light Is

I put this on my stereo and almost instantly, found myself nodding appreciatvely. Pounding drumbeats, gritty guitars, the kind of thrashing glam stomp that never fails to capture my attention. 30 seconds into their 2nd album and Great Northern manage to tick every box in the GaragePunk questionnaire. Two things made me listen a little more closely though. That guitar, it’s a solid wall of noise that owes more to the Ramones than I usually hear. And Rachel Stolte’s voice is a startlingly original one, a combination of mellow toughness that holds the tune as opposed to shredding it with vocal aerobatics.  Listening to the full eleven tracks on Remind Me … it is very apparent that Great Northern are only using the garage/shoegaze template as only a start point for their considerable talents. Anyone expecting a retro fuzz guitar workout isn’t exactly in for a disappointment.

Third track “Fingers” is the real measure of what Great Northern are really about, now that they’ve caught your attentions. An acoustic opening passage and an artfully literate lyric, “I’ll build a wall / under the sea”, the song builds gradually as piano and guitar jostle for attention. When the chorus finally does arrive it takes a sudden detour into near operatic levels of drama although this is left to the instruments, not the vocal.  I listened more intently for what I heard of a string section, and an agreeable electronic simulacra of violin and cello, probably inspired by Great Northern’s work alongside Ladytron, screeches across the intro to 4th track “Snakes”.

As the album progresses, so the instrumentation continues to grow ever more involved, and I found this vaguely unsettling. Great Northern is prepared to stick it’s neck out musically, but the methodical approach had me yearning for something a bit less neat and tidy (Indie purist that I suddenly realise I am) and stretching song styles right from 2-chord mashup to thoughtfully composed piano ballad is something of  a leap in the dark that Remind Me … struggles to make. Slightly, very subtly, but as the arrangements get ever more complicated and the pace of the songs continues to slow, I found myself yearning for a sudden howl of agression, for a less well-mannered approach to musicality, for a bit more of the kind of noise bands such as Autodrone and We Are Hex can so effortlessly pull out of their hats.  I began to wonder where Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte’s hearts really lie, listening to “Stop”, a dreampop ballad reconfigured onto a player piano, a song somehow at odds with the triumphal chant of ‘”Mountain”, while “Driveway” is a low-key harmonium setpiece that had me recalling Mercury Rev.

That is really the downfall of this flawed yet urgently listenable album. With so many influences competing for attention, plus a smoothly polished production from Mike Patterson (BRMC, Ladytron), Remind Me ... has the feel of two albums compressed into one, and a slightly more minimal approach to instrumentation would have given some of the slower numbers added gravitas. That isn’t to say that anyone listening to all eleven tracks here will feel somehow cheated. You won’t, you might even feel elated or energised or find your feet tapping along when least expected. You might, though, find the continuous  musical invention a bit forced. A little less would’ve made for a whole lot more from Great Northern.

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