Tell me, was the Jim Jones Revue one of the highlights of the Big Day Out (2011) or fucking what? They were utterly on fire, all Jerry Lee and compressed brutality … I thought the majors would scoop them up and take them to war …
Well… almost. The band broke up after years of battle, but Jones, retaining Gavin Jay on bass, picked up Joe Glossop on keyboard, Phil Martini on drums and David Page on pedal steel and theremin … why?
Well, when the main songwriter is … I think “trangressing” might be appropriate here rather than “progressing”… from one place to another, it’s not fair on the band he’s gathered to try to shove them down a hole they don’t want to go. If you thought JJR were shit hot, wait’ll ya get a load of this stinky skanky beast.
Girls and boys … if you must have a comparison, think The Cramps, with Bryan Gregory but without the feeling you’re at a hokey cabaret (the Cramps in ’86 were so … urggh). These two EPs (well, one’s kinda like a big 10-inch single) are The Shit and frankly, you should hesitate no longer but reach for your worn plastic and the website… here’s their Facebook.
There’s no point in me going over the tracks in any detail, really, there’s not. They’re all well-constructed, powerful, enticing and are a bit like what I imagine eating a human pituitary gland would be like: intense, exciting and … you fill in the blank.
“Boil Yer Blood” is brutal in the music; “1000 Miles from the Sure” goes instead into an eerie film where nothing is real, gloriously slow, racked with tension and sensuality. “Hold Up” reaches into the dark for gumbo voodoo blues; the construction of these three tracks is masterful, the recording perfect, the songs themselves would raise the profile of any film and beg for repeat plays at home, at parties, in the car and of course, in the rubble which is your living-room.
“Aldecide” (ie, I’ll Decide) is a perfect example of raising the bar so damn high everyone else looks like midgets. Rampaging pianner and ripping guitar and what I spose must be a theremin, backed by a male chorus … aw fuck, just get it, this is too fuckin’ good… “Alphashit”, well I’ll just say that 1985 Scientists plus piano … jeez I can’t describe this stuff anymore… it’s too much, too much … Some have compared Jim to another Jim, that Osterberg chap, and while such a comparison is slightly valid it’s really nothing like the reality.
If I win the Lotto Jim Jones is gonna be the band I’ll bring to Australia first. Here’s their Bandcamp site. Get busy. Jim Jones is currently on tour in Europe with Australia’s Suzie Stapleton as support. Punters are in for a double treat.
(Yes, six Rolling Rocks each)
