popwreckoning

The great thing about most debut albums? A band can go balls to the wall and give it everything they’ve got and want to give, because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This definitely describes the Static Jacks‘ first album length offering to the world, If You’re Young. Despite the fact that the band hails from New Jersey, they sound more like the Libertines than Bruce Springsteen. They mix anarchic punk, the angst of youth, and remarkably accomplished instrumentation to create a really engaging sound.

My first introduction to the quartet was their impressive opening set in support of one of my current English rock band favorites, the Futureheads, in June 2010. I remember hearing them let rip onstage at the Black Cat and thinking, yep, I know exactly why the Futureheads chose them for support. While they must certainly have had different musical upbringings (the Static Jacks are very young: when I saw them, they all had Xs on the backs of their hands), I imagine the two bands’ mindsets are pretty similar: make it loud, make it powerful, and make it fun.

If You’re Young is, from what I can tell, a pretty good distillation of the band’s frenetic energy in live performance. Some of the songs are as chaotic as beloved Ramones numbers from the ’70s that should appeal to people who think American guitar rock is dead. (It’s not. There are plenty of indie bands in America. They’re just not getting played on the radio. Thanks Kings of Leon.) Opening track “Defend Rosie” tells you straight out from the gate that you are not dealing with just any band. The Static Jacks are a force to be reckoned with. “Girl Parts,” another high octane track, features added vocals from Ceci Gomez from Brooklyn band Beast Make Bomb.

But there are more melodic numbers that show off the band’s songwriting and musical ability. “Into the Sun” is a great example of this, with great guitar work and lead singer Ian Devaney‘s powerful vocal delivery. Other contagious tunes include “My Parents Lied,” a song I immediately picked up on live because of the infectious handclapping and minor key melody, and “Mercy, Hallelujah” and “Relief,” which both remind me of, dare I say it, the Boss. (I know. To some of you out there, that’s flat-out heresy. But I’m saying it because I want you to give this album a chance.) “Blood Pressure,” with its great singalong of “I’m afraid of the future / I want to share it with you” is oddly touching: as Devaney said in a recent interview about the album, “It’s mostly saying ‘if you’re young – or if you ever were – you’ll know where we’re coming from with these songs.’ These are pretty universal experiences that most people experience from their late teens and early twenties. It’s such a transition period, figuring out what you want to do and where you want to go. Youthful anxiety, I suppose.”

There are some surprising moments on here as well. “Sonata (Maybe We Can Work It Out)” is the band’s attempt at a tender ballad, with Strokes-like guitars, but its “partner” song, “Walls (We Can’t Work It Out)”, brings things back up tempo with feverish intensity. Considering their relatively young age, the Static Jacks have managed to put together a nice collection of hard rocking, memorable songs that show off their talents, talents that are sure only to grow. Catch the band live this fall as alongside New Yorkers the Postelles, they open for English rockers the Wombats. Will I be there for the opening night of the tour? You bet.

The Static Jacks’ debut album, If You’re Young, will be released in North America on August 30 on Fenway Recordings.

Track Listing
01. Defend Rosie
02. Girl Parts
03. Into the Sun
04. My Parents Lied
05. Sonata (Maybe We Can Work Out)
06. Walls (We Can’t Work It Out)
07. Mercy, Hallelujah
08. Blood Pressure
09. This is Me Dancing
10. Relief
11. It’s Such a Shame
12. Drano-Ears

Tour Dates
Oct 21 – 9:30 Club / Washington, DC*
Oct 22 – Johnny Brenda’s / Philadelphia*
Oct 24 – Jefferson Theatre / Charlottesville, VA*
Oct 25 – Local 506 / Carrboro, NC*
Oct 26 – Loft / Atlanta*
Oct 29 – Fitzgeralds / Houston*
Oct 30 – Parish / Austin*
Nov 01 – Granada / Dallas*
Nov 02 – Record Bar / Kansas City*
Nov 04 – Outland / Columbus*
Nov 05 – Subterranean / Chicago*
Nov 07 – Varsity Theater / Minneapolis*
Nov 10 – Wonder Ballroom / Portland*
Nov 11 – Venue / Vancouver*
Nov 12 – Crocodile / Seattle*
*opening for the Wombats

The Static Jacks: website | myspace | @ Black Cat

While on holiday in England in April 2007, I saw the indie rock group Hot Club de Paris open for Carl Barat and Gary Powell‘s post-Libertines band, Dirty Pretty Things, at London’s Shepherds Bush Empire. I was very confused that the trio was singing harmonies with an English accent and not a French one. Turns out the band is from the Northwest of England, Liverpool to be exact (yes, the home of the Beatles), and is comprised of principal songwriter / lead vocalist / bassist Paul Rafferty and a pair of brothers, Alasdair (drums) and Matthew Smith (guitar). Songs like “Shipwreck” from their 2006 debut album Drop It ’til It Pops turned into singalongs that Sunday night at Shepherds Bush, confirming to me that even though they aren’t massive in Britain like, say, Coldplay, they’ve got a devoted fanbase at home and in Europe. And for a British band, that’s a major thing to have under your belt: it gives you the clout to keep making records.

Hot Club de Paris‘ last two EP releases in the UK, With Days Like This as Cheap as Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want to Work? (released February 2010) and The Rise and Inevitable Fall of the High School Suicide Cluster Band (released May 2010), have now been combined into one album for their North American album debut, the whimsically titled Free the Pterodactyl 3. Their record label, Moshi Moshi, may not be familiar to you, but past acts like Florence and the Machine and Friendly Fires should be, having released their earliest works on the indie London label before moving on to bigger things.

Hot Club de Paris is an interesting amalgamation of punk and pop. They make music under their own terms, putting out what they want (which explains why they put out two EPs in the UK last year instead of one long player) and bowing to no one. The backstory of the title track of the album is described by Moshi Moshi as “a slow and wistful jam about singer Paul Rafferty’s scrape with the law whilst attempting the liberation of a 3-metre fibreglass pterodactyl from a derelict fun fair with a couple of friends.” Sounds like a punk, all right (watch the black marker and drum-centric promo video for the song below). Their sound is at times angry and angular as math rock, but also maintains a pop edge, making them accessible to anyone. I mean, really, what punk band can you name that regularly breaks out into three-part a cappella harmony at a gig? While I haven’t seen the band in four years, I imagine “The White Town Express (Get High, Stay Low)” would be perfect to showcase their gorgeous harmonies live.

My favorite songs from this band are of the winsome, up tempo variety. “I’m Not in Love and Neither Are You” and “Dog Tired at the Spring Dance Marathon” have fun guitar lines running underneath the insistent, shouted vocals. “Dance a Ragged Dance” has feel-good harmonies and the proof that well-read Rafferty is handy with choosing words (“…buildings / booked basement parties, sad times / the moonlight lit a kiss on the stairs…“) without abandoning punk (“we can either dance or die!“). The song also ends with xylophone, more Freelance Whales than punk.

Despite the name, “Biggie Smalls and the Ghetto Slams” is not a rap song at all but instead tells the story of young kids and their ill-fated band. If you haven’t figured this out already, Hot Club de Paris likes to be different, but not for the sake of being different: it’s just not in their nature to operate any other way. And I’m glad, because their sound is all that’s great about the young North. “The Rise and Inevitable Fall of the High School Suicide Cluster Band” and “Fuck You, the Truth” (with the question, “are you guys having a good time?“, and response from the crowd, “noooo!“) are more punk, but there’s something charming about the way the lyrics are shouted at you. You want to root for this band. It’s not hard to imagine fans at a gig shouting the words back at them, fists in the air. Me? I want to be a part of that.

While Free the Pterodactyl 3 is not a cohesive album (and if you’ve read this far, you understand why this is the case), it’s a good introduction to an exciting Liverpool band that deserves success on this side of the Atlantic.

Track Listing:
01. I’m Not in Love and Neither Are You
02. The Rise and Inevitable Fall of the High School Suicide Cluster Band
03. Fuck You, the Truth
04. Biggie Smalls and the Ghetto Slams
05. Free the Pterodactyl 3
06. Dance a Ragged Dance
07. Dog Tired at the Spring Dance Marathon
08. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
09. The White Town Express (Get High, Stay Low)
10. Three Albums and Still No Ballad
11. Noses Blazing
12. Extra Time, Sudden Death

Free the Pterodactyl 3 is available now from Moshi Moshi.

Hot Club de Paris: website | myspace

The Cribs, probably the most famous band to ever come out of Wakefield, England, stopped by Washington’s 9:30 Club Tuesday night for a blistering performance of new songs from their latest album Ignore the Ignorant, as well as old favorites. The English four-piece was joined by Adam Green and the Dead Trees.

I’m not familiar with Adam Green’s back catalogue, or even the Moldy Peaches I’m afraid. What I do know: Green is a close friend of ex-Libertines, ex-Dirty Pretty Things Carl Barat, so by association, many of my Libertines/DPT friends have also become fans of his style of indie rock / anti-folk. He appeared onstage at the 9:30 in a metal-studded leather jacket and extremely tight blue jeans. Based on his look, I was expecting songs done in an over the top, Ramones-style performance, and we got exactly that in spades. Fueled by Stella, Jack Daniels, and bottles of water, the New Yorker ran back and forth across the stage during several songs, posturing and posing, and wiggling his hips. Behind me I heard delighted, appreciative squeals from his devoted female fanbase. Green prefaced the song “Broadcast Beach” with the following droll comment: “let’s do something…intellectual!” More squeals.

Instead of having two separate opening acts as I presumed, the Dead Trees provided excellent backing to Green’s shenanigans. Maybe this happens at all of his shows, but I say “shenanigans” because I think for nearly every number he sang, he jumped on the barrier and tried to launch himself into the crowd. A couple times he was successful; other times, not so much much. At one point I almost got a mouthful of shoe as he crowd surfed over the people behind me. When he finally removed his jacket (to more female squealing) and exposed an Ace bandage around his left elbow, a concerned fan asked what had happened. “What happened to my elbow?” he said in a sing-song voice. “I delivered a baby!” He used that opportunity to launch into “Baby’s Gonna Die.” It should be noted that Green provided much hilarity on this night; at one point, he decided to announce to the 9:30 Club’s kitchen (which has had emblazoned on it a cartoony “Food Food” sign for as long I can remember), “Can we place an order at the Food Food? Five veggie burgers for the boys. Tonight I’ll be a boy.” Other highlights included “What Makes Him Act So Bad” and “Emily,” both of which reminded me so much of really good ’60s songwriting. His latest album Minor Love was released in America on January 16.

The Cribs‘s latest album Ignore the Ignorant was one of my top 5 releases of 2009. I’ve also been a big Smiths fan for a while now (and am much appreciative of Johnny Marr‘s contributions to popular music), so when news broke two years ago now that Marr had become a full-fledged member of the Cribs, this was very exciting news to me indeed. I had been anticipating this gig for weeks, playing and replaying their new album, enjoying the addition of Marr’s virtuoso guitar-playing to the Jarman brothers’ masterful songwriting. Standing outside in the cold a couple hours before the gig, a friend and I were able to hear the band sound check “We Share the Same Skies,” “Hari Kari,” “We Were Aborted” and “Be Safe”, all four sounding amazing then, so that just fueled our excitement.

Once inside, amusingly, we were surrounded by Smiths-style goths and several people from England complaining about the lack of their favorite beer (Boddingtons from Manchester) but talking loudly at length about their love for Johnny Marr. One overzealous English fan felt the need to shout “Johnny Marr, wooo!” every five minutes. Uh, yes, we all know that Johnny Marr is part of the Cribs now. No need to shout, love. Before launching into older song “I’ve Tried Everything,” obviously used to the affection being regularly foisted upon his new bandmate, Ryan Jarman quipped with a knowing grin, “Yes, we love Johnny too. So hands off!” But who could blame the fans for their adoration? Certainly not me. Right in front of my eyes, Johnny Marr was playing the guitar riffs and lines that I had only heard beforehand on record. And every note was sublime. The man’s still got it.

I loved “We Share the Same Skies” the first time I heard it on BBC Radio, and I loved it even more live, the crowd shouting back the chorus to the band. Gary Jarman took lead vocal duties for “Last Year’s Snow,” the kind of song I expect to spur on massive showings of hand-waving for the band at home in England, the guitars and vocals just perfect together. Simply gorgeous. Crashing in powerfully was “Cheat on Me,” the band’s first single from Ignore the Ignorant, filed with a lover’s’ vitriol. “Save Your Secrets,” a gentler number, was achingly beautiful, with lyrics like “Oh, doleful girl / alone in the world / where did her true love go?” and “You are far more likely / to be devoured than empowered / your sense of romance.” Before the show, drummer Ross Jarman revealed to me that he particularly liked playing this one in concert because of its mellowness. I can understand. The rest of the night must have been murder on his previously injured wrist, the band attacking songs with furious intensity and feeding off the excited crowd, energetically pogo-ing with Ryan.

While I was disappointed not to hear my favorite from the new album, the cheeky “Victim of Mass Production,” the nearly hour-and-a-half set couldn’t be beat. Make sure you catch the band’s energetic show next they come to your town. They are also scheduled to appear at Coachella on Friday, April 16.

The Cribs Set List:
We Were Aborted
Hey Scenesters!
We Share the Same Skies
Hari Kari
Last Year’s Snow
What About Me
Cheat On Me
I’ve Tried Everything
Save Your Secrets
Mirror Kissers
Another Number
Our Bovine Public
Ignore the Ignorant
Be Safe
I’m A Realist
Men’s Needs
City of Bugs

Tour Dates:
Jan 22 – Granada Theatre / Dallas*
Jan 23 – Parish / Austin*
Jan 26 – Glass House / Pomona
Jan 27 – Bimbo 365 / San Francisco
Jan 29 – Wonder Ballroom / Portland
Jan 30 – Showbox / Seattle
Jan 31 – Venue / Vancouver
Apr 16 – Coachella Music Festival / Indio, CA
* with Adam Green and the Dead Trees

The Cribs: website | myspace | Interview with: The Cribs – North Star Bar, Philadelphia | The Cribs Announce New Album Details | The Cribs Rush Release of “Cheat on Me” Single | The Cribs Announce January 2010 North American Tour
Adam Green: website | myspace | Lissy Trullie with Adam Green – “Just a Friend”
The Dead Trees: website | myspace | King of Rosa review

The Brighton, England band, known as Brakes to me and most everywhere except America, is known under the moniker Brakesbrakesbrakes stateside. Despite the “difficult to say five times fast” name they have when they come visit us, I found singer/guitarist Eamon Hamilton and bassist Marc Beatty to be extremely nice guys, as you shall read in the following exchange between us. In the first half of my interview with them prior to them sound-checking at D.C.’s Black Cat on October 5, they tell me about recording their latest album Touchdown in Scotland, and we have a brief segue into fairy tale land. Have a read!

Mary Chang, PopWreckoning: I am here in Washington with Marc and Eamon, two members of Brakes, or Brakesbrakesbrakes as they are known in America, a name I don’t really like…
Marc Beatty (bassist for Brakesbrakesbrakes): Neither do we.
Eamon Hamilton (singer/guitarist for Brakesbrakesbrakes): Yeah, You’ll have to speak with the Philadelphian funk rock band’s [Brakes] lawyer about that. (all laugh) There you go. But we didn’t want to be “Brakes UK,” because that would have been “brakes uck”.
MC: You mean like the Charlatans.
EH: Yeah, we could have done that, I suppose.
MB: I think anyone who likes us over here [in America] knows us as Brakes anyway.
MC: Yes, right.
EH: In Britain, when you’re doing your driving test, there’s an emergency stop you have to do, when you have to put on the brake at the end. And the [instructor] guy goes, “brakes brakes brakes!” So you see, that has some…well, that’s the only story we can salvage from the depths of our hatred… (laughs)
MB: I dunno. My driving instructor never said that.
EH: Did he not?
MB: No, mine slapped the windscreen instead.
EH: Oh haha, not “brakes brakes brakes”?
MB: No, he said “brakes, now!”
EH: “Brakes, now” eh? (all laugh)

MC: Welcome to Washington. We’re very happy to have you guys here. Have you played in Washington before?
MB: No, first time.
EH: I have with British Sea Power [his previous band].
MC: Do you remember which venue?
EH: Here, actually. We played with the Libertines, it was just after Pete [Doherty] had left. And err, who was the other band? I can’t remember.
MC: So this must have been seven odd years ago then.
EH: Oh wait, I think it was the Living Things.
MC: Oh yeah? I saw them here in June.
EH: I didn’t like them much.

MC: Your latest studio album, Touchdown, was released in April. I read that you recorded it in Scotland. Quite a hike from Nashville, where your last album [The Beautific Visions] was recorded. How did you like recording there, versus Nashville?
EH: Well, we’ve always recorded in musically rich places. Well, London…(scoffs)…well yeah, London’s musically rich? (looks over at Marc)
MB: London, Brighton.
EH: London, Brighton, you know, places with great musical heritage. And then we recorded in Glasgow, home of Teenage Fanclub, one of our favorite bands. And the Delgados. You know, everything. So it was just brilliant!
MB: I lived there at the time, so it was convenient.
MC: Is that how you guys decided to record in Scotland?
MB: Yeah, sort of. And also because Fat Cat [Records, their label] has ties with Paul Savage who produced the album. He has a studio up there [Chem19] so we liked the idea of recording there, it seemed like a good thing to do.
EH: And we also used Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, he made a compressor that we used for the album. Then he said what we were doing with it sounded good…
MC: Oh yeah?
EH: …and then he took it away again. (looks semi-crestfallen)
MB: Took it away!
MC: That has historical value now!

MC: So what was it like working with Paul Savage [of the Scottish band the Delgados and also a famed music producer]?
EH: He’s a legend. He let us do everything.
MB: He was really easy to work with. We had about three weeks, and it was a little bit rushed, but we got on really well. Really outgoing.
EH: He cooked us some amazing meals.
MB: Yeah, that was probably the best part of it!

MC: So how would you say that the making of this album different than for The Beautific Visions?
MB: We took our time.
EH: It was rushed, but less rushed! (laughs)
MB: The first album was done in 1 week, the second album took us 2 weeks, and this third one took us three weeks…sort of natural progression really.
MC: I take it you guys work well under pressure?
MB: Yeah, yeah, definitely.

MC: It’s been three years since the second album.
MB: Has it been that long? (sounds surprised)
MC: Did you feel different pressures / inspirations in the process of making Touchdown?
MB: There were a lot of factors. We changed labels [from Rough Trade Records to Fat Cat] and because it had been quite a bit of time since the last one. We had a bit more time to write the second one, which was really pressured. We sort of…we pulled it off but it was tough. We had a bit more freedom with this one, so we could think about it a bit more.
EH: It was really great to be offered another album, really.
MB: Yeah yeah. We had a bit of a dark year. It had been over a year before that when we’d done some demo-ing.
EH: In the dark tower!
MB: Yeah, we wrote songs in a cold barn in Oxfordshire. In a tiny room…write that down that I’m pointing to this…(laughs while gesturing to small U-Haul truck in the Black Cat parking lot)
EH: Yeah, like 10 foot by 12 foot space.
MB: One strip light. Really tiny place.
EH: And it was freezing cold.
MB: And we got really pissed off at each other. And then after that we took some time off. I forget how long…
EH: We were still gigging in between. Yeah, how long was it…
MB: Hmmm…
MC: Easy to lose track of time when you’re gigging all over the place?
EH: Yeah. It wasn’t long enough though. When we got back together, we still fucking hated each other. There should have been a punchline here, shouldn’t there? (all laugh) I shouldn’t have said that, should I?
MB: The important thing is we get on now! We’ve come through the dark times.
EH: Yeah, we came away from the dark tower. Luckily, Rumpelstiltskin let down his golden hair, and we climbed down and now we’re in the fields.
MB: Wait a minute, I think you’re mixing up your fairy tales.
MC: Rapunzel?
EH: Rapunzel! That’s it! (all laugh)

We then narrowly miss getting hit by a car leaving the parking lot that almost did not slow down when it came right up by us. But there’s more to this interview, much more. Stay tuned for part 2 of this interview with Marc and Eamon coming soon!

Photo: Mary Chang

Brakesbrakesbrakes: website | myspace | BrakesBrakesBrakes Announces October North American Tour, Plans for Single and Live Album | Fat Cat Records Tour Featuring the Twilight Sad, Brakesbrakesbrakes, and We Were Promised Jetpacks @ Black Cat, Washington DC

Arguably the Andrew Ridgeley to Ben Gibbard’s better known George Michael in the mid-90s band Pinwheel, Army Navy front man Justin Kennedy has his work cut out for him if he hopes to make a name for himself solo. So far, judging from his new band’s self-titled debut, he sounds content to just play it safe, not so much following as driving parallel to the indie pop road paved by his former colleague’s Death Cab. The result is an amiable, but unremarkable effort that while ripe with potential to explore on future efforts, lacks distinctiveness in and of itself.

by Travis Schneider

Despite being produced by Adam Lasus — whose resume most notably includes albums by the likes of indie faves Yo La Tengo and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!– the album has an acute Britpop feel, evoking memories of groups from early Teenage Fanclub to early XTC to The Libertines. The sound of the former act is particularly prevalent in the opening trio of “Dark as Days,” “My Thin Sides” and “Saints.” All three songs rock with a breezy, Bandwagonesque propulsion that one hopes the rest of the album can deliver just as easily.

However, what follows slips not so much into a consistent groove as a comfortable rut. The songs are far from unappealing. In fact, many of them are catchy and downright enjoyable individually. The problem is that together, they are completely transposable, hence robbing the album of momentum. Perhaps tellingly, the only song that even mildly stands out from the rest of the pack is the song that most closely resembles Kennedy’s former Pinwheel partner: “Unresponsive Ears” has a undeniable jangly charm, laced with what sounds like glockenspiel and blossoming lovely layer after layer of guitar with each passing chorus. It would have sounded right at home on the last Death Cab for Cutie album, but it doesn’t help on a debut album struggling for a unique identity.

Regardless of the album’s innocuous, interchangeable nature, the band displays a seasoned prowess in its execution. Kennedy’s lyrics are appropriate for the sound if a little generic in subject matter, and he often sings like a more nasal Britt Daniel(yet another American indie staple). Diverting but non-descript, these songs are the perfect fodder for teen movie soundtracks, which is fitting given how they’ve been tapped for the upcoming Michael Ceravehicle “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.” That will no doubt give them a modest boost for passing recognition, but they’ll need to push a little harder next time (and there’s enough raw talent on display here to justify a next time) for real longevity.

Army Navy’s debut album is released Oct. 14, 2008 by the Fever Zone.

Tracklisting:
01. Dark As Days
02. Jail Is Fine
03. Saints
04. Silvey Sleds
05. My Thin Sides
06. Unresponsive Ears
07. Slight Of Hand
08. Pocket Boys
09. Ignite
10. Snakes of Hawaii
11. In the Lime
12. Golden Pony

Army Navy: myspace | interview with

Written by: Rob Huff