It's been some time since I stumbled on an album for which I find and immediate liking, so here's my doing my part to spread the word.
To be honest I haven't a clue what this band's popularity so I could be one voice among a million singing, and if so I apologise.
I've never listened to a Pissed Jeans song in my life. Upon starting up this album my mind was immediately transported to the gnarly, blasting tones of Killdozer. Not a bad start.
The band channels, mainly through the vocalist, those dirty sounds throughout and I saw the specter of all sorts of acts like Motorhead and Jesus Lizard.
Pissed Jeans doesn't quite hit the seedy insanity of KD or JL, but they certainly skirt it in a most pleasant manner. I've never seen them live but apparently their act is on par with those greats of old.
What I love about this album is its undeniable modernity. This album rollicks in the ridiculous neuroticism, egoism, and instant gratification that define our times.
"Waiting on my Horrible Warning" has this pure sludge approach, one which calls to an aging, decaying body wizening after a life of carelessness. The lyrics even ooze out of the singers mouth in these constipated, exhausted extensions of practically every syllable.
The clangy second track, "The Bar is Low," tackles distorted views of greatness. First we have the pedestal upon which great people are placed, their saintly behaviour cynically seen by PJ as a veneer:
"Those we adore just haven't spilled their secrets yet."
This uncritical eye is accompanied by a facile criteria for worship:
"I never steal / I never fight / My anger's locked up tight"
Everything that make one a good citizen are portrayed as these impotent, suburban, conformist traits. They certainly make good plebs, but the men of greatness whose names echo through history, they likely find these in the half-men they trample on their rise to glory. Napoleon was a fighter, not a simp.
The singer relates how he's held high on that pedestal of greats. Plenty of musicians are as we all know. But he is quite certain that this "effusive praise" is only lumped on he and people like him because the standards are so pathetic. The band hasn't got much optimism either:
"The bar is low / And it's getting lower / The speed of evolution / Is getting slower"
This song pairs magnificently with a few others:
"Have You Ever Been Furniture" asks if you've ever degraded or relegated yourself to object-status for any reason. I love the analogy going on in this song:
"Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst" in which our protagonist relates the story of his passionate rise into the titular position - A story of hard, singular-minded work in the bottom rungs of the corporate world:
If it's not apparent, the band takes a pretty dim view of modern life, or maybe more broadly, life at the bottom. They don't seem to see a way that any of the sickening behaviours can change and as mentioned don't put much stock in hopefulness.
You don't ask seriously why the fly buzzes in the window, nor do you try to uplift it. You either open the window so it can alight on someone else's sill or just let it flit about until you find it dead the next morning with all the others.
This cynicism permeates every ounce of this record and I love it.
My one critique of the album also stalks through the whole thing, and that's that I've heard most of these riffs before. Some of them almost sound lifted from older music. Decent music, but still. Similarly, the song-writing never really captures me. The language is very plain and seldom do I get caught up.
Their shining moments are the incisive changes in perspective, such as in the final track "Not Even Married." The singer's friend tells us about his troubled relationship, his turmoil, his pain, his breakup. As the singer interrogates this friend, we learn that he would fit well in the cross-hairs of "The Bar is Low":
I'd also like to say that that has to be one of the most devious album covers ever. It exudes hipster indie-pop like a lanced cyst.
To be honest I haven't a clue what this band's popularity so I could be one voice among a million singing, and if so I apologise.
Band: Pissed Jeans
Album: Why Love Now
Label: Sub Pop
Release: 2017
Track List:
1. Waiting On My Horrible Warning
2. The Bar Is Low
3. Ignorecam
4. Cold Whip Cream
5. Love Without Emotion
6. I'm A Man
7. (Won't Tell You) My Sign
8. It's Your Knees
9. Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst
10. Have You Ever Been Furniture
11. Activia
12. Not Even Married
Listen to the whole damn thing free [For now, probably]
Album: Why Love Now
Label: Sub Pop
Release: 2017
Track List:
1. Waiting On My Horrible Warning
2. The Bar Is Low
3. Ignorecam
4. Cold Whip Cream
5. Love Without Emotion
6. I'm A Man
7. (Won't Tell You) My Sign
8. It's Your Knees
9. Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst
10. Have You Ever Been Furniture
11. Activia
12. Not Even Married
Listen to the whole damn thing free [For now, probably]
I've never listened to a Pissed Jeans song in my life. Upon starting up this album my mind was immediately transported to the gnarly, blasting tones of Killdozer. Not a bad start.
The band channels, mainly through the vocalist, those dirty sounds throughout and I saw the specter of all sorts of acts like Motorhead and Jesus Lizard.
Pissed Jeans doesn't quite hit the seedy insanity of KD or JL, but they certainly skirt it in a most pleasant manner. I've never seen them live but apparently their act is on par with those greats of old.
What I love about this album is its undeniable modernity. This album rollicks in the ridiculous neuroticism, egoism, and instant gratification that define our times.
"Waiting on my Horrible Warning" has this pure sludge approach, one which calls to an aging, decaying body wizening after a life of carelessness. The lyrics even ooze out of the singers mouth in these constipated, exhausted extensions of practically every syllable.
The clangy second track, "The Bar is Low," tackles distorted views of greatness. First we have the pedestal upon which great people are placed, their saintly behaviour cynically seen by PJ as a veneer:
"Those we adore just haven't spilled their secrets yet."
This uncritical eye is accompanied by a facile criteria for worship:
"I never steal / I never fight / My anger's locked up tight"
Everything that make one a good citizen are portrayed as these impotent, suburban, conformist traits. They certainly make good plebs, but the men of greatness whose names echo through history, they likely find these in the half-men they trample on their rise to glory. Napoleon was a fighter, not a simp.
The singer relates how he's held high on that pedestal of greats. Plenty of musicians are as we all know. But he is quite certain that this "effusive praise" is only lumped on he and people like him because the standards are so pathetic. The band hasn't got much optimism either:
"The bar is low / And it's getting lower / The speed of evolution / Is getting slower"
This song pairs magnificently with a few others:
"Have You Ever Been Furniture" asks if you've ever degraded or relegated yourself to object-status for any reason. I love the analogy going on in this song:
"Worldwide Marine Asset Financial Analyst" in which our protagonist relates the story of his passionate rise into the titular position - A story of hard, singular-minded work in the bottom rungs of the corporate world:
If it's not apparent, the band takes a pretty dim view of modern life, or maybe more broadly, life at the bottom. They don't seem to see a way that any of the sickening behaviours can change and as mentioned don't put much stock in hopefulness.
You don't ask seriously why the fly buzzes in the window, nor do you try to uplift it. You either open the window so it can alight on someone else's sill or just let it flit about until you find it dead the next morning with all the others.
This cynicism permeates every ounce of this record and I love it.
My one critique of the album also stalks through the whole thing, and that's that I've heard most of these riffs before. Some of them almost sound lifted from older music. Decent music, but still. Similarly, the song-writing never really captures me. The language is very plain and seldom do I get caught up.
Their shining moments are the incisive changes in perspective, such as in the final track "Not Even Married." The singer's friend tells us about his troubled relationship, his turmoil, his pain, his breakup. As the singer interrogates this friend, we learn that he would fit well in the cross-hairs of "The Bar is Low":
I'd also like to say that that has to be one of the most devious album covers ever. It exudes hipster indie-pop like a lanced cyst.