Welcome to the meandering musical insights of Aaron Joy (me!), formerly known as the Roman Midnight Music Blog. Here you'll find nearly 750 reviews of CDs & DVDs of rock & metal in all its variations, mainstream & indie, good & bad, U.S. & foreign. A new review every Monday.

Please share these reviews & feel free to copy them to your website or link to them. No downloads to be found here.

Are you a musician with an album?? Please e-mail me (aronmatyas @ hotmail.com) your album, EPK, etc. Or, hit me up for a physical address (I'm in Portland, Maine). If you don't have an EPK, I have a soft spot for personal handwritten letters from the local musician who just plays around town. I'm a bassist & do this blog partly to share music I love & partly to help the little guy, like myself, just looking for some attention. Promo companies are always welcomed to reach out.

You can support this blog by buying my books via amazon, or your local bookseller, or seeing my website www.aaronjoyauthor.weebly.com.

April 15, 2010

Jet Jagger ~ Sitting In The Sun (EP) (live) (album review) ... Sunglasses & batteries not included!


Style: hard rock, reggae, classic rock
Label: self-released
Year: 2009
Home: Las Vegas

Members: Michael ~ vocals/guitar
Greg Pinachos ~ drums/b. vocals
Aldo Santana ~ bass/b. vocals

 

  

  The song titles clue the listener in to the music inspiring this trio: "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," "Greater Depression," "Wax Lips," "Jet Jagger Rasta," "Hollow," "Boxy Lady," "Woot," "My Sweet Thing" & Nirvana's "Love Buzz". Besides the obvious grunge & Hendrix (i.e. "Boxy Lady" is an instrumental variation of "Foxy Lady"), one might also pull up the Stones, Bob Marley & maybe even George Harrison & the Allman Brothers Band. Even if the references aren't all musically accurate, I'm sure Jet Jagger wouldn't mind the comparison. Albeit, their live version of "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" does indeed sound like the Yardbirds playing in an obscure Liverpool club circa 1960 with a Muddy Waters-esque rhythm on a chunky sounding guitar. While "Greater Depression" with a more psychedelic feel is the Yardbirds after Jeff Beck showed up ... whiny guitar solo included. While "Hollow" could be early Who or or any number of early blues-inspired British bands. Albeit, it might be the poor quality of the live recording that helps them sound like they are recording in 1960, but the rhythms they play are unmistakably rooted across the ocean & across time. I can only hope that the next time they go into the studio they don't overdub & tweak their songs to the max, like every other band, to eventually sound like every other band, losing the individualism that comes through on their live recordings. Their eclectic mix of throw-back styles, which even includes a bit of hot Rasta reggae, is far from what anyone else is doing & it's enjoyable to listen to. Being in a band, today, is a lot more than just playing music. It's getting noticed, getting gigs, recording, touring, composing, finding an individual sound, etc. Music? That's almost trivial. But, think back to the origins of Velvet Underground, when Pickwick Records songwriter Lou Reed met up with avant-garde musician John Cale to find out how far they could take sound. They just wanted a place to play & maybe make some cash to pay the rent. Everything else was secondary. Childhood friends Lennon & McCartney didn't come together with a game plan of their music career. While Charlie Watts joined the Stones cause there were more opportunities to play than in a jazz band. & what happens when we listen back to the early recordings of these bands? A feeling of excitement because we're seeing young musicians doing what they want to do before the smog of business got into the room. I get the same feeling from Jet Jagger as I do when I listen to the earliest Stones recordings - youthful energy, excitement, passion & creativity. Jet Jagger is a young band in Vegas that just wants to play music & according to their myspace photo album will play anywhere space is available - even in the road!. The Beatles performed on a rooftop. There's something endearing peeking in on this almost naïve creative energy.

3 comments:

  1. pffft.... Those guys suck.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sadly, I can't respond directly to this anonymous posting and can only say that I try to be supportive of small bands. It's too easy to knock people down in the 'anonymous' world of the internet. Albeit, I can figure out how my "opinion" can be lies. How can an opinion be a lie? Oh well. But, hey, at least you're reading these lies that I struggle to write each week!

    ReplyDelete