Gene

Libertine

Contra

When Gene emerged in the mid-‘90s, during the glory days of Blur, Oasis, Suede, and Pulp, front man Martin Rossiter proudly wore his worship of Morrissey on his sleeve, and their debut album, Olympian, was widely praised for its Smiths-like stylings. Unfortunately, when the band’s second studio release, Drawn To The Deep End, still didn’t help break them in the States, the band lost its US record deal. The follow-up album, Revelations, was far better than its predecessor; nonetheless, waning sales at home meant that they also soon found themselves without a UK label. Last year, however, Gene performed sold-out shows in the US (recorded for a live album, Rising For Sunset), and, reinvigorated by an ecstatic fan base, have made an album that successfully combines elements from all of their albums while simultaneously spotlighting their artistic growth. “Walking In The Shadows” easily equals Olympian’s “Haunted By You,” “Is It Over?” is as sweeping a ballad as anything on Drawn To The Deep End, and “You” is as upbeat as anything on Revelations. As a whole, Libertine isn’t as immediate as any of its predecessors (the opener, “Does He Have a Name?,” is definitely a slow burner), but it certainly shows Gene as a band that knows how to continually produce quality music…if not necessarily platinum sales.

Gene Loves Jezebel

Exploding Girls

Bless Momma

http://www.genelovesjezebel.com

The Cure returned in full, depressing form with Bloodflowers. The Cult showed they still had muscle with Beyond Good and Evil. Even the Mission UK proved they could mount a creative comeback with Aura.

Is there any reason why anyone shouldn’t put their money behind Gene Loves Jezebel and their new album, Exploding Girls?

Well, maybe.

I mean, if you could buy stock in recording artists...and, given the success of Hollywood Stock Exchange, there’s probably already a website where you can...surely there wouldn’t be but so many people out there still holding onto their shares of Gene Loves Jezebel.

Hell, most cautious investors would’ve probably felt obliged to trade ‘em away back in ’89, when Michael Aston left the band not too long after they released The House of Dolls (featuring “The Motion of Love”).

The thing is, Gene Loves Jezebel has never been a band for casual investors. You pretty much need to be in for the long haul, or you’re going to have a heart attack watching their ups and downs.

For instance, after Michael departed, Jay Aston kept Gene Loves Jezebel going without his twin brother, released Kiss of Life, and scored the band’s biggest-ever hit, “Jealous.” That’s definitely an up.

But, then, the band left Geffen and, in a move seemingly designed to give their management an aneurysm, passed on a chance to sign to Atlantic Records in favor of a brand new label, Savage. A gamble, to be sure.

And, yet, their Savage debut, Heavenly Bodies, started to shift decent units courtesy of lead single “Josephina,” so it seemed as though it was a gamble that had paid off...until less than a year later, when Savage went belly-up, taking with it any further chance of the album seeing a greater success.

If that wouldn’t have inspired frantic cries of “sell, sell, sell,” what would?

It would be over half a decade before Gene Loves Jezebel would come out of retirement...and, when they did, things got a little sticky.

Both Michael and his twin brother, Jay, had decided that they both had the right to call themselves Gene Loves Jezbel.; in 1999, Jay’s version of the group released VII, while Michael’s incarnation put out Love Lies Bleeding. The general consensus was that VIIwas the best Gene Loves Jezebel album since The House of Dolls, while Love Lies Bleeding was, though musically impressive, more of a Michael Aston solo album than anything else.

How ironic, then, that the Aston brother who lost the right to use the Gene Loves Jezebel name was Jay.

Still, Michael seemed to fall back into the swing of things when, two years later, Gene Loves Jezebel returned with Giving Up The Ghost, which the All Music Guide called “a welcome return by a seasoned band that can more than hold its own alongside the acts of 2001 — and perhaps teach them a thing or two.”

And, now, 2003 brings us Exploding Girls, released on Aston’s own label, Bless Momma Records.

While it might not bear the major-label gloss of albums gone by, anyone who’s lost track of Gene Loves Jezebel since Heavenly Bodies may be surprised to find that, for all practical purposes, it doesn’t sound like the group’s changed one bit...which is a little ironic, given that it was Jay fronting the band on Heavenly Bodies rather than Michael.

Certainly, it’s still appropriate to check the box marked “goth” when describing the group’s sound, and Michael Aston’s voice, like his brother’s, is as distinctive as ever. Aston has said that the albums about women that he’s loved in his time or who’ve at least affected him in some way.

The lead track, “Exploding Girl,” which sets the musical mood for the album as a whole, is apparently about Wafa Idris, Palestine's first female suicide bomber...not that there’s anything wrong with that. Its sort-of title track isn’t the only reason to cock an eyebrow at the lyrical content of Exploding Girls. On “Downhill Both Ways,” Aston moans, “I’m just a man / I’m not an American.” In other words, he’s not afraid to get personal.

Musically, tracks like “Jenin,” “Downhill Both Ways,” and “The Wanting Song” are highlights, but the mood of the album is so consistent that all ten tracks fit together into a nice, dark blend. Still, it’s that first track, “Exploding Girl,” that sells the disc as being the Gene Loves Jezebel you know and love.

Once you’re in, you won’t want to go anywhere.

Is Jay missed? Sure, to an extent, particularly if you’re a fan of, say, Discover. But given that these twins have virtually identical voices, if someone told you this was Jay Aston rather than Michael Aston, you wouldn’t have any trouble buying into it.

Exploding Girls finds Gene Loves Jezebel still quite capable of putting out strong albums.

Take a risk. Or, in the parlance of the stock market: buy, buy, buy!!!

---originally written for PopMatters.

Dave Gleason’s Wasted Days

Well Worn

According to some of the press out on the ‘net about ‘em, Dave Gleason’s Wasted Days are a band trying to recapture the feel of the ‘70s outlaw country scene. You know the scene: Waylon, Willie, maybe a little Merle Haggard. If this self-titled album is any indication, though, their sound comes a lot closer to capturing the feel of the Old ‘97s before they signed to Elektra and had Jack Joseph Puig start mixing their singles for maximum radio friendliness, or maybe a Flying Burrito Brothers for the new millennium. The pop element isn’t nearly as profound with Wasted Days, although a song like “Serge Gaines” shows they’ve got the ability to write that sort of thing. No, this is definitely the sort of album that No Depression goes apeshit over, and rightfully so. But it’s also a record that Skynyrd fans can dig, particularly the closer, “Country Mile.” If you enjoy Americana, this’ll be right up your alley. Besides, how can you not enjoy an album with a song entitled “South Virginia Breakdown”?

Glory Hounds

Sex-A-GoGo

Evil Dot

www.thegloryhounds.com

Virginia Beach, VA-based pop band Rumblefish disintegrated after releasing a self-titled EP and the well-received full-length album, Fun With Plastic, but three-quarters of the band…vocalist/guitarist Brian Grilli, bassist Ross King, and drummer Billy Shearin…immediately moved onto a new project together: the Glory Hounds. Sex-A-GoGo, the Glory Hounds’ debut, will satisfy the Cheap Trick jones in most anyone, particularly those who were fans of Rumblefish’s EP over their full-length. Tracks like “Sorry” and “You Did It” definitely owe something to Trick, as does the album’s title cut, which starts off sounding almost ‘50’s-like, borrowing a general feel from “Earth Angel,” then eases into more familiar power pop territory. Speaking of finding musical inspiration elsewhere, “Baby Please” is a harmony-laden original that pays sonic tribute to both Carl Perkins and the Beatles. Thrown into the mix this time around are the sounds of more recent pop artists like the Marvelous 3 and Lit. There’s a slightly harder edge to this record, as evidenced by “Loser” and “Not Over You.” The bid for commercial success, inevitably, is “Pornstar,” which, despite its undeniably-clever lyrics, has a title that just screams, “Play me, I’m controversial.” (Like an album named Sex-A-GoGo doesn’t?) But, hey, if that’s all it takes to score the band some success, then they’re doing alright. The Glory Hounds have taken the music of Rumblefish to the next step: blending ‘60’s and ‘70’s pop influences with the modern-day power-pop torchbearers. The result shows a band on the rise in the power pop community.

The Good Life

Black Out

Saddle Creek

The Good Life’s press release describes Black Out as “upbeat, keyboard driven pop songs intermixed between sparse, vocal driven stories of drunken disappointment.” I don’t know about all THAT. Certainly, “Beaten Path” and “New Denial” are upbeat enough, and “Don’t Make Love So Hard” and “Off The Beaten Path” are nicely epic, the latter finding vocalist Tim Kasher sounding rather Cure-like. As a whole, however, Black Out ends up too languid for its own good.

(originally appeared in Amplifier Magazine)

The Gurus

Rainbow Quartz

http://www.rainbowquartz.com

The Gurus come to us from Barcelona, Spain, but they do their singing en inglés...which, ultimately, isn’t terribly surprising after giving their self-titled a debut album a listen; it borrows liberally from the Byrds, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Who, and any number of artists from the mid-‘60s. The problem with the album, as with far too many members of today’s power pop scene, is that there’s way too much paying stylistic tribute to a bygone era and not nearly enough creating an individual identity for the band. Copping a riff from “Eight Miles High” (as the Gurus do at the end of “Big Sea”) or putting the sound of an alarm clock at the beginning of a song called “Good Morning” aren’t touches that are unique enough for the listener to say, “Hey! That’s the patented Gurus sound!” Nor, unfortunately, is much of anything else on this album. It’s an enjoyable, solid listen (“Falling I’m Falling” and “Sleeping Girl” are particularly strong tracks) and no doubt a definitive walk through the band’s inspirations, but if the Gurus are going to keep painting the world with pop, their palate needs a spot for their own identity.

(originally appeared in Amplifier Magazine)