Artist: Jubilee
Somewhere between the fall of Grunge and the rise of Indie Rock, I feel we as a people lost our faith in good, loud, RockNFuckingRoll. Jubilee is a band that, without a doubt, restores that faith. There’s something extremely life affirming about nice, fuzzy chords played at 11 and this band provides plenty of them. Led by Aaron North, Jubilee has already gone through several line-ups and incarnations in its short lifespan, but now the dust seems to have settled and they’ve come to a place of stability. Which is good, but the incarnation that provided us with these two singles is gone, leaving me to wonder if the new incarnation will be as good. But the truth is that, while Aaron North is in the band, you’re in good hands as long as you’re not a guitar. In that case, I’d start worrying about whether or not I’m going to get smashed.
Aaron North used to be in a Punk band called the Icarus Line, which is where he started to develop his mastery of feedback and distortion drenched guitar antics, but he’s probably best known for being the lead guitarist of Nine Inch Nails between 2005 and 2007, during which he destroyed an unfathomable number of guitars, amps and mic stands. Because he could. He was a very appropriate guitarist for Nine Inch Nails too. Clad in black leather, perpetually greasy haired and destructive as fuck, Aaron North was one of the highlights of my very first concert experience: Nine Inch Nails at the Key Arena in 2005, during which I watched him practically dance with his guitar. Granted, it was a very violent dance and it ended with him impaling an amplifier before pushing it off stage, but it was awesome. A musician friend of mine noted: he doesn’t so much “play” as “use” the guitar and he uses it very well.
After leaving Nine Inch Nails, North joined up with Michael Shuman (Queens of The Stone Age & Wires On Fire) and Jeff Lynn (Wires On Fire) to form the absurdly happy sounding (in name) Jubilee. Unlike the skuzzy Punk of The Icarus Line or the Industrial Rock nihilism of Nine Inch Nails, Jubilee is a Rock ‘N’ Roll band with a fairly wide palette of influences that they bring to bear. An early self-promotion for the band described them as sounding “something like The Replacements, The Stone Roses, Neil Young, Blur, Jane's Addiction, Bob Dylan, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Verve, all sliced ‘n diced together quite nicely." That’s a lot to try and incorporate into your sound at once and while there’s truth in what they’re saying, to me, they just sound like a really loud Rock ‘N’ Roll band. Which suits me just fine. Aaron North is, again, at the core of the sound, being the lead vocalist and guitarist. His choice of guitar sounds range from “loud ‘N’ fuzzy” to “extremely loud ‘N’ fuzzy”” and it sounds awesome.
Album: Rebel Hiss Single
Year: 2008
Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Buddyhead
In preparation for the up-coming album, the band has released these two five song singles, each one featuring a song from the album as well as an assortment of B-sides and a few covers. The band at the time had yet to find a stable drummer, so revolving doors of talented skin-hitters play on the singles. The length of the two singles causes them to come off more like EP’s but that’s fine, the more music from this band the better. The first of these two singles is the Rebel Hiss Single, the title track of which is an explosive and surprisingly up beat Rock song that introduces the band very nicely and features the drum talents of Josh Freese. Aaron North’s voice isn’t the most spectacular thing you’ve ever heard, but it falls into that place that Iggy Pop once talked about in reference to Lou Reed and Himself: “He can’t sing! I can’t sing! Let’s Sing!”
As an opening single, “Rebel Hiss” gets us off to a great start with it’s uplifting guitars, but it is immediately shown up by its first b-side “Fuzz Are Down” which starts off quietly enough, just the ticking of drum sticks, before it bursts into Jubilee’s absolute best song thus far. Featuring tumbling drums courtesy of Loren Humphrey and some excellent feedback warping from North’s guitar, “Fuzz Are Down” is actually somewhat ironically named, given the amount of fuzz on the track. The bridge of the song is a great demonstration of this, with North’s guitar having a little fit as it’d brought too close to it’s amplifier. It’s kind of funny to me that the first b-side of the first single is actually better than the single itself, but it doesn’t seem to do any harm so there’s no problem.
The rest of the Rebel Hiss Single consists of one more original Jubilee song and two covers. The original song is the almost acoustic “The Fool On the Pill” a short little head-nodder about drug addiction, featuring North at his calmest. The two covers are both fairly ambitious in the form of Neil Young’s “L.A.” & The Replacement’s “Androgynous.” I’ve never heard the original of “L.A.” but Jubilee’s version is another strong rocker with Aaron North singing odes to Los Angeles and asking “Don’t you wish that you could be here too?” The Replacements cover, though, I have heard before. It pleases me that Jubilee’s version is just as good as the original, though some people will probably balk at Aaron North singing it seeing as how Paul Westerberg has a bit of a less ragged voice. But I think North’s voice fits the song well. Instead of a piano, Jubilee performs the song on two acoustic guitars and a harmonica, which gives it a folkier feel than the original. Overall, the Rebel Hiss Single is a great introduction to Jubilee and will rock your socks off, but if it’s possible to believe, the second single, In With The Out Crowd, rocks even harder.
To Be Continued…
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