HOME

REVIEWS

SoundsXP Presents

Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (album)

Hard Skin - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear (album)

Black Angels - Indigo Meadow (album)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (album)

R Ring - Fallout and Fire 7”

Royal Headache - self-titled (album)

The Mariner’s Children - Sycamore EP

Can’s Ege Bamyasi played by Stephen Malkmus and Friends(album)

The Fall - Sir William Wray 7"

Lord Huron - Lonesome Dreams (album)

Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds - Conjure Man 7”

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

Latest Forum Posts

Gig Review

Jim Jones Revue
Brighton, Concorde 2

Article written by Jon V - May 10, 2011

Jim Jones Revue

Expectations are running high as The Jim Jones Revue return to Brighton on the back of last year’s sell out performance, promising a further journey to the black heart of the ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Psychosis’. The crackle of audience anticipation builds perceptibly as a roadie exercises a long (and surely staged) final soundcheck. When eventually the band hits the boards the deceit of all that knob twiddling and levels finessing is laid bare – the amps are clearly turned up to ‘eleven’, with the dials snapped off to guarantee a ballroom blitz of epic proportions.

In the best rock ‘n’ roll tradition, The JJR come across as more gang than band. Guitarist Rupert Orton and bassist Gavin Jay appear to have deconstructed Paul Simenon and shared out the most iconic bits between them. Orton is dressed top to toe in leather with an immaculate slicked-back blonde quiff. (Sadly, and somewhat predictably, the luxuriant barnet doesn’t last the course, descending into Chesney Hawkes-style wings by the end of the evening, but hey, it was great while it lasted.) Jay takes Simenon’s signature low-slung bass and runs with it – starting out playing off his right knee before contorting his way down as low as you can go.

If it’s true that a drummer’s contract requires them to be the ‘maddest’ band member then that makes Nick Jones technically ‘more mad’ than recent recruit, pianist Henri Herbert. Which means Jones must be clinically insane: Herbert delivers a performance that could best be described as joyously deranged – a punch drunk Mark Lamarr who doesn’t so much tinkle his ivories as clamber all over and wrestle them into submission – mesmerising.

But it’s Jim Jones who is the undisputed main attraction. A practised showman, he’s been there and done it all before (with Thee Hypnotics). Along the way he’s perfected every classic move in the R ‘n’ R handbook. There’s the Hendrix crouch with guitar jammed in the crotch; Townsend’s windmill strumming; the Elvis hip swivel; the Jagger swagger… Constantly dashing about the stage, pouting and preening; hamming it up, while always stopping just short of parody and pastiche; sweating profusely, but never looking anything other than drop-dead cool – the man makes Iggy Pop look bone idol. Pure entertainment.

There’s nothing ‘original’ about The JJR, and their core musical constituents are upfront and wholly familiar. But the way the band melds those constituents – Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis – with the furious energy and darker leanings of The Stooges, MC5, The Birthday Party and The Gun Club, delivers an authentic and enthralling reminder of the thrills, spills and gut-tightening excitement of balls out, pedal to the metal rock ‘n’ roll (or punk rock blues, as the record label would have it).

For all the angry-sounding talk about ‘Shoot Now (Ask Questions Later)’, the promise to ‘Burn Your House Down’, and the invitation to take you on a ‘Killin’ Spree’, The JJR major in good-time music that invites you to park your cynicism at the door and abandon yourself to the boogie-woogie. It is only rock ‘n’ roll, but I like it.

Links:
http://www.jimjonesrevue.com/