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When bands start talking about lazy journalism, you
have to be more than a little bit wary. And this is
the way I approached Jet, the latest in a long
(and, perish the thought, increasingly longer) line
of ‘classic’ rock bands the NME publicity machine
has been churning out over the course of 2003. It’s
a little like the chicken and the egg. Which came first?
Lazy journalism or the band that had no ideas of
their own? The sluggish hack or the hackneyed expression?
In the case of Jet, it was The Beatles and The
Rolling Stones that came first, this is the one
thing that is certain. Tracks like ‘Get What You Need’
‘Get Me Outta Here’ and ‘Move On’ from the band’s debut
album, ‘Get Born’ are fair to middlin’ approximations
of any number of tracks off the Stone’s ‘Exile On Main
Street’. The choppy, bluesy, funky riffs, the generous
and spurring ‘Cmons’, the rock solid beats and the southern,
shittery drawl – pure Stones. Whilst on the ‘Look What
You’ve Done’ and ‘Radio Song’, it’s the fab, eyebrow
curling Macca that steps up to the mic and produces
the same lightly bouncing key passages and inoffensive
head wobbling that made ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’
such uncomplicated dirges. These aren’t influences,
one might argue, they’re reproductions. Not that drummer
Chris Cester is going to agree:
"You know my opinion on this already: it's lazy journalism.
I’ll say it again; it’s said by people who haven’t given
us ten minutes of their time to listen our records.
If you listen to the new Jet record, not the EP, there's
not one song on there that is anything like the Rolling
Stones.”
Not even ‘Move On’ with its woozy harmonica, it’s loose
and bluesy vocal, it’s Jagger-Richards harmonies?
“There may be fragments or shades of our songs that
come from that period or songs from that period but
when you listen to it closely, you’ll also notice that
this band is more into bands like The Faces and all
the other blues stuff going around at the time. I still
think it's lazy journalism. As much as we love the Stones.
As much as we love the Beatles."
It’s a fair comment. As much as Stones turn up to dirty
the sheets on ‘Get Born’, there are in fact equal doses
of The Faces, the Kinks, AC/DC, the Stooges, even T
Rex. But Jet do have perhaps better recourse to namedropping
the Stones than most other bands do, they toured with
them. How was that?
"It was pretty much amazing. One minute you’re fucking
around in bars to a handful of drunks, and the next
you’re doing six or seven shows to thousands of people
who really want to be there and you’re bollocksing around
with the Stones. Although contrary to rumours we didn’t
share their stash, and we didn’t demand drugs on our
ryder. We weren’t a part of that whole entourage thin
going on. We weren’t really allowed to be part of that
entourage. But it was a buzz. It was awesome. But it
happens so fast, you don’t really have time to stop
and think about it.”
Did they swap any stories? Chris song-writing partner
and brother, Nick Cester intervenes.
“It wasn’t that Mick or any of the Stones were setting
themselves apart from us or anything. We weren’t set
apart, but we weren’t in a position to be sharing drugs
either. They made an effort to stop by our dressing
room, ask about the shows and have a quick chat. Mick
was okay, but it was a little bit like the ‘Mick Jagger
Show’ whenever he was around. It was like he had all
these stories that he thought people just had to hear.
He’s a nice guy though. It was just like he felt he
had to perform or something. Like he had to deliver
the goods. But not in bad way. He was just making an
effort. They could’ve just stuck to their rooms and
we wouldn’t have seen them the whole time but it wasn't
like that at all.”
But what about the tantrums, the egos, the blatant disregard
for opinions? Bass player Mark Wilson admits
to witnessing none of it:
“They were just real nice old guys who happen to play
in this really old, and really cool old band. Christ,
they had their families along. Things were hardly gonna
get too wild, yeah? They could have been arseholes,
I’m sure they have been in the past but they were just
dudes, y’know. Like lovely little Simpsons characters.
Chris talked to Charlie Watts about drums, but mostly
it was small chat. Small chat and stories. And scary.
Very very scary.”
With a name on loan from Paul McCartney's post-Beatles
peak from 1973, the lank haired Melbourne four piece
stand for everything that is scary, raw, primitive and
‘classic’ in music today. A long spell on the Melbourne
live circuit have forged a band that can effortlessly
splice hard and frenetic rock with the studied grace
of genuine craftsmen. It’s referential yes, but as tracks
like ‘Lazy Gun’ will attest, it’s deeply felt and deeply
rooted in the hearts of these true music fans and able
tunesmiths alike. The cover of the new album may bear
more than a passing similarity to The Beatles ‘Revolver’
cover but it also provides a broad and arching frame
of reference. It helps us connect. ‘Get Born’ is ‘classic’
in the sense that it’s pure and unadulterated rock.
No intended irony, no intended shocks and no intended
harm. It’s as detached from the mincing burlesque of
The Darkness as it is from the rock-daddy posturing
of Kings Of Leon.
A rather breathless review in the NME said of debut
single 'Take It Or Leave It' described it as a hybrid
of the 'Rolling Stones and the balls-out stadium rock
of AC/DC'. Off the back of this, the band signed to
Elektra, the very birthplace of classic American rock.
Get Born, the band’s first release, and produced
by Dave Sardy (Supergrass, Dandy Warhols, Marilyn
Manson, Hundred Reasons) at the legendary Sunset Sound
Studios in LA is a spunky little knee trembler. Not
as abrupt or as punky as The D4 and not as crazymotherfucker
out there as The Datsuns. It’s simply direct. Direct
and occasionally gentle. Chris explains:
"There's 13 tracks on it five are really slow ballad
types so there's eight or so tracks that really kick.
Big black, starey rock songs. It’s a range I think most
people will be surprised at. Each is it’s own song.
You can take each one as it comes. Dave was really into
the sound from word off and he’s an absolute killer
with guitar sounds! Amplifiers got blown just trying
to come up with new sounds. Soundwise, there’s a lot
going on and it was good we got the right producer.
And with everyone doing vocals and everyone coming up
with the writing, it’s useful having someone who can
pull the whole things together.”
Nick Cester is quick to point out the album wasn’t the
kind of quick, spirited 24 studio romp that other bands
claim as a badge of honour:
“There are a lot of bands out there who seem to think
making a good record means making a quick record. I’m
not sure where they’re coming from on that. “Hey we
took just five hours and five bucks to make this record.
Don’t it rock?” NO, it sucks.”
So you’re not measuring yourself against the traditional
yardsticks, you’re not chasing credibility?
“Credibility is one thing. Farting is another. And this
just a band farting off, it’s not about music. We have
never really aspired to be like that. We think it’s
cool to spend a day, two days thinking about a drum
sound, a guitar sound. We’re actually pretty meticulous.
We spent a lot of time just on sounds, not just soundbites.”
And you can’t say fairer than that.
Relevant Sites:
http://www.jettheband.com
Carl Maurice for Crud Magazine 2003©
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