Love what you can until it dies
So Valentine’s Day 2010 has come and gone, as unceremoniously (for me) as I would’ve expected. Not that I’m bitter or lonely or anything, but it seemed like an appropriate time to talk about love songs. Specifically, anti-love songs. A month has passed since I began penning this piece, but better late than never right? Just like love. Or something.
Specifically I’d like to focus on a band called Andrew Jackson Jihad. The Arizona group is mainly a two-piece combo integrates the best parts of the Mountain Goats and early Against Me!, a boisterous and energetic sound propelled mainly by acoustic guitars and forceful vocals. Their folk-punk sound often shifts from one extreme to the other from song to song, particular on the nearly-flawless LP Can’t Maintain.
Over the course of more than a dozen smaller releases the band has taken a sharp political agenda that compliments their stoically DIY ethic/aesthetic quite well. Can’t Maintain is frequently a dire listen that expands on some of their earlier pessimistic musings about how awful the human race is; the first two songs alone lament the lack of anyone to trust or love in singer/guitarist Sean-Claude Bonnette’s life and how people generally scare the shit out of him and make him doubt himself.
Some of the songs on the record stand out for very different reasons. Depending on your outlook “We Didn’t Come Here To Rock” is likely either hilarious or blatantly offensive. Folk-punk die-hards might decry the overt use of electric guitars (although this is far from the only song on the album to incorporate them), but the lyrics are a far more direct attack. Bonnette sets his sight on the band’s critics in about as crude a manner as one might imagine possible. While you might find yourself cringing at the language used to put naysayers in their place, I have to admit the bluntness is effective. The two minutes of noise that follows the song, however, seems like a bit of a waste. The same goes for the kazoo track; it wasn’t funny when Gob did it almost 15 years ago and it knocks the momentum of the album right off the tracks.
But what really caught my ear on Can’t Maintain is the downright depressing take on love Bonnette and bandmate Ben Gallaty offer up on several tracks. Songs like “Love In The Time Of Human Papillomavirus,” “Love Will Fuck Us Apart,” and “White Face, Black Eyes” all speak of a certain degree of hopelessness about what is supposed to be life’s great pursuit. Whether it’s about the willingness of some to put up with a certain amount of abuse for the sake of what they think is love or how airing emotions can ruin a perfectly good relationship or how all we can really do in life is cling to whatever makes us feel good until that thing dies and we’re left all alone.
Uplifting!
But as downtrodden as those songs may be there’s also a gorgeous subtlety at play; not quite under-played, Bonnette imbues them with a gentle unsteadiness, a very evocative vocal tic that really gets to the heart of the matter (or the lack thereof, I suppose). Softly strummed acoustic guitars match the plaintive singing stride for stride, with sombre strings thrown in when called for. A formula as old as time, but carried off with great aplomb.
There’s more to be found here, of course, as the band tries on some Darnielle-ian allegory (”Truckers Are The Blood”), gut-bucket bass-driven oldster tunes (”Olde(y) Tyme(y)”), and sassy saxaphone jams. It’s a rather varied listen that should boast at least a track or two that appeals to everyone, regardless of how you feel about politics, punk rock, or the politics of punk rock.
Andrew Jackson Jihad - Love Will Fuck Us Apart [1:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Andrew Jackson Jihad - Love In The Time Of Human Papillomavirus [2:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Andrew Jackson Jihad - We Didn't Come Here To Rock [2:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadDig on AJJ albums wherever they’re available to you:
iTunes
Asian Man Records
Their site might give you some leads
