Jimmy Jacked – “Live At Geno’s”
Jimmy Jacked is the best, or possibly second best, band we cover from Maine on our site.
Okay, okay, you got me- these guys and USA Waste are the only bands we cover from Maine. But that doesn’t make either one of them any less great.
Oh, and the singer of Jimmy Jacked, Ben, is from New Hampshire. He likes to state that quite often, to make that clear, like he’s just stepped out of some cosmopolitan Euro-tech disco in Belgium to deign, to grace his presence on the simple country folk of Maine.
Well, I did a little research and the population of Maine is equivalent to New Hampshire in the last census or lost senses. And at least in Maine they’re not trying to secede from the Union.
Jimmy Jacked is a great little band and it doesn’t matter where they came from ’cause I get where they’re coming for, you dig? They play seventies black exploitation movie music, but not so much anymore.
On this album they play punk rock. And it’s just that, meaning- this is not post-hardcore like some of you little twerps like to imagine yourselves as. This is pre-hardcore, meaning- this is music that The Ramones, The Dead Boys, Seals & Croft made. Meaning- this is traditional punk with vocals that are flippant and sharp, still as intense but no growly cookie monster in sight; guitars that crush and grind but still add spirals of elaborate sound cascading over the chaos. Plus a rhythm section that punches, pulverizes and pounds but does so without exceeding the speed of light.
Oh, and this album was recorded live so for you high-fidelity fanatics let me just say- this is how punk rock used to sound on cassettes you bought and this is how punk, (live and that’s the best way), should actually sound.
Our first selection starts with a low hum of feedback guitar, a warning of eminent destruction. Then a few bass notes amble in and soon the drums bring us in to a Dead Kennedy’s like rant. The vocalist projects some venom up from his throat while the guitarist fingers answers with lasers to scorch our satanic souls. The guitar then erupts like a volcano, the beat stays steady like a blade of a knife to the guts and colliding sound-scapes never detract from the garage rock intensity. This song makes me think of The Cramps playing a Dead Kennedy song and is called “Hate.” I think I love it.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/02 – Hate.mp3|titles=Hate]
This song is called “March” but I believe “Fuck” is yelled before the descending garage/punk lick comes in. With the drums and bass percolating and the rhythm guitar pro-pulsing along, soon the lead guitar is alerted and starts skating rings around Saturn and the musical madness escalates. This is hyperactive punk rock with noise guitar lacerating the very heart of the song as well as the center of our minds. This is the sound of driving with no hands on the wheel, the sound of out of control, of hazardous conditions and I like it.
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/03 – March.mp3|titles=March]
“F.I.A.” (Fuck It All) starts with some discussion about fuck-ups until the energy fueled vocals come racing in again. Then the guitars are all strutting and stuttering while the vocals grab your interest by sonically grabbing you by the balls. This song dances like a drunken tightrope walker as the guitars offer shifting sound-scrapes but never deviate from the onward compelling thrust. “I don’t give a fuck, anyway.” A slashing guitar solo on fire crashes with the singer ranting, now on fire as well. This is a great tune that finally relaxes at the last second and then all we’re left with is an “All right.”
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/07 – F I A.mp3|titles=F I A]
“Kill “Em All” is a hardcore explosion that after a short bass intro has all participants gathered at the first moment. Again the emphatic vocals are answered by a clanging, passionate guitar lick and further on, amidst the boiling cauldron of spite, a guitar solo commences like Jimi Hendrix, from the heavens, was invited to sit in. After the screaming, careening solo the verse comes back in, the rhythm section pounds passionately along, the guitar keeps screaming and the song ends with the singer proclaiming, “He fucked up on bass.”
[audio:https://www.thrashnbang.com/wp-content/music/06 – Kill Em All.mp3|titles=Kill Em All]
In ghetto terms “jimmy” is the name for a prophylactic. In ghetto terms “jacked” means to get ripped off, to be stolen from.
In punk rock terms Jimmy Jacked now means to me, a great band. One that doesn’t lose sight of the original punk impulse and though they have firm roots in classic punk do not settle with a nostalgic style, but takes that style and runs with it.
Think of Dead Boys with a conscious singer, think of Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers without their lead guitar player a walking corpse. Think of any punk with the true spirit of ’76, the American Music Revolution, pulsing through their bloodstream and letting it fly.
I like the way you’re thinking.
(Slimedog)
