Sunday, April 19, 2009

Gospel-Punk Ex-plosion: Jerry Jerry's Battle Hymn


"Turn around and be some one better; time permitting and shit."
Jerry Jerry

In 1986 Jerry Jerry and his ever-changing Sons of Rhythm Orchestra emigrated from Edmonton, Alberta to Montreal, Quebec. The band moved from Og Records, to the Doughboys' 1st home, Piepline Records before settling on their final label, Aquarius Records (home of great Can-Crap from April Wine to Corey Hart to Sum 41).

For Battle Hymn of the Apartment (1987) Jerry found his definitive band, with Paul Soulodre (guitar,vocals) George Wall (guitar,vocals) Duke Bronfman (drum, vocals), future Asexual Blake Cheetah (bass), not to mention backing horns, keyboard and a vocal trio. As the credits suggest there are layers and layers of vocals here and all those voices underpin Jerry's role as the leader of a strange midnight choir. For proof of how this ensemble feeds Jerry's "Pusher for Jesus" personae - give this track a listen.

Jerry Jerry - Pushin' for Jesus

On this album Jerry Jerry really claims his voice and that voice is a whiskey-and-cigarette soaked baritone that fires off venomous sermons. The Sons of Rhythm Orchestra are a super-tight unit that propel Jerry, turning his gospel and R n' B pastiches into torn flesh and dripping blood rockers.

Jerry Jerry - Wazoo


{MRML Readers weigh in with a comment: is this Jerry's master work or an act of brazen musical theft?)

Download Battle Hym of the Apartment CD
Posted by jeffen at 7:15 AM
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14 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 7, 2009 at 9:24 PM

    Yay! Battle Hymn of the Apartment!

    I've been looking for this for literally years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. jeffenMay 7, 2009 at 9:36 PM

    Glad to have ended a long search.

    And thanks for leaving a comment, you'd be amazed how many people do a Google search for the exact album I've posted, visit,download the album and not even bother to say a simple,"thanks".

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJuly 16, 2009 at 8:39 AM

    Good gods, man, I love you! Thank you so much for this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. jeffenJuly 16, 2009 at 9:41 AM

    Thanks for the good words, there's a lot of Jerry Jerry fans out there - who knows maybe a re-issue will happen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CROWNDOMINANTMay 28, 2010 at 7:36 PM

    nice

    ReplyDelete
  6. ElectroJune 24, 2010 at 9:35 AM

    For posting this, you are a god! This was such an amazing LP (yes, still sitting in my record rack, but vinyl is so much work...) and such a great stage show (Horseshoe tavern, 1987-ish) beer in one hand, smoke and microphone in the other. Jerry Jerry: I said "No, you must be mistaken!"

    ReplyDelete
  7. jeffenJuly 1, 2010 at 10:44 AM

    "Nope, not, never, nix...no...you must be mistaken."

    Thanks for the memories!

    ReplyDelete
  8. KevinOctober 17, 2011 at 11:42 PM

    Dude, this is awesome. Thanks so much. I've been looking for this for a long time. I love you.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousOctober 17, 2011 at 11:46 PM

    I already have it, but if anyone is interested "The Sound and the Jerry" is for sale on eBay right now.

    ReplyDelete
  10. jeffenOctober 30, 2011 at 6:39 PM

    Kev
    Bless you!

    Anon
    I too have my copy, may be other takers out there...

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousDecember 30, 2011 at 8:00 PM

    Thank you, brings me waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back!

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJune 13, 2013 at 12:14 AM

    What would Jerry do ???

    Man, Montreal in the Eighties ... Talk about music ruining my life/our lives ... RIP Ned Meredith and Mark Nugent

    ReplyDelete
  13. jeffenJuly 26, 2013 at 7:54 PM

    A fertile scene, for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Team AwesomeSeptember 10, 2013 at 12:27 AM

    Hey Jeffen, Dave Geek again. Any chance of this one getting re-upped? Another old record I once had back in the 80s.

    ReplyDelete

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