"A part of me felt Like Elvis, it was not a large part." Jerry Jerry
Jerry ended his recording career and his contract with Aquarius with a 1997 solo album named The Sound and the Jerry. It's truth in packaging, as the record is the sound of pure Jerry, sans his Sons of Rhythm Orchestra.
While the loss is palpable - Jerry shines with co-writer and a full band - there are a slew of witty moments herein and some nice raw guitar, as on "I, Showbiz".
Jerry's never less then entertaining and fans of his early work will find plenty to grin about here. On this album, Jerry (and his percussionist, Tino Izzo) sounds a bit like an urbane Mojo Nixon, melding cutting wit and minimal instrumentation to a blues-rockabilly-country-folk foundation to great effect on tracks like "Balloons" or "Eyes on the Road".
MRML Readers weigh in with a comment: What do you think of Jerry's solo sound?
"Everybody's gotta believe in something, no matter how stupid, destructive or wrong; case in point, Aleister Crowley."
Jerry Jerry
Aquarius Records re-released Jerry2
& SRO's masterwork, Battle Hymn of the Apartment, in 1990 but it went nowhere. So the group hunkered down and chartered a new course for 1992's Don't Mind If I Do.
The Third-Album Mellow-Out is in full-effect here, as Jerry's manifests his Sinatra-aspiratons (see "Grandiose"or "Skin") and his Nashville Sound affections, as heard on the lone single, "Jimmy Reeves".
Amidst the mellower material, there is also a passel of sarcastic up-tempo songs like "The Ballad of Jon Card" (celebrating the former D.O.A. and S.N.F.U. drummer), "How Can People be So Wrong", "Banner Day and the witty country novelty song, "No Ass Tattoos in Heaven".
So, while this is by no means a jazz record, it might be the closest MRML ever gets to posting one.
Now I grant you that I instantly rejected this album back '92 but I have since found it a charming record that bears repeat listenings. Give it a listen and let us know what you think.
MRML Readers weigh in with a comment: What do you think of Jerry's more mature sound?
"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.
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.
Tracklist
A1 Runaway Lane
A2 Bad Luck At Tulane
A3 Pushin' For Jesus
A4 Free Love
A5 She's Been Used
A6 Hurtin' Her Won't Make You A Man
A7 The Mexican In Me
B1 The Hard Way
B2 In The Hands Of The Lord
B3 Wazoo
B4 Mistaken
B5 Downhearted
B6 The Drift
MRML Readers weigh in with a comment: is this Jerry's master work?
"A part of me felt Like Elvis, it was not a large part." Jerry Jerry
Jerry ended his recording career and his contract with Aquarius with a 1997 solo album named The Sound and the Jerry. It's truth in packaging, as the record is the sound of a very solo Jerry sans his Sons of Rhythm Orchestra. The loss is palpable. While there are a slew of witty moments herein and some nice raw guitar, Jerry needs a co-writer and a full band to really shine. That said, Jerry's never less then entertaining and fans of his early work will find plenty to grin about on this album, whether it's the hockey ballad, "Balloons" Jerry's talkin' blues-rap,"I'm Smart"or the children's science lesson that is "Venus".
Jerry Jerry - Venus
P.S. Big thanks are due to CallPastorBob for the cover scans, though he does not wish this to be seen as offering his approval of the album in question. Download The Sound and the Jerry CD
"Everybody's gotta believe in something, no matter how stupid, destructive or wrong; case in point, Aleister Crowley."
Jerry Jerry
Aquarius Records re-released Battle Hymn in 1990 but it went nowhere. So Jerry and co, hunkered down to create 1992's Don't Mind If I Do. The third-album Mellow-Out is in full-effect here, as Jerry's manifests his Sinatra- aspirations (see "Grandiose", "Skin" et al). Thankfully, there is a passel of sarcastic rockers here such as "The Ballad of Jon Card" (celebrating the former D.O.A. and S.N.F.U. drummer), "How Can People be So Wrong" "Banner Day and the fine country novelty song, "No Ass Tattoos in Heaven".
Jerry Jerry - No Ass Tattoos in Heaven
So, while this is not a jazz record after all, it might be the closest MRML ever gets to one.
"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?)
"Jerry Jerry wasn't a serious band at the time it started, either. It was what we called a "fuck band". It took four or five years before I considered myself to be a performer."
Jerry Jerry
So what's a discussion of this notion of gospel-punk (see here) without Jerry Jerry?
At the height of Canada’s eighties stomping garage-rock revival, spearheaded by Og Records (see here), along swaggered this hard-drinking, testifier, Jerry Jerry, (born Jerry Woods) and his seven piece band, the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra.
"Canadian city boy thinks he's a hillbilly preacher sings late '60s Texas acid rock." is how Jerry Jerry's debut album Road Gore: The Band That Drank Too Much (1985) was once described. And that just scratches the surface. The tempos are speedy, the lyrics sarcastic and the band chops up elements of blues, country, gospel, rockabilly surf and punk rock into a thick n' chunky stew.The resulting sound is roots-rockin' cow-punk like their Edmonton, Alberta brethren Jr. Gone Wild (and even, a tad less so perhaps, like real early k.d. lang). However, there's no R.E.M. style jangle in these boys spurs and you can bet your ass that the redneck-ish Jerry would kick the snot out of Micheal Stipe should they ever meet.
In that spirit, here's Jerry's brilliant anti-socialism screed, "Bad Idea". While Road Gore may not be Jerry's strongest album, this song stands as his greatest achievement, no wonder it's track one, side one of the whole It Came From Canada compilation series. The lyrics are both humorous and deadly-serious. Jerry uses a stinging guitar line as his soapbox to condemn the evils of Big Government (Alberta is Canada's Texas) while the whole band offers full choral support. Eventually Jerry's righteous fury builds to an explosive triple-time ending.
This "edition" of the hopelessly out-of-print Road Gore has two bonus tracks, "Radical Look" and "Yap Yap", from the It Came From Canada series.
{MRML readers weigh in with a comment: What do you make of Jerry Jerry's take on Gospel-punk?}
MRML is a blog about the devestating effects of culture: music, politics, comics plus etc. blah blah blah. At times MRML will post fine, unpurchasable three-chord obscurica (punk, pop-punk, new wave, mod, power-pop, gospel, reggae, hardcore, rockabilly, folk, country...whatever.) - - - - - - "The otherwise unavailable files in this blog are posted for a limited time and are intended for educational, non-commercial use. These files were transcribed from what are believed to be out-of-print sources. If you are aware of any of these items being readily available from commercial sources, or if any of these files infringe upon rights that you hold, please notify us so that we can quickly remove the referenced items immediately." - - - SUPPORT THE ARTISTS - BUY MUSIC!
If you have any questions or music to donate you can contact me at musicruinedmylife (at) gmail (dot) com
Re: Re-Ups
MRML does not plan to restore all of the content lost in The Great Mediafire Gutting of 2012. Polite requests may be made in the appropriate section, regular commenters will get priority.
