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| Remember grunge? Well, it's back with Neon Jesus' Martian Blues and
Jovian Sonatas. In the tradition of STP or Alice in Chains, NJ takes
hard, fuzzy rock music and infuses it with enough angst and attitude to
single-handedly resurrect Lollapalooza this year. OK, so maybe they're
from New England instead of Seattle, but north is north whether it's east
or west, right?! Tunes I like on the disc: "Driver" rocks hard and gets
points for the crazy little jazz interlude in the middle. "Neon Jesus" is
a catchy little shuffle smacking of serious disenchantment. For
"Cockroach" the guys go for a speed metal kind of thing, and again the rage is
palpable. "Wake Me When It's Over" is a cross between Stevie Wonder and...well...Neon Jesus. It's a slow, funky number that turns kind of
Lenny-Kravitzy partway through -- a nice surprise on the disc. "Pissing in
the Face of Reason" offers a nod in the White Zombie direction; it's grinding
metal with more than just a taste of the diabolic. In short, Martian
Blues and Jovian Sonatas may not be real grunge, but it deserves at
least as much cred as those ground-breaking acts of half a decade ago. |
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