Miss me? Yeah, me either ... none the less, I'm back with a timely review of a cd recorded by Jason Freed and friends (I would give actual names, but, you see, I have none to give ... so please, for the love of all that is holy, don't shoot me for not mentioning you if you contributed! and if you really must shoot me, please aim for a fleshy area and try to avoid major organs!) ... "why is it timely?", you ask ... well, I'll tell you, at the end of the article ... click, read, now!
Fun with apologies does not stop there, this is me, afterall ... I still don't have song names, or a band name, or an exact date of when this was recorded, or anything resembling the ability to get organized ... for these things, I am truly sorry, I swear one day I'll get it together and be able to provide pertinent details, but in the interim, I'll just make shit up (e.g.: I'm going to use track numbers when referencing songs, and I'll refer to the band as JF&F, its like AT&T, but different).
Have you ever frequented an establishment just to happen across a certain individual that has become the object of your desires? God knows that I have (no, I haven't had a religious awakening, chill) ... that being the case, JF&F has got the secret admirer in you covered with track 2 ... a song that playfully exposes the inner workings of a a day-dream and its interaction with the harshness of reality, while the piano break and free-wheel drumming on the track lends to the jazzy feel of the tune. Ever had your heart broken only to turn to some magical elixir that didn't exactly hold the solutions that you had hoped it would? Who the hell hasn't? Track 5 is for you. Leading in with appropriately slow and somber music that seems to tell you exactly what this song is about, it picks up tempo and intensity as you get to the lyrics, which are certain to evoke some level or regret within anyone who happens across it, but if you listen closely, rather than hearing a story of a man who fucked himself over by neglecting the woman who left him, you'll hear two tales of people dealing with loss and moving on with their lives having learned the lessons of love gone wrong. Arriving just in time, track 6 is pure, unadulterated jam ... aka, no interpretation necessary (yeah, you're heart broken, aren't you?).
The songs on this disc, each and every last one of them (10, in case you were wondering), are full of personal inflections tucked quite nicely into the surroundings or day to day goings on (if you listen closely, you'll hear more than one mention of my absolute favorite place to be in all of Dallas, *cough* J's *cough*), and thats as much an homage to Jason's songwriting ability as it is to the musical influences behind them (Blues Traveller, Counting Crows, Ani DiFranco, Dave Matthews Band, Phish, and so on ... in fact, if you were to make a compilation tape using those artists, and others like them, you could very easily throw any one of the songs on this JF&F cd in there, no lie). Youthful exuberance, the romances of young adulthood, the struggles to find a place of belonging, the joys and pains of love ... all of these things are conveyed here ... and in a time when most music on the radio sounds like the song you heard before it, frighteningly similar in both style and subject, JF&F are a welcome break from the norm.
You should do what you can to check the current incarnation of the band out ... if you can't make it out to the Londoner on tuesdays, either because you're too damned young (that would be anyone under the age of 21, not my rule, it's that of the man ... damn the man, damn him all to hell!), or because you work too damned late (that would be my reason ... again, damn the man!), don't worry because there are more shows in the works for this talented group, and we'll be more than happy to keep you lovely hippos updated. Also, be on the lookout for more show dates around the Dallas area, a new website for JF&F, and hopefully some sort of release or another.
Not to detract from the review or anything, but I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be checking in at least 2 more times this week, once to offer up my take on a tape sent to me by one Virgil Werley out of Seattle (we're going national, hell yeah!), and again to put forth my opinions on some random topic (that means that I'll be putting up a 'social commentary' ... yeah, it's a foreign concept to me at this point as well). My good buddy, and fellow alienated.org'er, Mike will be stopping in at least once to give you guys a review of the latest from Chaos & The Addiction (a kickass live track, if I may say so myself), more info on that band is available at the lo bango records website ... word has it he'll also have a little something to say about the Adventures of Jet/Deathray Davies show at the Curtain Club from 7/2/2000 (that would be yesterday, for those who ignore times and dates), be sure to stop in for that.
That's all for me tonight ... as always, if you have any questions, suggestions, ideas, bitches, or whatever else, email me.
PS - Toddly, we're sorry to have lost you, but we understand ... thanks for the kind words of encouragement and hope, and if at anytime you want to come back and be a contributing factor, please let us know (not that we're going to lose touch or anything ... who the hell else would I hit the Crash Vinyl shows with?)