Jake and the Jellyfish: July tour
Posted by jamie on Jul 1, 2011
Our friends Jake and the Jellyfish are releasing a new EP. It’s actually free on their bandcamp page: get it here. We’ll be reviewing it soon, so keep your peepers peeled.
In the mean time, Jake and his posse are off on tour to promote the release. See the whole tour on facebook here, where individual events are all linked. Then again, they’re listed below. The dates that are linked will go straight to the relevant facebook event too. We’re good like that.
9th July, The Frog & Fiddle, Cheltenham with Detached, Emmett Brown, Mad Apple Circus
10th July, Buffalo Bar, Cardiff, With Dirty Revolution, Broken Nose, Tyrannosaurus Alan and more!
17th July, TBC
19th July, TBC
20th July, Mothers Ruin, Bristol, With Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun and Chewing on Tinfoil
21st July, Green Park Tavern, With Random Hand and Dirty Revolution
22nd July, TBC
23rd July, The Star, Wotton Under Edge
25th July Bath
Jake and the Jellyfish: off on tour
Posted by jamie on Jun 20, 2011
A quick newsflash from Jake and the Jellyfish:
Organising a full band tour for late July, if anybody can help by putting on a show, it would be much appreciated, cheers guys!
Jake & the Jellyfish
Posted by jamie on May 23, 2011
Jake & the Jellyfishself-released, 2010
17th May 2011
Jamie
This has turned out to be something of a discovery: before they contacted us I knew next to nothing about Jake and the Jellyfish, and, sitting down at last to write about them I’m still by no means an expert. A cursory tour of the internet has taught me that Jake is Jake McAllister from Bristol, and the Jellyfish is a label that he loosely applies to the usual suspects with whom he usually works. It’s a little like Gecko in the old days, then, I guess, although there’s not too much common musical ground.
Folk You! is an EP of four short, sweet little songs that get better with every listen. It’s fairly simple stuff, presented in a way that’s sort of singer-songwriter, yet with songs themselves that, predictably, are sort of folkier than that.
In places these songs hint at the sort of spirit of protest that was prevalent when folk music gatecrashed the mainstream in the mid-to-late 1960s and, according to some learned older folk (no pun intended) who have spoken to me about folk music in the past, played a part in inspiring the first generation of punks, and Strummer in particular.
Anyway, if that’s of interest, England’s Dreaming tells the story better than I could.
Topically enough, Bob Dylan is probably the most obvious of the major influences, certainly as far as folk is concerned. Not just for his name-check in the excellent Same Old, Same Old, but also for the nasal twang that’s something of a recurring theme in Jake’s singing voice throughout the EP. Not having heard too many proper Bristolian accent
The afore-mentioned Same Old, Same Old is probably the song with the gentlest melody, and, lyrically, it’s a little more kitchen-sink. Think of this, but about being in a pub, and you’re most of the way there. The rest of the disc focuses more on those frustrations, though, and that sense of inequality. Jake’s vocal is snottier, a little more 70s punk, on those tracks, and they’re choppier, again, punkier, and edgier all around. Backing vocals pick out a few nice harmonies and highlight what he’s saying nicely, most notably on Amnesty. For the most part, those first three tracks are proper punk-folk. It’s all acoustic, but it’s angry, and it’s got balls. Balls and a big, angry, deep-throated growl, but just a growl that can sing.
It’s a throwback, then, in a few places, this one, but all the more enjoyable for that. The songs are neat and tidy and performed very well: the lyrics are excellent, bristling with anger and a deep-seated sense of frustration, and yet engaging, believable, and funny in places. It’s good for singing along to, as well, and it gets better the more you hear it.
I haven’t found out whether there’s a plugged in version of Folk You! but if there is I’d want to get that too.
Track Listing:
We’re Alright
Amnesty
Spare Change
Same Old, Same Old
Find Folk You! (the Acoustic Sessions) here.
