JANK is a Philadephia band that was first heard/seen by CREEP RECORDS when the band played in CREEP’S retail record store. Now, JANK’s debut album is on its way to becoming CREEP’S highest selling band in the label’s 20+ year history! Just in time for you to get the record before JANK goes on tour this summer, pick up your super limited ‘White’ and ‘ Royal Blue’ AsideBside or splattered ‘Kelly Green’ version from CREEP!
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21915-awkward-pop-songs/
“At their best, the Philly punk band JANK highlights the connection between emo’s fourth wave and the unconventional, genre-spanning pop of the Dismemberment Plan or the Unicorns.” – by Ian Cohen
• 2016
Humor has a tenuous place in music, and actual “jokes” have almost none at all. It’s understandable: Most songwriting places a premium on some sort of basic honesty, and asking someone “are you joking?” is usually a way to determine if they are shitting you. Honest, earnest attempts to be funny, meanwhile, usually end up with the opposite result. So this is what Awkward Pop Songs knowingly puts itself up against—its cover art and album title immediately establish its prank-punk bonafides and “JANK” itself is probably even sillier than the“Futurama” reference frontman Matt Diamond used for his previous band: Panucci’s Pizza. But in the few months since its initial release and its physical reissue, Awkward Pop Songs has lived out a lyric from another trio whose superficial goofiness was a Trojan horse for one of the most inventive, original and flat-out fun records in its realm: “Saw the cover of the tape, figured it’s pretty wack/later on eventually admitted that it’s pretty crack.”
As was the case with Das Racist, local heroes Ween, and even the Golden State Warriors, JANK’s irreverence feels like an unlocked superpower rather than a defense mechanism or compensatory measure—that they’re having this much fun with their technically astonishing chops makes their subversion of realness seem all the more amazing. Even more improbable is the number of styles in which they can operate: though the title Awkward Pop Songs is the least-clever aspect of the LP, it’s an accurate descriptor for an overview of nearly every offshoot of “revival” emo that has coalesced into the new shape of alternative rock.
There’s plenty of the arpeggiated, hammer-and-pull guitar of the dubious, American Football-fathered “twinkle” subgenre, as well as the two-handed tapping that marks its mathier offshoots. JANK can also veer towards hefty, Will Yip-approved emo–gaze and sometimes it all happens within the same song (“Caitlyn”). Diamond’s voice can elicit the instantaneous thrills of raw-throated, Midwestern emo and caffeinated pop-punk without the requisite adenoidal whine. In fact, the songs that most immediately sound like they’re crushing hard on someone turn into surrealistic stoner talk: “Caitlyn” proposes a playdate of “Katamari Damacy” and late-night TV with an imaginary dog. “Wut I Liek Abt U” cops the irrepressible, house party giddiness of Nothing Feels Good and its whimsical, quotable non-sequiturs—“And you could use a new toothbrush!;” “Tell me your favorite kind of dinosaur?”
At its peaks, Awkward Pop Songs draws a fat highlighter on the connection between emo’s fourth wave and the unconventional, genre-spanning pop of the Dismemberment Plan or the Unicorns, bands whose manic, effusive, anti-cool styles soon were subsumed by more earnest, bombastic forms of indie rock. This aspect of JANK can make Awkward Pop Songs sound damn-near necessary in 2016—if peers like Foxing, The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, and the Hotelier are stewards of the communally composed, broadly ambitious sound of mid-decade indie rock, they also have its tendency towards somber intensity.
But JANK kid because they love: the most impressive part ofAwkward Pop Songs is that it’s incredibly funny without sounding like it’s ever making fun of anyone specific. Diamond’s pop culture reference points are still cartoonish and broad—“Ouran Highschool Toast Club” tweaks the title of a popular parody of otaku culture, while “Race Car Bed” nods at an overlooked joke on the otherwise overexposed “Can I Borrow A Feeling?” episode of “The Simpsons.”
But the best laughs are musical in-jokes and some have nothing at all to do with JANK’s style of music. “Race Car Bed” also nominally “features” a non-existent, presumably #sadboy parody Yung Goth Boi and “Loading Screen” might be a subtext-free goof on the retro-futurist fetishizing of James Ferraro or PC Music. “The Hat Store” strives to be this decade’s “Combination Pizza Hut & Taco Bell;” “Spilt to Bill” shouts out the similarly untamed Island of Misfit Toysand announces, “if you don’t like Built to Spill, then I don’t fuck with you or anyone you know” while sounding like a There’s Nothing Wrong With Love cut played at 78 rpm.
The climactic moment of Awkward Pop Songs occurs when the happy hardcore of “J A N K!” crumples into a heap for no discernible reason. And then, the most legit LOL a punk record has given me in ages: a group chant of “THIS IS…A RIPOFF…OF A…TITLE…FIGHTSONG,” knicking the melody of their emo-gaze turning point “Head in the Ceiling Fan.” It doesn’t come off like a joke at the expense of punk rock’s most stoic bands, or really even the countless pop-punk acts who’ve aped it to establish a more “mature” sound. It’s more of a simple “if if feel good, do it” moment. Or, an acknowledgment that even if it’s only four years old, that’s a watershed classic, and thus, public domain. It’s the same kind of open-ended communication and crowd participation that constantly pops up in hip-hop and pop music. Rather than shy away from people claiming their fans are“meme loving Tumblr kids,” JANK say, “we are too.” Is it any wonder that JANK can basically be their own backing band at shows these days?
November 11th, 2014 by MRR
This is a killer package containing a split 7” of totally bonkers heavy psych featuring Japan’s SPEED GURU with Kawabata from ACID MOTHER’S TEMPLE and Tabata from AMT/ZENI GEVA/BOREDOMS. PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE is outta Chicago and has been playing variants of psych and space rock since the late ’90s. The record comes with a comic book that is packaged like the old Power Records comic book LPs (Planet of the Apes,Spiderman vs. The Lizard People, etc.). SPEED GURU lays the smackdown with a ton of distortion on “Speed Guru Theme,” which is just the band saying their name over and over while fast and heavy psych plays over it. It’s essentially the same song that PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE does on their side, only with a different self-shoutout. They later get into a wild hippie/improv trip, which is much better than it sounds, I assure you. PLASTIC CRIMEWAVE’s opener also has simple, heavy fuzzedout bombastic wah-wah and the second song is even more fuzzed out and distorted to hell. Musically this isn’t punk like you know it but it’s certainly DIY, which I can dig, ya dig?
The enclosed book is a rad action comic illustrated by Plastic Crimewave (the person), which he co-writes with Kawabata. Crimewave also has done incredible work with his book-sized zine Galactic Zoo Dossier, which covers loads of psych/proto-punk/space rock knowns and unknowns, and is all handwritten and hand drawn. The cover shows Kawabata as an “electric samurai” wailing his guitar into the outworlds. The line work, especially the used of cross-hatching and shadows is fantastic. The story of various psychedelic/garage rock superheroes starts with Speed Guru not being able to draw comics after a bike accident. He goes to see Ancient Asahito (who’s drawn like Keiji Haino as a monk) at the Acid Mother’s Temple who tells him to “channel the elegant vibrations of the Cosmic Force of Electricity” (and probably the ability to release a million records). This also features some great drawings of Kawabata, who is the Speed Guru and student of Asahito. Eventually, Speed Guru and Plastic Crimewave come to blows as Plastic attempts the “Mystic Garage Punk Chop” (which is likely a nod to ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE’s love for pro wrestling and the fact that they often choke-slam guitars during shows). The story continues on with the battle of sound waves and space jams. I won’t spoil the rest as you’ll have to get this…and soon!
(Prophase Music)
— Justin Davisson
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! To the women of Hostile City – Thank you!
Originating in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, the Jazz June were pure fodder for music theory fans. On third album The Medicine, the band goes beserk with searing melodies; shrill, math-y ad-libs; and surprise detours in time signature. The band dials down the antics to soak in the euphoric daze of “At the Artist’s Leisure – Pt. 2”; then cranks out a jazzy, sensuous cadence in “Motörhead’s Roadie”; and caps off this opus with an experimental 10-minute jam. For the album, the band worked with Don Zientara and J. Robbins at Dischord-frequented Inner Ear, whose work vocalist Andrew Low had admired since his teens. “I have a very vivid memory of driving from Kutztown in an enormous snowstorm on the first day of the session,” said Low. “The roads were pure ice but there was nothing that was going to stop us from getting to D.C. to record that record. We were so excited we would have died trying.”S.E.
The details are still coming together, but here’s what we can tell you right now:
Sept 5, 2016 – Fukuoka, JAPAN – Gate’s 7
Sept 6, 2016 – Osaka, JAPAN – BigCat
Sept 7, 2016 – Nagoya, JAPAN – The Bottom Line
Sept 8, 2016 – Kawasaki, JAPAN – Club Citta
Additionally in September, dates TBA: Nepal, Taiwan, Thailand + more
October 1-10: AUSTRALIA (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, exact dates TBA)
We had a great time touring Asia in 2014, and we’re really excited to be able to come back to places like Japan, Thailand and Taiwan. And we’re also thrilled to be reaching new places for the first time, like Australia, Nepal and…some more to be announced soon. 🙂
Thanks again to our fans around the world for making it possible for us to do this, and we’ll keep you informed when more details are available!
Cheers to all,
The Aristocrats
We’ve just added Fistolo Records to our Catalog. Fistolo is a legendary Philly folk-punk label featuring bands such as Mischief Brew, Kettle Rebellion, Franz Nicolay and more! We’re psyched to have them on board!
Check out their releases here:
https://www.hcdistro.com/store/product-category/labels/_fistolo-records/
New Releases streeting 2/26/16:
#ExternalMenace, #Jared Hart, #SmokeOrFire, #GreatApes, #BrutalYouth, #Entropy, #DaycareSwindlers, #RedCityRadio, #Glitter, #Crybaby, #MischiefBrew, #SlingshotDakota, #Snowing, #Drowning, #Sand, #JukeboxRomantics, #TotalChaos, #AneBrun , #TheScandals
Titles Streeting 2/26/16
External Menace | Off The Rails | CD
Jared Hart | Past Lives and Pass Lines | CD
Smoke or Fire | When the Battery Dies | LP
Great Apes | Grey Tapes | LP
Brutal Youth | Spill Your Guts | LP
Entropy | All Work, No Plagiarism | LP
Daycare Swindlers | Reradiate | LP
Red City Radio | To the Sons & Daughters of Woodie Guthrie | LP
Glitter | Ancient Rome | LP
Crybaby | Drag Me Under | LP
Mischief Brew | Philadelphia ‘n’ Bacchanal | LP
Snowing | The Time I Sat In A Pile of Chocolate; A Retrospective | LP
Drowning | EgoTrip | CD
Sand | Death to Sheeple | CD
The Jukebox Romantics | Transmissions Down | CD
Total Chaos | World Of Insanity | LP
Total Chaos | World Of Insanity | CD
Ane Brun | When I’m Free | CD
The Scandals | The Sound Of Your Stereo | LP
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