The Jim Jones Revue/ Burning Your House Down

Jim Jones Revue
Burning Your House Down
(Punk Rock Blues Records)

For most of the bands involved in the pub rock movement of the mid 70's and the punk rock explosion that followed it, their raison d'etre was a reaction to the monoliths of rock that were dominating the charts, the radio, and the (larger scale) live scene. It was an attempt, in pub rock terms, to return to a purer and more primitive essence of rock roots, most notably 50's rock'n'roll, and in punk terms, to establish a 'year zero' from which to develop. Whether we need a similar response today is a debate for other Artrocker pages but I know that we did need such a reaction back in 2001 and thankfully the likes of The Strokes, Hives and White Stripes helped provide this. Often this reactionary music does not have to break new ground but does need to be avant-garde enough to break down certain doors that we failed to notice have been quietly closing. Why 50's rock'n'roll gets erased from rock history and The Beatles used as its beginnings I'm not sure but at least it gives bands like Jim Jones Revue the chance, if not to reinvent, then to breathe new life into a genre that is alternative, by nature of its obscurity.

It is easy to identify those elements often perceived as our parents' music (or grand-parents' even) but let's not forget what it was that inspired the likes of The Beatles and Stones. It is the identifying of these elements, taking them, expanding them, twisting them, pushing them, squeezing them, to new limits and through a contemporary filter that delivers a rock'n'roll beast. 'The Revue' deliver an elemental, relevant, and required dose exactly as The Sonics, The MC5, Creedence, Jon Spencer, Dr Feelgood, The Damned, Cramps, The White Stripes did before them.

The album does lull into the predictability of worn out riffs midway through but the energy contained in the likes of High Horse, Elemental and Killing Spree should take your breath away. 'Righteous Wrong' is a heavy 'gospel-style' groove played in 50's piano rhythm triplets (Think 'Blueberry Hill') of real power, especially live, and which in my opinion should be the album's real title. If this supposedly retro album is a backward looking rock sin, then I'm feeling even more righteous to indulge myself in that 'wrong'.