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Jesse James - Punk Soul Brothers (slightly better)
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by Colin Weston
  • Type: Album
  • Release date: 21/10/2002
  • Label: Golf
Watching a band progress is an adventure. Whether it be your mates getting a support slot with a semi-name indie band in Camden to a band you saw at a dingy club in Romford getting signed by Sony, it goes to show that sometimes, just sometimes, the bands you have belief in can make it! The band is Jesse James, and this is their tale...

The UK 7 piece have been unleashed in a studio and the outcome is stunning in that they don't sound too contrived and although not quite catching the live intensity and stage presence they have, they still come across as a cut above the other shite in this field.

From the opener of 'Empty Tank' you can hear that the years of insistent gigging have made them tight as a ducks rectal entrance, and the skank-tastic grooves lead by Rich's guitar and Pete's sax show their US luminaries just how it should be done.

Standout track for me is 'My Favourite Shirt', which is just a sing and bounce-around anthem for the privacy of your bedroom. It has a riff that's perfect for air guitar and lyrics so simple they stick in your mind (but the brass line is stolen from 'La Bamba, I swear!) This is the bands anthem and a crowd favourite - and it's not lost in making the transfer to record (hear the full demo version here)

Other songs that stand out are 'TV' (one that I am sure 99.99% of all males can associate with) and 'Shoes' (which I am sure the aforementioned populous probably can't!) all of the same ilk and equally as catchy as every track on the album.

30 minutes long and great fun all the way through. Obvious comparison is the Mighty Mighty Bosstones but, for once, I think the Brits have edged it and got it just right. Think Dexys playing Greenday tracks and that's somewhere along the right lines.

Great live, a stunning debut album, the future's bright, the future's brass!

  • Jesse James 8 / 10
Words: Colin Weston

Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

I can't believe this band is English - their vocals sound so very American.
I find it very difficult thinking of comparisons... You can vaguely compare them with MMBosstones or whatever, but it's kinda more Green Day with brass... only much MUCH better. I must get hold of this album....

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

You make it sound as though you know the band so well but you fuck up terribly by not having researched the band members. DKO plays bass, NOT sax as you wrote!!

How predictable of drownedinshit...

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

I got all excited there, thinking you'd replied to my message. :o(

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

It was a mistake, if I spelt it Idlewild instead of iDLEWILD, does that mean I don't know the band? God dammit, calm down, as soon as I was aware of my mistake, it was rectified... don't know about a band cuz u don't know every member intimetly... name every member of the Polyphonic Spree including their partners and pets seeing as you know so much about music!

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

There everyone goes again, pretending to reply to my messages. You're just building me up only to knock me back down again.

For the record, Colin, I really enjoyed your review and it's made me determined to buy the album. I don't care what the band members are called.

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

ur just making yourself look even more like a fool. i wasn't commenting on banalities such as spelling or the band's fecking pet names. if you've ever seen their gig (which u must have if ur boasting about how you've been following them from the start) u would get the hint that dko doesn't play sax by the fact that he doesn't have a sax.

if band members aren't important, why do you mention them in your review? it's not a necessity and no one's forcing you to.

stop trying to justify with lame excuses.

drownedinshit

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

That's an interesting point. You tend to find that if someone's an obsessive fan of a band, they know all the band members' names, their favourite drink, where they live, and other such unimportant trivia. All that kind of information gives you the feeling of being part of a community, and it can't be claimed that "the music's all that matters", because it's clearly not - the personalities of band members etc. and certain non-musical antics do affect one's opinion of a band. But does it mean that you're not a "proper fan" if you *can't* reel off a list of useless information about band members? There are certain bands that I love to bits but know nothing at all about the band members, and have been given the impression by other fans that this makes me a lesser fan in some way. More importantly, does this make C.W.'s review automatically shit, just because he got his names mixed up? Of course it bloody doesn't. It means that every now and then, drownedinshit makes mistakes. His review was still good and was actually helping to promote the Jesse James album (I, for one, thought "bloody hell, it sounds good, I think I'll go and buy that)... It seems funny to me that you make such a point about how the review didn't *need* to mention the band members, then make a huge fuss about a minor mistake. True, he didn't need to mention them, but at the same time it doesn't *really* matter that he did. It hasn't affected the outcome of the review in any way.

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

nah, not enough cover songs...

Re: Jesse James - Punk Soul Brother

jesse james are 1 of my fave bands and i cant find anything but this on the web bout them! where can i find more stuff!!?