#Jazz Punk

[haveyoulistenedtothisalbum-poll]

Tracklist:

Why • Mental • Nar Say A Ting • Mad Zone • Strike It • Respected • Pain • Nations • Gorrit • Spiritual Warfare • Fools Gold • Over Now • Anadin

Spotify ♪ Bandcamp ♪ YouTube

[spilladabalia]

James White and the Blacks - Sax Maniac (Live - Downtown 81)

[platypus-beans]

When I was a kid I used to have a crack ship of Connor from Detroit Become Human and the player character from jazz punk and I felt like Tumblr would enjoy that.

[funkpunkandpunkfunk]

Karate - Rattle The Pipes

I really don’t make it a habit to like Karate albums but their In The Fishtank EP is hands down amazing, and this new record has a wee bit of funkiness, so

[bigfatmusicblog]

The State of Punk: Dance-Punk and Cheap City

“We are the epitome of an art-rock band…” you can hear uttered in the background at the beginning of GWAR’s now legendary A.V. Undercover Session where they cover Kansas’ classic song Carry On My Wayward Son. I always loved this descriptor of the comedy-metal band because I feel like it’s the perfect representation of who they are. Donning elaborate costumes, using 70’s and 80’s type practical effects akin to those of greats like Screaming Mad George, it’d be impossible to do half of what they do without being nothing short of great artists. Now, while I love talking about Richmond’s greatest export GWAR - I’m not here to talk about them, motherfucker! I’m here to talk about Massachusetts’ own Cheap City - the epitome of a dance-punk band.

Dance-punk as a subgenre has a long history, as long as punk has existed dancing has been crucial to its continued success. From clubs in places like Chicago, having themed “punk nights” playing records to a crowd of sweaty, dancing punks - to slam dancing being introduced and still being done to this day; it’s impossible not to move around when the bpm gets above 120. The subgenre dance-punk however wasn’t named until after post-punk (which actively happened at the same time as regular punk music so, like, whatever) was created. There are a lot of bands that can be attributed to creating dance-punk however I like to think that it was brought into the limelight by bands like Bow Wow Wow, who used unfamiliar jungle beats all backed by the constant movement at their live shows by lead singer Annabelle Lwin. Mass media was starting to see people dressed like punks, dancing and making music to dance to. And, yes, Bow Wow Wow is a fucking punk band, look at them. They’re a punk band.

After that there was a long time where dance-punk wasn’t really thought of, especially with the popularity of hair metal in the 80s, people were finding different music to dance to. It wasn’t until the late 90s and early 2000s with LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, and Franz Ferdinand, that dance-punk was hoisted back into the zeitgeist and being played on the radio again. This is the era of dance-punk that I grew up with as a kid obsessed with fast guitar based music. Singing Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out on the video game Singstar Rock and playing Helicopter by Bloc Party on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - this genre that was seemingly dead was now being force fed to me at every corner. 

Once the 2010’s came around, dance-punks' popularity came to a screeching halt which a lot of people attribute to the hiatus of LCD Soundsystem. Now that the largest pioneer in the current scene was no more, it seemed like maybe another death of the genre was in store. Luckily talented musicians are born every year, and the later you’re born the more genres you’re able to pull from to inspire your music. This has created a modern era of dance-punks made up of bands like Viagra Boys, Parquet Courts, and the criminally underrated Cheap City. All of which are able to draw from a variety of influences old and young to create the most interesting era of dance-punk to date.

I found out about Cheap City through a facebook post of one of my friends sharing their new album, and the main subject of my affection, BLUE DANCERS. Big shout out to my friend that I won’t name for bringing this to my attention, I’m sorry for everything bad I ever said behind your back (just kidding). The thing that I think differentiates this album and Cheap City as a whole from the current pack of dance-punk bands is the constant emphasis on PARTYING BAYBEEEEEE!!!!! From the very first song, aptly named CHEAP CITY PARTY PROGRAM, you know what this band is about. The loud, yelled vocals spewing words faster than possible to keep up with, culminating in the phrase “We rock the party all night every night.” That combined with the sweet flourishes of saxophone, it’s easy to get hooked and strap in for the rest of this chaotic-good album.

That last aspect, the constant presence of a saxophone, is another thing making this album stand out as a certifiable dance classic. Without the saxophone I don’t think this band is really dance-punk, as you listen to the album you’ll hear more inspiration of bands like Heavy, Heavy, Low, Low in the vocals and other instrumentation. And while that’s impressive and so much fun to listen to, it doesn’t always present itself in the most danceable of manners. It’s impossible, however, to not dance when a saxophone is present. I don’t make the rules or understand the exact psychological reasoning behind what those sweet sultry notes do to our serotonin receptors, but I know it gets me groovin’. Toni Batey is the name of the saxophonist on this album and it’d be completely inappropriate of me to not call them out by name - what they do to push this album past another punk album can not be stated enough.

Some songs on this album that stand out to me are CHEAP CITY PARTY PROGRAM, K.O. OK?, SLEEPLESS IN SAVANNAH, SCORPIO 2007, DISARMING EYES, and lastly a song I want to talk about a little more in depth is the raucous, chaotic, aptly named JUST A LITTLE CRAZY (although just a LITTLE crazy might be an understatement). 

This is a dance-punk anthem starting out with a classic staple of the genre, cowbell, this is then coupled with a face-melting bass riff, before diving into the first bit of craziness on this song. You are all of a sudden introduced to this wall of sound, sounding at times like DeVotchKa and other artists in the unfortunately named g*psy-punk subgenre. After a few bars of that initial bout of manic instrumentation, we cut it back to just drums and bass as the vocals of Brendan Blendell begin their typical toneless (not in a bad way) wail, finding nooks and crannies in the midst of instruments to speak their piece.

 All of this leads to the first “hook” of this song, only really calling it a hook because it says the song's name in it, and is placed in a way that feels like a hook despite it never being repeated. “Cause I went just a little crazy/not too much, just enough/I thought, ‘Moderation’s important’/but feeling insane is just the stuff” while this sentiment I’m sure comes from a personal place to Blendell I feel like it also describes the band at a base level. It’s fun to feel insane when you’re listening to music, that’s part of the reason why I love the aforementioned GWAR and HEAVY HEAVY LOW LOW. But they hit the nail on the head with the idea that moderation is important in how much you want to experiment and go crazy as a band. This concept is what keeps this album so fun and danceable, as opposed to just noise, although if I showed this band to my girlfriend or mom they might have that “it’s just noise” opinion, but they don’t get it, they never will.

After this Blendell leads us into another verse, invoking more images of things that would drive any sane person to the other side of sanity, “give me twelve day weeks/give me feral screams” and sentiments like that are prevalent throughout the song, though good luck trying to catch it with all that’s going on in the background. This then ends with the real star of the song, the second “real hook” or “bridge” or whatever the hell you want to call it, the burning question they’re afraid to ask: “WHEN WHEN WHEN, when does a FIRE FIRE FIRE, in a ROOM ROOM ROOM become a ROOM ON FIRE/when does a FIRE FIRE FIRE, in a ROOM ROOM ROOM, become a ROOM ON FIRE, become a ROOM ON FIRE!” This phrase is immediately repeated in gang vocals, reminiscent of classic DJ call and responses, the same phrase is repeated again this time more so in the background as another wall of sound is introduced to us.

Then is a brief intermission, I guess? The guitar, drums, bass and keys all of a sudden start playing random seemingly unconnected notes for a couple of bars before going back into the initial melody/wall of sound with the first phrase of the song uttered over and over again “IT’S A DUTCH PINK!” before finishing the song with the repeating of the question “Did I waste my whole life hanging my brain from powerlines?” which I don’t know what that means but, sounds cool!

OVERALL:

This album kicks ass, from the insane instrumentation, the moments that make you dance, the vocals being yelled tonelessly (not in a bad way) over these bonkers, for the lack of a better phrase and I’ve used it so much in this but there’s really no better way to describe them, walls of sound. There’s so much you feel like you miss when you first listen to it, which makes it replayable as fuck. The whole history of dance-punk has lead up to this album, which also steals musical motifs from emocore/skramz to fucking DISCO. It’s a crazy piece of art, not too much, just enough.

GRADE: B+

peep this awesome video of them playing a couple of the songs I mentioned including JUST A LITTLE CRAZY. this band RIPS!!!

[stencilites]

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Tracklist:

Inception • Light My Fire • Beluga • Dress Like An Angel • Piper • 40-Forty- • Blink • Amber • Let It Lift • I.A.I.T. (Intercity Dub)

Spotify ♪ YouTube

[cm2tfemotd]

Todays Canon Male to Transfem Headcanon is the cowboy from jazzpunk!

lasso is a cordialgender transfem that uses she/he/lasso!

[jflower278]

NOOO NOT HIS BADGE HIS GUN HIS OTHER GUN HIS OTHER BADGE HIS BAGDE GUN AND HIS GUN BADGE 💔

[spilladabalia]

Creedle - Georgia X

[top-the-cat]

Too Many Zooz!

This is the video that started my love of jazz punk....

Why we go to see bands like Melt Yourself Down and O.

All from this video!!!

[zoezoegr]

Did this for tiktok - doing drawings for this first 10 people to make videos using my new song

I will do this as well on Tumblr for the next 10 people to make a playlist with my new song, post it, and tag me x

This is the song:

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[postpunkindustrial]

R.I.P. James Chance.

A little late

James Chance.

[fuckyeahmotorik]

JAMES CHANCE (1953-2024)