Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Whatevs Garage Rock: JEFF the Brotherhood and a Guide to Music Genres (Not Really)
Posted by Steve Haruch on Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 9:10 AM
The other day, local duo JEFF the Brotherhood asked the world to stop referring to them as "garage rock." This was not long after Nashville's Dead went on the record as saying, "Sorry, but, we just have to say something. JEFF the Brotherhood is not a garage-rock band. Please, if you hear/see someone referring to them as 'garage-rock' give them the old one-two." Fighting words, then. So what's so bad about being called a garage-rock band? (In 2009, it's a lot better than being called emo!)
Let's get on the Internet machine and look at the Wikipedia--it's useful here because the tortured prose of the opening paragraph demonstrates pretty nicely how hard the whole genre thing gets even when people have the best intentions:
Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll that was first popular in the United States and Canada from about 1963 to 1967.[1] During the 1960s, it was not recognized as a separate music genre and had no specific name. In the early 1970s, some rock critics retroactively labelled it as punk rock. However, the music style was later referred to as garage rock, protopunk, or 60s punk to avoid confusion with the music of late-1970s punk rock bands such as the The Ramones, Sex Pistols and The Clash.
Going down the list of bands most of us would agree fall under the garage-rock banner--The Seeds, The Sonics, The Remains--it's easy to see why JTB don't want to be called a garage-rock band: They aren't one. At least, not in the strictest sense of the term, though the strictness of all musical terms is dissolving--after all, there's a reason MySpace gives you three genre terms for your band.
The whole genre thing, on the one hand, is extremely problematic--in film and literature, to call something a "genre" work is to say it's kind of generic, color-by-numbers and predictable. Labels are for supermarkets--we want real art to transcend genre. In a way, genre is beside the point--music either moves you or it doesn't--except that it's useful as a way of understanding music, connecting music to other music and, in our computer-based world, indexing your music library. New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones grapples with genre issues in a recent post : "What makes a genre something and not another thing? Why are we calling it by one name and not another? Is the genre still entirely itself, or has it become something else?" I would argue that "garage rock" became something else during the early-2000s "revival," which netted a bunch of bands that would not be mistaken for The Wipers by anyone with ears. Musically, JEFF the Brotherhood have a lot more in common with punk and hard rock than what I consider garage rock. But (Frere-Jones again):
[O]nce you've defined something like "punk," you may find that the most punk thing in town is not any kind of music but the guy who fixes cars for free and writes "Bubble Chimp" on the sidewalk every four feet. Or maybe it's the iPhone app that changes one digit in all of your Address Book phone numbers.
Maybe we should just follow the advice of a NID commenter and call JEFF the Brotherhood "downstairs-rock." It's probably as descriptive as anything else. At least until the downstairs-rock revival in 2029.
Comments (30)
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So, what is it called then? No, I'm not being a wise ass. I get that they don't want a certain label--I respect it and understand. (not that I've ever referred to them as anything other than "rock")
I am no good at calling anything by its "correct" genre anyway--if it sounds like rock, it's rock. I'm just curious what they "should" be classified as, ya dig?
Unrelated; but sort of related (yes, I just said that--awwww yeeeah): "Bone Jam" is a cool song. Catchy as hell!
Yeppers-genres are defined by folks looking to market music, there's no other reason to do so. Musicians make music, people listen to music end of story.
loney, i think you know they spell it "syb" or some shit.
i agree with the grunge thing. jeff are grunge punk wave. join the movement!
@wh
Sorry boss, just naturally erratic...
...
Why, what kind do you have?
-loon grin-
I totally see Jeff's point (and I think they're one of the best bands in town).
At the same time, labels can be kind of personal. Garage might mean "prefaded jeans" to one person and "psychedelic grunge" to another. It depends on how you were introduced to music and how you make sense of the endless amount of bands and genres out there. I think artists should just make music and then sit back and be entertained by all the different labels. They're like one-word critic responses. It's people's attempts to understand where the artist is coming from. I've personally disliked a lot of bands until I was able to relate to them through some other kind of music or band I appreciated despite whether not my labels for them were accepted by music critic Nazis.
And for anyone who disagrees, suck my bawls in advance.
I like the video for "Noo Sixties" where they are playing in a garage. Playing rock!
I think people need labels to figure out from some review or blog whether they should check out a band, but those labels can be misleading.
JEFF The Bro-hood is one of my favorite bands, but still I don't know how to describe them. I just say they are a rock band that kicks ass and has fun and makes me want to jump the stage. And see? that label is much too long.
@ jas
i know when i mix the blue ones with the little white ones i get comment-diarreah.
Do some google searching and you find a truckload of different decriptions:
Punk News: Noisy, psychedelic, grungy, even ever-so-slightly post-punk, JEFF feels like a stroll through the best record collection ever (Whispers of Wire, Sonic Youth, Devo, Talking Heads, and Chisel come to mind).
Brooklyn Vegan: sometimes veering into metal territory, then back into driving hard rock, with a little surf and psych in there as well.
Enyertainment Weekly: JEFF the Brotherhood brings a garage-rock attack to ’70s stoner metal, sounding something like Queens of the Stone Age if they recorded a tribute album to the Standells or some other Nuggets rock band.
Mojophenia: The new champions of good time, feel good grungy rock
Time Out New York: Jeff the Brotherhood can recall either a metallic stoner-rock outfit or a melodic power-pop band.
The Tennessean: hypnotic pop that's equal parts old-school college rock and classic psychedelic garage.”
Oh-oh. "garage".
Sweet! My first cream snark--thanks wh!
Incidentally, which color causes the self importance to police comment sections? wink Just messing with ya--I'll let you play with your comments now and I won't interfere.
I'm a huge JEFF guy, but break me a fucking give, kids. If you don't want to be called garage rock, stop sounding like that. To be fair, "garage rock" IS a catch-all...but miles easier to say than "garage-prog-riff-punk-dumb-acid-washed jeans". Or some such.
wo.
r u rally a HUGE Jeff guy?
Like your real name is Jeff and you're.....
well anyway, nice asshole comment disguised as "from a fan"!
plus, "break me a fucking give". that's cool.
This is actually a damn good thread when you take on its its what-is-rock theme.
I googled JtB for a few pages and found this:
Though it doesn't help further the debate as to what is "garage rock" by definition in nostalgic terms, it does help with the discussion in general. As in, who cares how we label one band?
I've seen them couple times at The End (nostalgic definition of "rock club") and they are VERY engaging live. The Bone Jam and You Got The Look videos are damn good.
I'm in my late forties, and pretty jaded I guess. But these guys take me back to my best nights at places like The Rat and The Channel in Boston.
So does The End, actually.
Rock music is what I like yeah, and what JtB is.
"Garage rock is a raw form of rock and roll"
yes: 3 strings, 3 drums, 2 cymbals, one voice
"some rock critics retroactively labeled it as punk rock" yes they do
"the guy who fixes cars for free and writes "Bubble Chimp" on the sidewalk every four feet"
yes (even cop cars) and yes they do. Every four feet!
Those kids should be glad they've entered the rarefied world of being beyond reproach. JEFF, be glad that you've had a charmed life
of playing music and being accepted in this hyper-critical world we live in. Besides, I thought you guys didn't care at all what people think of you...and yeah, you're garage rock, unless you can make the case otherwise...better than being called chump rock..
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