JEFF the Brotherhood has already had a notably lengthy run in the music business. Despite being only in their early 30s, the two who represent JEFF’s core duo — Jake Orrall on vocals and guitar and younger brother Jamin on drums — have spent nearly half their lives in this band, which began in 2001 under the name The Sex. At the time, Jamin was still in Be Your Own Pet, a band of teen phenoms so young they had to be chaperoned on tour by their parents.
“It’s our art project,” says Jamin, as he and Jake talk JEFF with the Scene over a cold one on a recent weekday afternoon.
The route the Orralls have taken from the blown-out skate punk of early records like 2006’s Castle Storm to the experimental leanings of their 11th studio LP Magick Songs (out on Friday) is a circuitous one. In between, there have been krautrock-inspired party jams (2009’s Heavy Days), guitarmony-heavy homages to golden-era Smashing Pumpkins (2015’s Wasted on the Dream) and Weezer (2011’s We Are the Champions) and a Dan Auerbach-produced bid for major-label stardom (2012’s Hypnotic Nights). That’s just a fraction of the band’s catalog, but a youthful sense of fun and discovery has colored it all.
This can-do disposition was at odds with the decidedly un-chill situation the Orralls found themselves in with Warner Bros. Records. In 2011, JEFF got picked up by the corporate-rock behemoth, made Hypnotic Nights — which sold poorly — recorded Wasted on the Dream as a follow-up and then got dropped. Somewhat miraculously, WB gave them Wasted back. “They usually lock it away forever,” says Jamin. Deadpans Jake: “I kinda wish they would’ve.”
In the end, Wasted ended up coming out on Infinity Cat, the Nashville punk label the brothers co-founded with their dad, songwriter and artist Robert Ellis Orrall in 2002, “but it just wasn’t the same,” Jamin says. “It was our experiment to try and break into mainstream rock, and when that didn’t work out, we just went back to doing what we were doing before.”
Perfection has never been of particular concern for the Orralls. It’s a tenet they credit the early-Aughts noise scene they came up in for instilling in them. “I’ve been playing the same kit since I was 16,” Jamin says. Jake, too, identifies as an anti-gearhead: “I don’t know anything about amps, guitars, effects.” For years he played guitars with only three strings on them; his decision to add the rest in 2015, while not quite as dramatic as Dylan going electric, certainly expanded the sound.
Magick Songs cover art
As for JEFF’s sound in 2018, it’s different from what you remember. Their most recent gig in town (one of only two they’ve played this year) was back in June, to a packed house at The End during part of the DIY punk festival Nameless Fest. Their set was a bit of a ruse, emphasizing the heaviest, gnarliest material in the band’s oeuvre. “We played as a power trio with our friend Jack [Lawrence] on bass,” Jake says, “and started with ‘Ghost Ride th’ Whip to Berlin,’ a krautrock workout that’s like 15 minutes long, from 2008.” The set was capped with a guest vocal turn from Bully’s Alicia Bognanno on “Roachin’,” which she sang on the band’s most recent LP, 2016’s Zone.
While Magick Songs does have some of that relentless krautrock pulse, it’s not as aggressive or abrasive. The record consists of of roughly three movements, following a loose sci-fi story arc, and its first few tracks are guitar-driven (think Sonic Youth), the middle section goes to town on auxiliary percussion, and the back end features austere post-punk stylings.
The 12-song set, which is being released as a double LP by Toronto indie Dine Alone, represents a lot of firsts for JEFF. It was tracked at Jake’s home studio in Woodbine over six months — a far cry from the “get in, bash it out, get out” approach they’re used to — and it was written as they went along. They also brought in some outside voices: Bassist Lawrence and guitarist Kunal Prakash both co-wrote and became official members of the band. Guest vocals came courtesy of Daddy Issues singer-guitarist Jenna Moynihan, and there’s a saxophone cameo from Bully bassist Reece Lazarus. All but Lazarus will be in tow on the first leg of JEFF’s tour for the record, making this a five-piece lineup.
Jamin predicts Magick Songs “is going to make [some] people upset … the people who just want the 2009, 2010 stuff.” As the brothers prepare to head into rehearsals, he admits to a twinge of nervousness. “The whole time making it we were just having fun, loving the process,” he says. “But by the time we finished, we were like, ‘We really like this, maybe it will do something.’ Started believing in it.”
“We’re already like a legacy act,” adds Jake wryly. “A lot of people have made up their minds about our band and won’t listen to this record. Pitchfork stopped reviewing us years ago. And that’s all right. We know we’re not going to get rich doing it our way, so we might as well enjoy it.”
