Andrew Jackson Jihad - People That Can Eat People Are the Luckiest People in the World
We’re certainly not kids that shy away from controversial posts (see the most intense explanation of Vitamin A I’ve ever read), but I struggle to recollect a band that falls more into that “love it or hate it” niche than AJJ. I’ve heard everything from “I can’t stop listening to these catchy fucking songs” to “Those are some of the most hideous vocals I’ve ever heard” and “Not this shit again” about them, and in a way I think all of it applies.
It’s everything you’d expect from acousti-folk played through the fingers and throats of bearded (and fancifully mustached) vegans, minus the self-seriousness. The band largely consists of Sean Bonnette on the guitar and Ben Gallaty playing a feint stand-up bass. They fuck around a lot with other artists that add a lick or two when they record and perform, but it’s really sort of a revolving door. They’re originally from Phoenix or something, but I can’t piss in a circle around here without hitting two people that at least claim to be buddies with them.
Anyway, it’s a bunch of short whines strummed on the guitar like too long a silence means the bus will explode. The songs are funny, pained, and heart-felt. They’re about all of the things you swear you hate in music (politics, social ills, smoking cigarettes) but guiltily relish in.
On a quick tangent here: I thought it fitting to go over some of the clever little bits of verse from the album I found amusing, but I’m too lazy and there’s really too many to name.
Bonnette’s vocals are abrasive and hard to get used to, but they grow on you like a back zit (pardon the image there, but I was trying to be abrasive myself, and the analogy really sort of fits). Listen to the 25 minutes and change of this album and whether you care for it or not, the hooks will follow you around. If you’re not functionally handicapped and can whistle, you’ll soon be annoying your friends like I do.
So it’s really an amalgamation of a bunch of uncomfortable elements that come together in a package that I’m having a hard time making appeal on paper. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, I guess you’ll feel better about yourself… Just listen to the fucking thing. Go see them, too—all of those Asian Man Records guys are pretty cool, and these folk are doin’ it right.
-Drew
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