Friday, August 14, 2009

Album Review: "Can't Maintain" by Andrew Jackson Jihad

This band was brought to my attention by friend Sepanta and boy was it a good find. Andrew Jackson Jihad is a folk-punk band out of Arizona. Sean Bonnette plays guitar and provides lead vocals while Ben Gallaty plays upright bass. They formed in 2004 and started releasing recordings in 2005. 
Recently, I listened to their latest full-length album, Can't Maintain, which will be released in September. My first impression of Andrew Jackson Jihad was that they sounded like a mix between The Mountain Goats and Dead Kennedys. I sensed a bit of Neutral Milk Hotel folk-punk influence, which was reinforced when I saw one of their singles that featured a cover of "Two Headed Boy" and had artwork that took off the cover for In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

The album starts off with "Heartilation", one of the most straight-up punk tracks on the album. The vocals on this track, like many of the others, sound urgent and nervous, almost yelpy. "Love in the Time of Human Papillomavirus" is probably the most beautiful song on the album, with a somber string arrangement and female back-up vocals. The silliest song on the album goes to "Kazoo Sonata in C Major" which is exactly what is sounds like. Overall this is a good album. The lyrics are honest and sharp. Bonnette rips out his heart and slams it down over
every song. The music is bouncy and fun. Listen to it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

To be fair...their first full length on a 'real' label was [people who can eat people are the luckiest people in the world] also on Asian Man Records.

Glad you also enjoyed the new rec. If you haven't heard People, check it out. Its just as good, albeit, not as well produced.

Justin Ferraro said...

whoops! my mistake. thanks for the correction!