Friday, January 23, 2009

Johnboy - Claim Dedications


Label: Trance Syndicate
Year: 1994

I believe someone was requesting Johnboy awhile back, and I kinda forgot about that until a day or so ago. Sorry. But, here's that Johnboy you wanted. Their second (and final) album anyway. 

The band were a trio that plays some thick, repetitive, noise rock that skews more towards the Shellac end of the spectrum rather than the Unsane side. Meaning, it's heavy but not in a chugga chugga way, more a molten lava advancing towards your Waikiki winter home way. The songs unfold as simple arrangements but very effective in creating a warm paranoid blanket of sound. This second album has a more polished sheen than the first one (which I'll get around to posting soon), which hearkens back to some of the midwest math rockers of the late 80s, but sans the more complex tempo changes. Johnboy likes to set a tempo, and then ride that all the way through the song, subtly altering the riffs around that beat as they progress. Of course, that's not to say they won't throw a curve ball every so often, but generally speaking once you're locked into a song, you're locked in. Vocally, it's reminiscent of say, Slint, but there aren't that many lyrics here anyway, and those are buried down in the mix more so than most bands, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. In fact, this record was produced by Steve Albini, so rest assured, it sounds perfect, the bass and drum tones are phenomenal, so heavy.

Basically, here's another band from Austin that kills it like a lot of Austin bands were killing it during this time, and if you know Trance Syndicate then you can get an idea of what this sounds like. It's real, real, real good. Alright? Great.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

thx for the kind words and the posting of the album. I played the bass and did half the vocals. nice to see sound still have life. an honor...tony bice

Anonymous said...

If you really are Tony Bice - what to say...

Chances are you won't read this, almost a year on. I was obsessed with Johnboy. Even more so with Desafinado based on one split 7" you did with Windsor For The Derby. (I recently found a bunch of stuff Paul Stautinger posted on his website by the band.) All I can say is thank you.

jbird said...

That is really Tony B. Indeed, he killed it like no other. I'll tell him since he sits in the cube next to mine.

Anonymous said...

Hello out there...Paul Stautinger did amazing new transfers of the master tracks to digital, and then new completely new mixes in his studio.

http://sunsetcommission.bandcamp.com/album/desafinado

cheers out there.

tonybice

Anonymous said...

new completely new

Anonymous said...

And Barry has this from Kansas City

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NlDlHpFYhI

Gray said...

Fuck yes! That video is golden!
The broken guitar string seemed inevitable. And the bass...THAT'S how you play a bass!

Thanks for sharing this, and link to the Desafinado material. Any objection to posting a link to the bandcamp page?

 
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