The Jim Jones Revue Interview and UPCOMING Detroit Show
By Al Bruting
The UK’s Five-Headed, “Savage Hearted” Jim Jones Revue, a Show Not to Miss
The goal of “Rockhounding”
is attempting to find GREAT
music. For all of us that love to
go to a rock show and have a great time with a band that really knows how to
hit it, read on.
MCB had the pleasure of sitting down with Jim Jones, who was
able to share his thoughts on the bands direction, the latest album and what he
hopes to bring to the stages he plays.
JJ - “It's going to be loud, make no bones about that. It may seem like it goes by fast even if it lasts a few hours. I would like to encourage people to not get hung up on watching and to have a bit of a boogie!” A new audience tends to take it all in, which is cool, but it’s a lot more fun when you let go and just dance a little bit.”
When your at a good show with good music it just kind of mainlines and goes straight to your center. You just feel it. This is what I hope for when I go to a show and this is what we try to give as a band.
MCB - Tell us about your lineup for the show and the direction you see the music taking on the road recently. (Does it evolve on the road and how has it evolved)
JJ - What we're doing as a band on stage is getting through to an audience, to break through the barrier and make that connection. If you make enough noise, you will bring the demolition that gets through that wall. Once it’s broken down a rich stream of feelings and emotion. We're here to do a job and to entertain people but it's not a one-way thing to make it work right. It's not like TV, it’s a live presence on the playing and listening side and the interaction of this that can really bring it to life.
We're in the room together so our job is to try to reach out and make it happen. It takes people a few songs usually, but they figure out we're uplifting and that we're not destructive nihilist, that they are safe. It's like gospel, we're here to raise the energy in the room.
MCB - Does it evolve on the road and how has it evolved
JJ – Yea, totally. Often you have great discoveries that come from a mistake or from an inspired moment. There is a certain amount of evolution that happens on the road, every town is different and every audience is different. It comes back once again to being open to it so you can actually do something with it.
MCB - In a time period in the US where music has become focused on what we see and not as much on what we hear, you seem to have stayed grounded and keep your sights set on playing a style of music instead of wearing it. Is this something you’re aware of and have you stayed away from it intentionally?
JJ – Yes and I think its important to do that. You can get bogged down into the style of something and precisely the things that don’t really matter. It's not to say there's not so much cool stuff out there, but more to say it's important to have your priorities right. It just boils down to doing your best to avoid the pantomime, putting on another’s clothes and miming their actions. There are bands that may be inspired by the initial blast, but they take it somewhere else, like The Sonics. When you're young it's harder to find your own voice, so these trends can be a good place to start from and use them as a place to find spring board into your own thing that’s meaningful.
MCB - Which musicians did you admire or idolize growing up and what was it about them that captured your interest?
JJ – Definitely the Detroit scene. The Stooges, The MC5, I have a soft spot for Grand Funk Rail Road, the double live album they released has some of the same moments of glory we hear in any of the truly great stuff out there. Mostly the people that seemed to set the bar like Jimmi Hendrix, “they embrace the muscular power of the music without the ridiculous macho posturing where they can straddle both sides of the fence having relevance and having credibility.”
These bands became gateways for me into the bands that influenced them and all the music around those scenes. My true musical deflowering, for lack of a better word, was listening to my fathers 45’s of Little Richard and Elvis around the age of 5 or 6 years old. The rich lineage of music eventually shows up and you can hear it in the songs and follow it like a bread crumb trail straight back to its source.
What this music all has in common again is that connection we initially talked about, where the music breaks through that barrier. Sometimes you can just put on a song and it takes you to another place, it transports you, and that is what’s so great about it.
MCB – The Jim Jones Revue are straight up rockers at heart that bring a lot of roots element into it, but the music is always truly their own. For a one of a kind experience, this group gets the highest recommendation this simple Rockhouder can offer. Enjoy!