Jonivan Jones – Midnight Mosey
There’s more that regular people admire about the true bohemians, other than their colourful scarves, their filterless cigarettes, and their ability to follow their own muse wherever that may take them.
Yeah, those things make for great characters in films and lovely-looking posters. But the fact is that most people know they’d never be able to hack it living that way. The vast majority of us would be on the phone with our parents begging for a ride home the moment the wind turns chilly.
Let’s rejoice at the sound and storytelling provided by Jonivan Jones. Sadly, there aren’t many such characters still populating the rock n’ roll world. Why? Well, the vast majority of those allowed into a record company’s office are just as much businessmen as the people looking to sign them.
Jonivan Jones’ “Midnight Mosey” is a lovely, rootsy track about the passing of time and the main character’s ability to turn their nose up at the kind of responsibilities most of us cannot ignore. It’s a kind of magic trick, both as a sound and in terms of the story being told. Bohemian eccentrics are hard to come by in the music world nowadays. Whenever you’ve the chance of meeting one of them, do me a favour, and give them a hand!
Afton Wolfe – Rules of War
You’ve got to be really quick about putting a song criticising war out into the world! You’ve got to do it while the people organising the wars, and those who they get to fight them, are busy with something else. You’ve got to be sneaky.
On the other hand, do it while a war is prepared, or while the propaganda machine has changed into top gear, and you’re likely to be lynched, thrown in jail or, simply, ridiculed for being yellow to the point where you’ll curse yourself for ever wanting to try and think for yourself.
Afton Wolfe is a hilarious cynic, but also very much right. War is the most profitable business there is. It brings out the worst in people and because of all of that, it’s no wonder that so many are dumb enough to defend it whenever they see it.
In a lowdown, grimy blues tone that brings to mind, of course, Tom Waits, Afton Wolfe’s “Rules of War” dares to mock this all-powerful industry and our instincts that make it hard for us to resist. It’s fantastic gallows humour that Wolfe works with. And while Alt77 will always support anti-war songs, it’s a mighty brave thing for Wolfe to do when nearly everybody’s been so utterly convinced that war is the answer.
