TOUBOURRA – FOOLGIRL
Genre: Pop Punk, Lo-fi Rock, Indietronica
We talk a lot of crap about Frankz Zappa’s brand of overbaked dad-rock. Still, among the great things that the future classical music composer did do is start a record label for weirdos, freaks, and people who wouldn’t be able to get a record deal even if they kidnapped the president’s daughter.
Now, this was a wild and spectacular thing. People didn’t just make records in their bedrooms. Unless they were willing to record everything on a reel-to-reel, or on a cassette, and then distribute them individually to anyone interested, musical artists were at the mercy of the recording labels.
Things have sure changed, and they’ll likely shift even more. All you need now is a laptop and a few pieces of cheap music gear. It helps artists create strange, uncompromising records like TOUBOURRA’s FOOLGIRL. The greek singer sounds like Yoko Ono recording a preppy electro number. It sounds made without adult supervision. Hooray for technology.
Jordan Jones – Acceptance
Genre: Post-Punk, Garage Rock
To a lot of untrained ears, heavy metal and punk-rock music might sound the same. It sounds like a bit of a racket if you’re not into the whole idea, doesn’t it? But, let me assure you that there are differences. Both genres, as a rule of thumb, make great use of the electric guitar. However, while the real metalheads work to consistently improve their skills, the real punk-rockers work not to get any better.
Listen, I don’t mean this as an insult. In fact, I sit in perpetual fear that I will one day wake up to find that I can miraculously play all of Randy Rhoads’ greatest guitar solos. That would be a drag. It would throw my whole game out of whack. It would be as if Steve Jones had decided to include double-hand tapping on God Save the Queen.
Jordan Jones sound like they need not worry about double-handed tapping creeping into their work. Acceptance is minimalist punk-rock assembled like colourful children’s building blocks. Taken apart they’re just slabs of plastic. Put together, however, they’re a towering castle that raises to the sky. This is what Jordan Jones sounds like.