Jody and the Jerms – The Harder I Try
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Similar artists: Mazzy Star, The GoGos, Bangles, Best Coast, Blondie, Kirsty MacColl, Beach Bunny, Ride
With so many shiny, exciting, and new-ish variations of guitar music, we sometimes tend to forget one of the original and most important ones. It was pop music, after all, that made the guitar an item that had to be owned by people in households across the world.
Of course, the guitar is perfectly suited for invoking the devil, shredding notes like an outdated piece of paper, or meticulously crafting soundscapes. Certainly, this is the image with which mainstream culture seems to associate the guitar. After all, if this weren’t the case, all of the major pop stars wouldn’t include one guitar player in their live act for the obligatory one or two guitar solos.
But, what was good enough for The Beatles and all of the power-pop bands that followed them ought to be good enough for us. Jody and the Jerms’ The Harder I Try go for tenderness and a kind of sonic sophistication that is hard to ignore regardless of the demographic segment that might hear it. There’s something wholly British about this tune. It seems born out of a tradition that still includes well-sung, nicely-played, melodic songs as a real alternative to the bombastic sounds found on the charts. Some folks are still in love with the beautiful qualities of the six-string, and Jody and the Jerms can be counted among them.
St Cyrus – Mates
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Alt Pop
There’s a time and a place to lie if you’re a rock musician. In fact, apart from a few special occasions, lying is pretty much one of the things that will be required the most to advance your career. I’m not talking about dirty fibbing, either. Anything that makes the audience believe a story that will please them is fair game and can be used among your bags of tricks.
But your debut is one of the few instances when telling the truth is in order. It’s not just a symbolic gesture. Simply put, bands that are just starting out are too green to know how to tell a convincing half-truth. Besides this, there’s the matter of letting a would-be audience know just what they’re about to get.
Telling the truth on your debut is the best policy. And this is precisely what it sounds like St Cyrus do on Mates. This is a tune of friendship, nights spent out, and great hopes for the future. It’s also a tune that makes good use of pretty melodies and jingle-jangle guitars. St Cyrus could have bent the truth and told the world that they’re actually part of a violent motorcycle gang. But it wouldn’t have counted for much. In this way, the world knows what they’re going to get and just what to expect. And, from the sounds of it, it’s an extremely pretty, attractive sound.
