This evening Broadcast’s basement sees two bands linked by a nonchalant style and presence; one- Art Brut- more polished than another- The Just Joans.
The Just Joans are a five-piece as attractive as they are tuneful.
Their lead singer takes a bit too much time talking, and his voice falls a bit flat at times.
The band as a whole have a laid back feel and their musicianship is great, the lyrics seem stilted though, as if they’re aiming for a voice that’s as acerbically cool as it is whimsical.
Unfortunately the two don’t mix… ever, people who are affected enough to be acerbic can’t also be mellow and they’re likely too invested to pull off whimsy.
The result is songs about nights at the Union, which never get off the ground. Are you wishing you’d gone elsewhere? Are you irritated by the vacuity of it all? Is it that you hoped for more than this from university? It isn’t possible to tell, in the end.
Other songs, ‘Durex Puppy’ specifically, are about familiar themes and are ably sung, but just lack something we can get elsewhere, it’s a group’s experience, not a person’s.
All this leaves the songs falling back on a group sense of reminiscence, which seems sad in a room full of people most of whom have just had just those experiences.
How quickly a group’s search for solace turns to a person’s discomfort.
Art Brut, on the other hand, gives us a masterclass in stagemanship.
Sondheim? More like Pond-slime! Eddie Argos and co. are in rare form, as you might expect from a group who are celebrating (with two new additions) their 10th anniversary this year-in part by releasing a compilation of songs from their first decade.
At the mention of a greatest hits album you could be forgiven for expecting the punks to forego their cult following in preference for some shoe-gazing self-aggrandisement. You would be completely off base though.
Songs from each of their albums are punctuated by Argos’ understated hilarity- “You may know this from FIFA Soccer ’07” and “I live in Berlin-16 Euros in Berlin is 16 bottles of red wine, not good wine, breakfast wine, but it goes well with cornflakes and depression”.
The band enjoy being on stage but Argos goes for a wander, venturing through half the crowd in an impromptu third verse to ‘Modern Art’ detailing the band’s eventual visit to a third art gallery and subsequent expulsion for trying to lick several Van Goghs.
It’s a fantastic night and the group couldn’t be warmer, more engaged and less pretentious.
Their songs are about personal experience but their reminiscence is breezy and not lacking in an awareness that their feelings are like everyone else’s.
Also, it’s just plain fun rocking out, a welcome change for the overwhelmingly indie crowd who all know all the words and who, even in the back, are going nuts for a band they clearly love.
Here’s to another 10 years!
Words: Simon Jones
Photos: Arpad Horvath
Don’t really know what you’re on about with your take on The Just Joans: I think their work just doesn’t appeal to you, (which is fair enough) and you ‘re attempting to critically catergorise it to rationalise this, but the end result is overthought and misses the point. The “acerbic can’t mix with mellow” idea makes no sense to me and I would say is contradicted by the work of thousands of singer/songwriters all over the world.: in fact most of the world’s best songwriters have been lyrically acerbic while being musically mellow at some point in their careers. Personally I think the Just Joans lyrics and music are a perfect fit. The song “Friday Afternoons At The Union” as alluded to above is a spot on evocation of the soulless grimness of the GU Union circa 1999: but if you don’t get it, asking a series of factual questions of it won’t help you appreciate or understand the point of the song any better.
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