J Church – One Mississippi
2000 – Honest Don’s Records
This is my second run at this. I don’t know why J Church has given to me such a serious writer’s block (insomuch as I can call myself a writer). The first time I tried to write about One Mississippi, I ended up in tears on the couch. I’m going to blame that on the PMS and the shitty weather, since listening to it now, at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and the sun coming through the window, this is a happy album, for the most part. Oh, except the Lance Hahn died of complications from kidney dialysis part. That’s still a downer.
I had heard of J Church before, of course. I had probably even heard a couple songs on other people’s stereos, but I had never sat down and listened to them. Now that I have, I regret that I hadn’t really heard them until now, after the possibility for ever seeing them live or buying a new album has passed.
This album sounds kind of like Propagandhi. The first chords on the first song sound so much like Prop that I had a mid-nineties flashback (in the best possible way) and then immediately went to the J Church website to see if they had ever worked or played together, which, it turns out, they have. Now, I don’t know a lot about punk music. Okay, let me qualify that. I know something about punk music. More than the average person, I suppose. To someone who only listens to top 40 radio, listening to me talk about punk music probably sounds pretty impressive, like a person with a jr. high school education listening to someone with a biology undergrad degree talk about echinoderms. However, to people who are really into music, I don’t know much about punk music. I’m just starting to put it together and develop my own (douchey as it sounds) philosophy on punk music, so here’s what I’ve got so far and how it relates to One Mississippi:
I don’t know what the core of punk music is, but, like a big fat classist or racist or something, I think there is some kind of purer punk centre or ideal and that bands can be placed along some kind of continuum between that centre and something else that isn’t punk at all, like, well, Nickleback or Laurence Welk. Anyway, on that continuum, I feel like J Church is closer to the centre than many other bands. It’s not that they’re intensely political or blindingly good musicians or dress really cool (though they may be all of those things), but J Church just seems like a real band. I know, that’s lame to say. Classifying things as “real” or “not real/fake/poseurs” is stupid, but I’ve been racking my brain for a couple days now, and that’s the closest thing I can find to what I think about J Church. They sound like a bunch of cool guys who sing about interesting things that happen to them in their real lives. I don’t know – I’m distracted and have had too much coffee, so I apologize, but I really liked this album. It was unpretentious (both in its content and its production) and honest, and like I said, it tugged at my heartstrings when I thought about Lance Hahn.
I guess it made me want to get out of the house, go drink a little too much, hang out with my friends, play music, and quit being so much in my head all the time. See you late
Also Listened:
Dan Sartain – Join Dan Sartain
The Daktaris – Soul Explosion
Lucero – Nobody’s Darlings
Steeldrivers – S/T
Old 97s – Blame it on Gravity
The Swiftys – Ridin’ High
NQ Arbuckle – xox
Ladytron – Velocifero
James Hunter – The Hard Way
Sloan – Parallel Play
Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
The Roots – Rising Down
I really enjoyed your writing on this. J Church is one of my favorite bands and i sadly started listening to them late. Im new to the music blog world and would be very greatful if you could take a look at my site.
Best regards,
chris
i have read 2 reviews on your site and both of them mention bands ripping off propagandhi. i normally wouldn’t care, except i can’t for the life of me make the correlation
Two things: 1) these aren’t reviews. What I’m writing here is just whatever pops into my head when I listen to a particular album; 2) Just because I say something reminds me of Propagandhi doesn’t mean I’m accusing anyone of ripping them off. Since the beginning of music composers have been quoting and using pieces of other people’s music. It’s more a tip of the hat than a rip off in most cases. In the case of this J Church album, there was one very quick (like, 2-second or less) riff that, to me, sounded like Prop. Makes sense too when you realize that J Church and Propagandhi toured together and were friends.
Either way, sorry to confuse you, and sorry for taking an unwarranted couple weeks off. Thanks for reading.
-j
Nice blog going here, and glad yer checking out those records by Shotwell & J-Church etc.
Actually, I would like to comment on the odd inclination I noticed as well when you assumed twice that those bands are possibly copying riffs from Propaghandhi. It’s understood that most “punk” or rock bands as a whole, rarely stray far from the classic three chord monte’ as it were, and the chord progressions tend to reoccur. The stylistic approach, down to the amps and mics set up are fairly similar, and these bands even used the same mastering engineers at times.
However, I know guys in all those bands and am sure they would find it laughable if you said they were copying each other.
Propaghandi, while influential I suppose lyrically, hardly strike me as originators, and could barely carry a casual conversation, much less a tune. I’ve had Propaghandhi crashing at my house barely listening in while Lagwagon guys would go on for hours extolling the wonders of the complex bass playing of Steve Harris in Iron Maiden. Those Canadians were hardly accomplished composers, and were just as likely to be influenced by other punk bands and styles as J-Church.
Lance from J-Church was a big fan of all genres of pop music, including one of his fave bands Queen, as well as groups like AC/DC, Electric Light Orchestra, New Order, and even Poi Dog Pondering. I doubt he would consciously seek out a Propaghandhi riff, when he’d rather grab for those influences. I think you are on the right track, but you might look deeper, get more radical in your approach.
Radical from the latin ‘Radix’ meaning Root.
If you are trying to assemble a theory of punk, and where all these sounds & attitudes derived from you likely should go back further in time.
J-Church, Shotwell and Propaghandhi came along in the early to mid 90’s, at least a decade after the real groundbreaking hardcore and political punk was being recorded ( especially in the UK by groups like The Mob, Crass, Subhumans,Chumbawamba etc).
In the US Propaghandhi were preceded by a variety of groups that challenged the status quo and many are in the excellent film “American Hardcore” you might well like to check out.
There are also many years & beers that separate all those bands from garage rock & early proto punk of The Stooges, MC5, Velvet Underground, Monks, Standells, New York Dolls and Patti Smith.
it’s a big musical stew out there, but start working backwards and you will find the evolutionary creatures emerging out of the swamp over time.
It’ll be a great musical journey of discovery, and one you will hopefully never stop traveling.
Eventually you’ll hit the jazz, and swing and blues, through tin pan alley, and then crossing continents into Africa etc.
Dig In!!