The Joneses

Reviews

The Joneses Keeping Up with the Joneses LP

The JONESES seem to have glammed out, judging by the cover pics, and their music has definitely veered even more into a slicker, more generic rock direction. To wit, compare “Ms. 714″ and “Crocodile Rock” to the versions on their first 12″ — the rawness and immediacy are gone. Nice guitar mix, though.

The Joneses Criminals 12″

This new JONESES EP is a 50/50 proposition. Half of it is really lame rockabilly-type swill that seems to be aimed at the STRAY CATS’ trendy audience; the other half consists of raunchy guitar-oriented blasts in the HEARTBREAKERS mold, and it makes it worth hearing. Still, it should have been a 7″.

The Joneses Jonestown / Criminals in My Car 7″

An unanticipated mixture of styles on this, the JONESES’ first 7″ effort. “Jonestown” is an instrumental with a slight tinge of disco bass and reggae guitar; the flip is a garagy slice of mid-tempo SoCal punk that kind of reminds me of REDD KROSS in the verse and RADIO BIRDMAN in the chorus. Not at all generic.