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.
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″.
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.
