JJ72 ~ Formulae
(written: 14 March 2004)
What would an Irish version of Nirvana sound like if they grew up listening to Joy Division? Not to mention a singer who can actually hit notes, and has not lost all the zaz, zork, kapowza in life yet? That's what I love about certain veins of new music... because you get all these hybrids of influences in your sound. Sometimes it is a very beautiful thing.
The same thing, of course, can be said about who you are. There is no such thing as nature vs. nurture, they work together to form individuality. For instance, I am influenced by a cabal consisting of the likes of people that would beat each other with bike chains in alleyways if given a chance. That's why I'm so charming; I am the personification of a mudhole-stomping.
Joycams: Okay, it's two years ago and the window is open in an effort to dissipate the thick green clouds in my brain... My bedsheets are always fresh with spring air, or on fire with- well, you know... Megan makes Pilsbury croissant rolls with Nutella, and I'm allowed to bring some to Chad for Wrestlemania... The television plays mindlessly on mute until I don't even know 'on' from 'off'... 'formulae of everyday... in the floods I stay and get washed away'
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It was around this time two years ago that I began to truly make myself, of course I started in the absolute wrong direction, but in the end, that is a good, character building mistake. I forget how I discovered JJ72; likely through the music magazines I used to pilfer from work. They were a young band; younger than me n' Coldplay. I talk in the past tense, because the bass player (err, I think her name was Hilary) took off, and I doubt they will continue.
It's a shame, because Mark Greaney spritely as he is, could have been a very powerful figure in brit-rock, to the point of being humiliated by Noel Gallagher, I wager. He had the charisma, the song writing ability in apdes, and a voice that was a fresh, together-at-last hybrid of Billy Corgan and Brett Anderson from Suede.
In my two years of wandering this earth since the time I thought I knew it all, I have met only one person who has even heard of JJ72... as the story went, she refused a marriage proposal made exclusively in my head.
'Oxygen' made a good soundtrack for the more intense moments of a relationship, but after that was over, I kind of cut the cord. 'Formulae' came out later, and is... different... it's lo-fi, has eerie keyboard (maybe guitar, even) noodling, and tortured wails from Greaney. The hook is the kind of thing you always hoped your Pocket Simon would produce, somehow.
'things go wrong when I trust them in my naive way I love them like you told me to love them'
The imagery it evokes out of me is like something out of a Final Fantasy; someone, a lone figure of course, standing beneath his desolate yet familiar horizons as the tidal waves crash down on him. It's an obvious image, but one of the best ways to die, no?
And sometimes you have to hit bottom, to know when you're on top, no?
photo by kam