by David Wilikofsky
Noise rock has been having a moment; look no further than the breakthrough success of a band like Chat Pile for proof. Pissed Jeans are pulling from the same pool of influences (think the rosters of SST, Touch & Go and Amphetamine Reptile) but they are certainly not a band that are chasing a trend. The group formed in Allentown, Pennsylvania two decades ago and haven’t deviated much from their vision of the genre: loud, sludgy, aggressive and occasionally laugh out loud funny. Their latest, Half Divorced, is no exception. It’s a barn burner of an album, a howl of rage at the state of the world that never takes itself too seriously.
I’ll admit that I haven’t followed Pissed Jeans too closely over the years (although I’m a regular reader of lead singer Matt Corvette’s great music blog Yellow Green Red), but I was immediately drawn to the lead single for this album, “Moving On”. Though aggressive, it’s an undeniable earworm; you might even call it pop punk. In many ways, it’s an outlier on this album. There’s nothing else quite as anthemic or catchy here, but its still an embarrassment of riches. You’ve got the Black Flag-esque singalong of “Everywhere Is Bad” (which culminates with the band telling us why nonexistence, Mars, heaven and hell all suck), the sludgy riffs of “Helicopter Parent” and “(Stolen) Catalytic Converter”, the straight ahead attack of “Anti-Sapio”. At this point in their career this could easily be a by the numbers affair, but it isn’t; though it features all the hallmarks of the band’s sound (Korvette’s distinctive howl, crushing guitar riffs and the deadly precision of the rhythm section), it still crackles with passion and energy, each joke or grievance delivered with sincerity and weight.
One of the most fascinating things about Pissed Jeans is how the project has aged gracefully with its members. Though their core sound hasn’t changed drastically, the subjects they tackle have. Their first album featured songs with titles like “Ashamed Of My Cum” and “Ugly Twin (I’ve Got)”, the sort of puerile humor that makes sense for a group of guys in their early twenties. Half Divorced is ruthlessly funny, but the jokes and targets are more age appropriate for a group of forty-something married (and in some cases, divorced) men: helicopter parents, debt, the general shittiness of the world. The members see Pissed Jeans as an art project, and you can see it in the way their music evolves with them; hell, at eighty I bet they could write some scorchers about arthritis and the crappy food at the retirement home. I’ll listen.