Andrew Jackson Jihad - Knife Man

Andrew Jackson Jihad hail from the arid land of Arizona. AZ has been representing pretty hard in recent years, starting with Jimmy Eat World and Pollen and continuing with the late Shang-a-Lang and more currently with Andrew Jackson Jihad.

I really like a bunch of Andrew Jackson Jihad songs and feel the same way about a good bid of Knife Man, but the inner asshole in me does tell me that if AJJ were from Brooklyn and/or played Sidewalk with any regularity, I would be ever so quick to swig me some hater-ade and then shit all over them and Knife Man for a myriad of reactionary short-sighted reasons.

To start, AJJ are billed as folk-punk, which is a bit of a hackle raiser, if not a redundancy really. A second is the anti-establishment slash populist thing they've got going on that I'm pretty much on board with, although safe money is on the team drawing a crowd that will flare my inner cranky old guy intolerant tendencies. I don't normally stand on pretense and expect that my favorite bands have a singer who can really sing. Those looking for irish tenors would do well to look otherwise, as AJJ is not blessed with a young Sam Cooke as a frontman, but the songs on Knife Man are pretty uniformly strong, and definitely deeper than the titles like Hate, Rain On Me and The Michael Jordan Of Drunk Driving might belie. The duo seem to be investigating more of a full band thing rather than the duo thing I had believed them to have been purveying previously but it seems pretty unforced here, proving especially effective on tracks like the soaring closer Big Bird. I'd pick it up.

I believe AJJ are overseas currently, but keep track of all their current goings-on here. Get Knife Man here from The House That Park built.

R

Ben Barnett - Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues

Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues is Ben Barnett's first true solo release, although there's a pretty strong argument to be made that all of the material he recorded as Kind Of Like Spitting was solo material. Either way, this is the first material that Barnett has released under his own name. Released may be too strong of  a word. I snagged it off a message board, but there was artwork and stuff that would presuppose this was either a tour-only kind of party or perhaps some sort of romantic overture that has found it's way into the cyberworld.

Whatever it's origins, Songs About Zombies And Trust Issues is pretty decent. Barnett has been saying he's recording for Barsuk, although I'm on pretty good authority that Barsuk doesn't know that. Wherever these songs end up, there are two or three great ones here, and I can see a couple of the others coming together nicely in the studio. 

Ben has been teaching at the School Of Rock in Seattle for a year or so. It seems to have been good for him personally and professionally, plus he's playing his ass off on tracks like Why Can't This Be Canada. School obligations are keeping Barnett on the West Coast, but there were some tour dates with the Andrew Jackson Jihad kids recently, so perhaps there will be an East Coast jaunt in the Summer. In the meantime, check out Ben's Myspace and poke around on his blog posts. Songs About Zombies and Trust Issues is pretty easy to find if you look a bit, along with some pretty great live stuff.

R