Jean Eric

Jean-Eric: 06.06.2012

June 6 is a day etched in history for events occurring over 60 years ago, when, in 1944, Allied Forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, precipitating the end of World War II and giving way to an unparalleled era of peace and prosperity across Europe.  With all due respect to the Greatest Generation though, June 6 should now be remembered as the day local Scene Kings Jean-Eric played their last New Orleans show before invading the Island of Manhattan.

The Belle Époque came to a close with a raucous farewell show at Siberia that began with Jean-Eric’s aspiring heir apparent, Rhodes!!, offering a strictly clothing optional set that was equal parts music performance and performance art.  He made a respectable claim to the throne vacated by the departing headliners, energetically delivering his signature shouted vocals set to electronic beats against a backdrop of spastic dance moves, multiple forays into the crowd, green goo, and plenty of glitter. While the English language fails to provide words which satisfactorily describe Jean-Eric, the same can almost certainly be said of Rhodes.

But this was Jean-Eric’s night.  The public adores those who deliver peak performances; this is why soccer fans watch the Champions League, why the Intelligentsia reads Lost Illusions, why Renaissance Men and Enlightenment thinkers flocked to Cicero, and why those at Siberia attended Jean-Eric’s goodbye.  Emcees Frank Jones and Karen Wallace, joined this evening by a full backing band, launched headlong into a marathon set that featured old hits and new arrivals.  Memorable pieces included the mandatory dance-along “Elsa,” as well as the debut of their newest work, “Miami,” a demonstrative apex of Jean-Eric’s pure, distilled, lightning-in-a-bottle fun.  Crowd favorites “Real World,” “Better Than Good,” “Ooh Ah Ah,” and “Pickle” were delivered with typical flair, and resident dancer, Sheila Santamaria, brought the goods as well. Jones, Wallace, and Santamaria all spent their fair share of time inside, around and atop the crowd, being repeatedly passed along outstretched hands like Jesus fallen from the cross – though with infinitely more style.  The show – and an Era – came to a close with the catchiest, dancing-est and most exemplary of Jean-Eric songs, “Bull in a China Shop”, extended so that the moment might never end.

End it must, however.  Their local Fin de Siècle having arrived, Jean-Eric will move to New York City, where they will doubtless be embraced and deified.  We look forward to reminding the pretending megalopolis that New Orleans had Jean-Eric first.  As they strutted in and out of and through and around the crowd that night, Jean-Eric showed everyone how they did New Orleans and gave a glimpse of how they will fuck the wider world.

note: file photo (Jean-Eric at Siberia on April 16, 2012)

News Briefs: Travel Edition

As the brutal New Orleans heat brings tourist season to a close, we’ve got news on some folks coming to town, others leaving, and one guy who just straight-up jet-sets.

Beloved basement party rockers Jean-Eric announced recently that they will be leaving the Big Easy to take their talents to the Big Apple, causing a wave of dysphoria among New Orleans resident who happen to be fans of unhindered fun and subversiveness. The group gives a fond farewell to local followers with a free performance at Siberia tonight, featuring two sets from Jean-Eric, a performance from front man Frank Jones’ side project Noir Fonce, and an appearance from good friend Rhodes!! To round out the evening, Joey Buttons will be bringing his locally famous Disko Obscura DJ set.

Tuscon-based roots duo Calexico have announced a released date for Algiers, their first full-length album in over four years.  What will be their ANTI- Records debut was recorded at the The Living Room studios on the West Bank, a converted church where band members Joey Burns and John Convertino both worked and lived while the album was being made.  Algiers will be released on September 11, 2012.

Already a prolific member of hip hop’s elite, New Orleans marijuana-aficionado Curren$y has finally released what he calls his first “official studio album”.  In reality, The Stoned Immaculate – which boasts production from the Neptunes, Bink!, Big K.R.I.T, and DJ Toomp plus cameos form Lil Wayne, Daz Dillinger, Estelle, Marsha Ambrosius, Wale, and Wiz Khalifa – is just the latest in a flood of high-quality mixtapes, EPs and guest spots from the nationally rising star.  The new album arrives with a video for the lead single, “Capitol” featuring College Park MC 2 Chainz.

Live Picks: 01.12.2011 – 01.18.2011

01.12: Jean-Eric + Sweettooth + Weekends + High In One Eye – Siberia

01.13: King Rey + Chilldren + Pals + Citoyens – Siberia

01.14: Caddywhompus + B L A C K I E + /fucks/ + Proud Father + Habitat + Choi Wolf – The Red House and The White House

Though the New Orleans underground will probably forever claim two-piece experimental noise pop duo Caddywhompus as her own, it is undeniable that Chris Rehm and Sean Hart are just as, if not more, beloved in their hometown of Houston, where the ambition to create music not just culturally unique but technically inimitable is arguably stronger than in any community in the western hemisphere. That the city managed to birth the minds behind Caddywhompus – who, as well-documented on this site, are crafting music unlike anyone else in their remote ilk – is impressive enough; but as Rehm and Hart invite a sampling of their HOU contemporaries to New Orleans’ Bywater area on Saturday night, it should be readily apparent that they aren’t the only artists who’ve successfully trumped the creative mainstream.

Michael LaCour – better known as hardcore textural atomizer B L A C K I E… All Caps, With Spaces – has practically made a game of operating beyond categorization. Though he’s technically known as a “rapper and record producer”, B L A C K I E’s  musical vista (a striking meld of thrash, noise and hip hop) is about as rhythmically and instrumentally concrete as an early Kluster record. Instead of wrapping himself in the languorous comforts of a particular genre, he’s spent the better part of the last half decade perfecting a kaleidoscopic array of strange samples, disorientingly-cut beats, and streaking fuzz while drawing listeners in with an abrasive – though alluring – vocal delivery and a sincere, unapologetic adherence to sociopolitical dissidence.

Along for the ride into New Orleans will be the dense, abominably heavy noise project /fucks/, while local support will be provided by ambient cassette group Proud Father, High In One Eye/Country Club collaboration Habitat, and vulgar hardcore trio Choi Wolf.

MP3: B L A C K I E: “Of My Enemy (Prayer for Destruction)”

MP3: /fucks/: “Amazing Grace”

MP3: Habitat: “Miracle of Deafness” (Live from Bedroom Sessions)

01.15: Native America + The Suzies + Donovan Wolfington – 1920 Broadway

01.16: Cass McCombs + Frank Fairfield – One Eyed Jacks

01.17: STRFKR + Painted Palms + Alexico – One Eyed Jacks

01.18: The Breton Sound + Sheridan Road – Tipitina’s

Check out our New Orleans Music Calendar for a full slate of constantly updated live picks

photo credit: Michael Craft Photography

Live Picks: New Year’s Eve Edition, 12.31.2011

In another special edition of our weekly Live Picks, we offer a few suggestions on where to ring in New Year’s Eve in New Orleans. All shows begin on the evening of December 31, 2011 and should last well(?) into 2012.

Black Lips + Jean-Eric + KG Accidental – One Eyed Jacks

While One Eyed Jacks is far and away the most dependably awesome place to catch a show week in and week out, you can depend on the venerable French Quarter rock club extra hard when New Orleans needs her the most.  Just as they do during Jazz Fest, Voodoo Fest and especially Mardi Gras, the good folks at Aquarium Drunkard cut no corners when booking the show for New Year’s Eve.

In what will easily be the most inimitable and raucous of all events to ring in the new year (and ironically the most New Orleanian), Aquarium Drunkard has brokered a brilliant redux appearance of Atlanta’s own Black Lips, essentially an encore of their Lundi Gras show this past March – a concert that marked the flashpoint in a year that was ultimately slammed with unforgettable performances. Among a sea of Mardi Gras costumes that saw Jacks as sardine-packed as it’s ever been, these feral, psychedelic garage punks became hosts to an overwhelming mosh pit of split heads, bruised knuckles, sweaty armpits and runny makeup.

For their New Years Eve sequel, the Lips have invited their equally frenetic, crowd-rousing friends in Jean-Eric to carry the local support torch while the terrifyingly genteel ladies of WTUL DJ tandem KG Accidental will be providing the house music for the entire outrageous evening.

MP3: Black Lips: “Raw Meat”

Dr. John and the Lower 911 + Beausoleil – House Of Blues

Khris Royal and Dark Matter + Earphunk – Maple Leaf

Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers + Big Sam’s Funky Nation – The Joy Theater

Galactic + Anders Osborne + Eric Lindell – Tipitina’s

Rebirth Brass Band + Papa Grows Funk – Howlin’ Wolf

Check out our New Orleans Music Calendar for a full slate of constantly updated live picks

The Jonesbirds: 06.13.2011

When tracing, observing, or even idly enjoying the early progressions of a young band, it’s simply amazing to see how things change only a few months after a first or second performance. Aside from any inevitable off-the-wall stylistic shifts that are the result of early growing pains, those willing to keep with it are likely to feel a tightening of the proverbial screws, both creatively and in the practical application of a live performance. Such was most clearly the case with local two-piece rock n’ roll outfit the Jonesbirds at the Saint on June 13.

Though the Jonesbirds’ barroom hard rock demeanor starkly contrasted the other performances of the night, the irreverent humor intrinsic to lead singer Chris Stoudt’s lyricism meshed nicely with the raucous vibe of the entire show, providing an agreeably noisy foil to the inimitably upbeat bounce of Lucky Lou da Greatest, the never-ending energy of Jean-Eric, and the creepy, borderline witch-house leanings of Jean-Eric side project Noir Fonce.

In usual fashion, the band ran through a blistering set of Stoudt’s fuzzy, low-end riffs and Colby Kiefer’s crash-heavy drums. However, where the Jonesbirds’ sound (an attitude-rife vibe that deceivingly brings to mind the White Stripes, thought it probably has more in common with Pussy Galore) was once inseparable from the duo’s raw musicianship, it was now a dense, perfectly-timed interplay between strings of intricate lead guitar fragments, meticulously accompanying percussion, and a capella spoken denouements. While the Jonesbirds certainly came out of the gate swinging when they hit the scene, it is amazing the difference a couple of months can make.

photo courtesy of Joshua Brasted

Live Picks: 05.26.2011 – 06.01.2011

05.26: NON! + Jean-Eric + Mikronaut + DJ Joey Buttons – Siberia

05.27: Damian Yancy – Republic

05.28: Consortium of Genius + Letters to Voltron – Hi-Ho Lounge

A  month and a half ago, New Orleans was one set of unforeseen circumstances away from hosting avant-garde art-rock institution The Residents – a band as enigmatic as they are prolific.  Over the course of their 40 plus year career, The Residents have released over 60 albums and produced dozens of award winning music videos and short films, all the while operating under almost complete anonymity.  So an unsurprisingly vague announcement that they were cancelling their April 5, 2011 gig at The Republic was met with a healthy dose of disappointment.

Just as upsetting, perhaps, was the fact that the news also meant we would not have the privilege of seeing the scheduled opener, New Orleans’ own Consortium of Genius.   With lectures – their preferred term for live performances – that involve costumes, props, or any number of their signature “inventions” (a constantly expanding stable of contraptions that includes drum-bots, radio terrorscopes and hypnotronic helmets), CoG have pioneered their own brand of multimedia concert event that has been part of the local indie rock panorama for nearly two decades.

Although in this case, “indie” means more than just “independent”. It can also be short hand for CoG’s industrial style of songcraft that deconstructs nearly every known genre of popular music of the last fifty years and boils it down to its visceral, elemental core.  The incorporation of vintage sci-fi ingenuity and the uninhibited kitch of post-Golden Age B-movies adds a healthy dose of levity to their “lab rock”, making each one of their lectures a unique, polysensory experience.  Houston prog-rockers Letters To Voltron open.

MP3: Consortium of Genius: “M.I.L.K.”

05.29: Billy Iuso and Restless Natives – Tipitina’s

05.31: Hurray For The Riff Raff – Saturn Bar

06.01: Raekwon – Maison

Check out our New Orleans Music Calendar for a full slate of constantly updated live picks

Jean-Eric: 04.08.2011

I’ve tried on many occasions to describe a Jean-Eric performance with the words afforded me by the English language.  Each time I’ve failed, not just to scratch the surface of what makes Jean-Eric so intriguing, but to even come up with anything better than “You’ve just got to see it for yourself”  in a frustrated attempt to faithfully convey the unbridled energy that springs out of the group’s three fronting members during live shows.

When taken in the context of a city that is the birthplace of the similarly nonsensical but equally incendiary sub-genre of hip hop known as bounce rap, Jean Eric’s aesthetic starts to make a whole lot of sense.  But the appeal is far from provincial, as I don’t trust anyone anywhere could resist joining in on the indulgent, writhing dance party that erupts every time Jean-Eric breaks into their catalog of self-described “lounge-crunk” bangers.

There in an abundance of style in a Jean-Eric live performance  (and where the priorities of the group lay when it comes to form v. function is hard to discern) but there is plenty of substance as well, more than enough to make the common practice of dismissing Jean-Eric as a novelty act – an awesome novelty act, but a novelty act nonetheless – substantially inaccurate.

Co-lead singer Frank Jones has an sneakily impressive voice that effortlessly holds up the the strains of belting out refrains while crowd surfing or rolling around the stage.  His female counterpart, Karen Wallace, is also blessed with some killer pipes, not to mention a magnetic strut and alluring, breathy vocal gait that comes out when she raps her parts on songs like “Better Than Good” through a devilish pout.

On Friday night, the group’s live drummer, Brad Davis, was joined by Kyle Riche and Trey Cloutier from up-and-coming psychedelic rock outfit King Rey to form a bonafied backing band for the evening.  The live bass and keys softened the sometimes rough edges of the GarageBand styled backing tracks booming through the speakers and added a hefty weight and counterbalance to the gloriously deranged stage show.

Lyrics like “I don’t like my shit fucked up, girl” don’t exactly beg for scholarly re-examination, but something about Jean-Eric’s music and the spectacle of their performance conveys the unshakable feeling that they’ve got a finger on some weird permutation of the pulse of the New Orleans zeitgeist.

If I’ve once again failed to do a Jean-Eric live show justice, I apologize. I guess you just have to see it for yourself.