PISSED JEANS
Brilliant Talent, Lackluster Sound
Photos & Words By Nick Jones
Casbah, San Diego, 16th August 2009.
Let’s be honest, music these days is extremely hit and miss, more so than ever given the dissemination that a medium like the Internet provides. Often overly processed, as fake as you like, the vast majority is the artistic equivalent of fast food, and bad fast food at that. Given how diluted any particular genre is with shitness, it’s sometimes hard to latch on to a band that offers genuine sincerity in this quagmire.
Fortunately, bands like Pissed Jeans exist and I was lucky enough to catch these guys live at the Casbah whilst touring in support of their latest album, ‘King of Jeans’.
The night’s line-up included a couple of local bands – Bumbklaat and Rats Eyes – neither of which I knew anything about going into the gig, but given that I’m not from around here this isn’t all too surprising. Anyway, I don’t have much to say about the former but the latter were definitely of note, playing and sounding like a slightly more fleshed out and modern version of Black Flag – stunted vocals, tough guitar and at a decent rate of pace. Good shit.
Pissed Jeans eventually took the stage in a fairly unassuming manner. The lead singer proceeded to get half naked and they then set about playing a variety of material both old and new. The sound wasn’t fantastic, but I think that half the problem here is that their latest album is so well produced they have a lot to live up to. It could also be that I’d polluted myself with too much whiskey by this point whilst making a nuisance at the front trying to snap off a few shots in an inebriated manner.
Either way, they managed to impart that very essence of pissed-offedness all wrapped up in a sincere and ironic package that the band are renowned for, and I left the Casbah a happy customer. – Nick
