Rumour has it that after less than ten gigs, Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong were already being scouted by no less than eight record labels who wanted to sign them. The band, originally named Joe Lean & The Tantrums, formed in 2006 after lead singer Joe Lean, a.k.a. Joe Van Moyland, decided to part with The Pipettes, who he had previously drummed for under the alias of Robin of Moxley. 2007 was a very busy year for the London-based quintet, with their first gig being in January, and their debut single "Lucio Starts Fires" was released on 8th October, which catapulted them into the spotlight, with the videos being aired repeatedly on MTV2 and NME TV and the single receiving a lot of positive press. Touring-wise, the band supported other groups and artists such as Babyshambles, Cansei De Ser Sexy (CSS), Dizzee Rascal and Kaiser Chiefs, and completed their headline tour in December. In 2008, the band were part of the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour along with Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The Cribs and The Ting Tings. March saw the newest single "Lonely Buoy" released, followed by "Where Do You Go?" in June before appearing at Glastonbury, although the name was misprinted as Joe Ling And The Jing Jang Jong, which may have come about due to the fact that the band name has three near-identical words at the end which could have confused the Glastonbury organisers! Their debut album was meant to be released in August, but in one of the most odd album cancellations in recent years, the band stopped the commerical production of the album on 22nd July, just under two weeks before it was meant to be publically available. The reason behind this was that because the album had been recorded at the end of 2007, and "didn't represent them at this current moment in time". This led to the only physical copy of the album being the promotional copies sent out to reviewers, which fetched in excess of £20 on eBay, some auctions even reaching £65! The album itself is a very unique one, clearly inspired by the 50s and 60s eras of Rock'n'Roll, although some tracks, such as "Dear Rose" and "I Ain't Sure", do sound the same, but the music itself is clearly unique as no-one else has recently done an album in this style. Hopefully the re-released debut, out sometime this year, will be able to improve on an already impressive original release.Tracklist:
- Lucio Starts Fires
- In Competition
- Where Do You Go?
- Baby
- Brooklyn
- Dear Rose
- I Ain't Sure
- Why Did You Break My Heart
- Far Too Early To Tell
- Lonely Buoy
- Teenagers
- Light And The Dark
- Adelaide
DOWNLOAD:
And, as a bonus, here's a track that seems to have never advanced past its demo stage. Entitled "Sleazy Hughes", this was probably recorded during the "Lucio Starts Fires" sessions, or possibly even at an earlier session. The track is one of those lost "super-gems", whereby it should have been on the album, or a stand-alone single at least, but was probably not re-recorded as the band already had about twenty songs for the album's recording sessions, including b-sides, and so the quintet probably didn't want to overwork themselves. I think it should have been put on the b-side of "Lucio Starts Fires" at least, and then it probably would have gone on the album. But it can't be changed now. I'm hoping it gets re-made and released from this new album though, even if it is a b-side!
No comments:
Post a Comment