SPOTLIGHT: Jesus Hooligan - Feel

One chilly night I sat in a dark basement in North London and watched what looked to me like a heavy metal asguardian sing sea shanties whilst beating the shit out of a stool with a huge chain. Every word of that last sentence is true and yes it was as cool as you're imagining. What I glimpsed was only the tip of the iceberg though. I had only seen a Jesus Hooligan solo effort not the full band. The band is made up of minimal boring old shit like guitars and whatnot and mostly made up of anything you can savagely hammer with a lead pipe whilst bellowing to the wind for those pussy greek gods to test your viking mettle. I was lucky enough to be sent a copy their sparkly new cd Feel. and here's how that went.


"Feel" is a lot more than a string of songs. It's a social occasion. There's a story for those to tell who may be putting it on for someone brand new to the "hooligan" experience. "What the flaming fuck is this?" one may exclaim. The answer to this is long winded and and more fun to explain the more of you  there are who know the deal. This is something to pull out at parties when you decry pop bullshit and someone says "well what do you think real original music sounds like?" or to blare down a crowded highstreet from your battered pickup to say to the world "fuck you world, I wont do what you tell me". I would say more than anything though it's a memory of an outstanding band you saw that time with all your friends and you want to reminisce about just how cool they were. If you're after easy listening or something to quietly contemplate then this isn't it. If you want to become the centre of all attention then step right up because I'm pretty sure no one in your vicinity has heard anything like this.

"Old Fashioned Love Song" kicks things and let's you know right from the get go that you won't be getting all that "deep and serious" malarky from this set of songs. from opening lyrics like "whips and chains" and a chorus that let's you know that lets the world know Mr Hooligan is horny the tone here is unashamedly crude and a little silly on purpose. The whole thing is set to tribal feeling riffs and god only knows what being pummelled in the background.
"Rain" comes around and by this point you think "of course there's a didjeridoo, why wouldn't there be". The tribal drumming kicks back up over minimalist guitars and by now you feel like you're getting the hang of things. I like to think that this is what music was always supposed to sound like. at some point people became obsessed with scales and what was technically possible and they forgot to strip naked with their neighbours and stomp around a fire at night, settling disputes by who could shout the loudest while still keeping the beat and finding the love of a woman over embers and hypnotising rhythms.
"Sweat" starts with (somehow very appropriately) the death of a guitar and the ominous boom of what I like to think of as your preconceptions being smashed to smithereens. Structure as we imagine it is another of the things that Jesus Hooligan are determined to show is something the rest of us are doing all wrong. All that ABACAB shit is over-rated and what we all need as a tonic is hollering and chants and then stop. Subject matter here I guess could be considered humanist, or pagan or even satanic. telling us that human nature is perfectly ok and that all the primping and pandering of modern culture is the truly weird freaky stuff. Underneath all that is also a quite touching love song. Beautiful stuff.
"Jame's Song" kicks straight of with more shouting at the very tops of lungs and then the drums kick off. no more guitar here. No more words. No more anything that makes up the mainstream construct of music, bands and songs that any of us think need to be there. What your brain may not have clocked onto though is that al these ideas you had about "proper" music have slowly been removed throughout the course of the last three songs so none of this seems out of place and you don't feel like you're thrown in at the deep end. You just find yourself in a place the the groove and the fact that everyone from toddlers upwards can join in.
As if the first couple of songs teased a guitar just to help you get to grips with things "I Met A Woman" assumes you're fully up to speed with this particular brand of hooliganism and feels that full on tribals are all you'll need band wise and that you'll be totally fine with lyrics like "I'd like to skin her and wear her as a coat". eventually this track devolves into primal screaming and then it ends abruptly with no apology for bending your fragile mind into gooey paste.

Then it's over and you're left shivering in the stark silence and you understand that music as you understand it is a lie and that bin over the other side of your office never looked so musical before.