Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Cassette Review: Jim Shorts "Eternal" (Trash Dog Records)


The initial thoughts that I get from Jim Shorts when first pressing play are that of a distorted weirdo rock band that I most likely first began listening to back in the 1990's.   Whether the vocals have this higher pitched sound to them or not, I hear elements of Dynamite Hack, Wheatus and Weezer all coming out within the first song (and then a little less in the following songs).    It gets pretty heavy with the fuzz and even the tone as it can take on this TMBG/Death Cab sort of feel of intensity.

Though the songs could also be described as dreamy in their nature, there is this catchy, pop rock quality to them as well.    It might not be radio catchy because it might be a challenge to sing along the first time you hear it and, well, you might not even choose to sing along to this at any point, but I can almost bet you will nod your head and tap your foot along to the beat.

Trash Dog Records sent this one to me and so I was looking for it on their Bandcamp page but could not find it.   This brought me to the specific page for Jim Shorts which, I probably should have guessed earlier, happens to be a solo artist.    So I do feel the need to point that out because I'm always rather impressed when I hear what sounds to me like bands and find out it is one person behind all of the music (Because I am obviously less impressed by thoughts of "Wow, it took six people to make this sound this bad?")

The lyrics are somewhat interesting- especially on songs like "Perversion 3.0", which is one of my overall favorite songs on this cassette- and at one point he does sing a lot about talking to himself.   I'm actually really into talking to myself, but yeah, I know there are people who just take it way too far and it just reminds me of that old joke of the guy walking down the street talking to himself and it's like, what if he's talking to God and everyone just thinks he's crazy.

As I stare at this Bandcamp page and hear what certainly feels like the end of the cassette, I notice that the last four songs are all available through the digital but not the cassette so I'm kind of waiting for songs which will never come.   Still, after listening to this one a few too many times I wouldn't be opposed to paying the five dollars for the digital download and then just going ahead and bootlegging my own cassette version with the last four tracks added in.   I really just see that as a reflection of how much I like this cassette- and now Jim Shorts, I am a fan- and if you don't have the original cassette yourself, you know, don't bootleg it-- buy it.

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