Hi again! It’s us, The Pissed Jeans. Hope you’ve been having a nice summer!
First things first, we’ve got a couple shows booked for October. On Friday the 14th we’ll be at Foto Club in faraway North Philadelphia playing with more bands on a single show than we’ve played with in years: MESH, Silicone Prairie, Snooper and Waste Man! Should be a doozy, nothing but hits and I think it’s outdoors? No advance tickets, just show up and tell ‘em the Jeans sent ya.
Then, merely two days later, we’ll be in Ridgewood NY on Sunday October 16th with Waste Man at TV Eye! Heard good things about this spot, and if you haven’t already made the connection, we’re playing both gigs with Waste Man, a really fantastic group outta New Orleans whose debut LP rocked our socks off when it came out in 2021. TV Eye is selling tickets for this one, which you can pick up here. New York and Philadelphia are two of our most frequent stomping grounds, so we’ll make sure to bust out some new songs, or something to keep it fresh. In case the glory of Waste Man isn’t already enough for you.
And speaking of freshness, our sophomore album Hope For Men apparently turned fifteen years old last June! Though thinking about how old we are makes me sick, Brad was kind and thoughtful enough to share his thoughts on Hope For Men, both the songs themselves and the atmosphere surrounding the recording. Take it away, Brad!
Fifteen years ago, in June 2017, Hope for Men was released. Being influenced by the song-by-song breakdowns that Matt had previously done on Facebook1, which included more insight on the lyrical content, I thought I’d do a write up on what I remember from this time writing and recording these songs. This is meant to be a fun look at what I remember from that time and is not meant to project any sort of historical importance on the record. This may not be my favorite of our records, but for us personally, it was very important and if it means something to you at all, we are grateful.
There are some aspects of writing and recording Hope for Men that feel very recent, yet others that seem like another lifetime. This was before Randy was in the band, and I’d say it was the first real group of songs written with Sean. After releasing Shallow on Parts Unknown Records, Tim, our original drummer, left the band to move to North Carolina. We somehow got lucky that Sean was moving to Philadelphia and was looking for people to play with. Sean played drums in Navies, who we’d played with a few times, and he was amazing to watch live in that band. I was actually unsure if he’d be interested to play with us because of how stripped down and simple we were at times. I can’t remember if Sub Pop contacted us before or after he joined the band, but our Don’t Need Smoke b/w Love Clown single was written and recorded quickly and without much collaboration as a band.
I can’t remember if it was during recording or right after that Dave let us know he was going to be leaving the band to move to Pittsburgh and pursue his passion for converting cars to run on vegetable oil. I’m definitely over simplifying the veg oil conversion business, as there was much more to it than just converting cars. Dave was a very important part to Pissed Jeans, as was Tim. It was a bit scary to have recorded an album and not have a bassist, but luckily Randy was able to step in. Randy was properly brought in to the band with his first show being with Body Count and No Redeeming Social Value in Allentown PA2. I don’t think we’ve played a show where we were cared about less by the crowd or treated worse by the venue.
With Dave leaving the band, the cover art was a bit of a reference to that. The cover shot was taken before a show in the bar area of Johnny Brenda’s in Philly and the back cover of Matt and I was shot in the grass of a playground next to my apartment at the time by the wonderful Shawn Brackbill. Shawn also shot the promo pictures for us, including the shots inside our bedrooms, which was Matt’s idea and turned out great.
The album title Hope for Men came from a van that was parked in Fishtown. This started a string of Philadelphia-referenced album titles up through Honeys. I believe at this time, I’d drive down to Matt’s house to pick him up for practice and I’d undoubtedly hit the stop light that this van was parked at. So on top of the Philly reference it was also poking fun at the fragile male ego and gross chauvinistic male attitude in our society to somehow feel like they have it bad when something doesn’t go their way.
The album starts with “People Person”. There is no one singular point of influence for this song, but I know that I wanted it to be pretty abrasive and relentless. There’s definitely a Ministry meets The Birthday Party element to this, but I think in a lot of ways this was an interpretation of the Slugfuckers’ “Mechanical Boy”. I was obsessed with that second Slugfuckers seven-inch at the time and just how maniacal it sounded. I probably wouldn’t have admitted it back then, but our close peers in Air Conditioning and Pearls & Brass3 influenced us a bunch as well. I was digging deep into surf music and finally realizing that the key tracks were on 45s, not some exploitive sax-rock albums by studio musicians. As Killed by Death compilations influenced me in prior years, surf comps like Wax Em Down and Get A Board had me on the search for more reverb. I knew I wanted this song to start with some reverb crashes, but since I did not own an external reverb unit just yet, pulling the reverb tank out of the Peavey Renown and banging it around got the job done. The rest of the song was just a whole bunch of reverb and the noise created in a take or two. I’d probably re-do this now, but I am happy what’s laid down is just what came out at the time. This is another song, like “I Broke My Own Heart”, that relied heavily on Matt creating the vocal layout and I think he nailed it perfectly. The lyrical content is kind of the beginnings of Matt’s real-world influence and experience being directly stated. Kind of funny we now live a world of advanced watch technology.
“Secret Admirer” is a song we had played a ton in these years and recently brought it back for a show in Baltimore earlier this year. It was always a fun one to play and I love the main riff. Most of the main guitar on this record is a Gibson SG Standard into a Peavey Renown and a Sunn 1200s cranked at stage volume in a small room with me right in there next to the amps. Just a Boss ME50 in front for delay and some spring reverb. This is probably the first solo I had somewhat written beforehand and it was played mostly for atmosphere, but I have a hard time listening to it now cause I can just hear the lack of confidence in it. I don’t hate it, I just know it could be better.
“Bad Wind” is up third and I think Sean’s drum beat makes this song have such a great feel; nearly all the fills are excellent. The song definitely has a Nirvana feel and influence to it. I added some very quiet spoken vocals to the end of the song which is a good way to end it. We used to play this song a bunch live and I always enjoyed it, but it has fallen off the set list in recent years. Fun fact, pro-wrestler Alex Shelley had used this song as his entrance music for a period of time.
“Scrapbooking” is next and I’d say this is one of my favorite tracks we ever did, even though I don’t play a note on it. I had brought the bassline and concept to the rest of the guys and maybe Dave played the bass line once at practice, but everything was comprised in the studio. I really wanted this to be uncomfortable in a mellow way. Matt knocked this one out of the park both lyrically and delivery. I don’t think we’ve ever talked about what the specific influence was for the lyrics to this one. There is something unsettling and depressing about it though and I almost take it as relating to our fading youth. The delivery was enhanced by a Roland Space Echo and a bag of Take Five bars. You can hear the crinkling of wrappers and even some words delivered with a mouthful of salty chocolate goodness. Dave had come up with the piano part and laid that down as well, even though we had the very skilled pianist Dan McKinney in the same room. Sean had some great ambient drum sounds almost reminiscent of distant thunder and there is even some clangy metallic noises from what was dubbed the “Gooseharp”. The Gooseharp was actually a Curtis Jere-style “Birds in Flight” metal wall sculpture that I believe was Dan plucking with a just a room mic set up.
Side A ends with “I’ve Still Got You Ice Cream”. By far the most straightforward and upbeat song from the album, which was chosen as the single. I really don’t have much to say about this song, but I guess more to say about the video. We were fortunate enough to fly out to LA to make a video with Monty Buckles who did a great job. I can’t remember who exactly had the idea for us to play in a stomach, but I know it was one of us and the idea kind of evolved from there. It was very cool, yet uncomfortable to be in an LA studio shooting a video with a crew and all that. Jumping around and playing this song to a backing track was a strange experience. I have to say my favorite part of the video was the final scene that we performed backwards, which was then played in reverse to give the appearance of us walking forward in an almost robotic way.
Side B kicks off with “Fantasy World”. We quickly realized that the nine songs/ideas we had were not going to be enough. Luckily I had this simple riff in my back pocket that we tuned down to D, hit record and it was done in one take. Lyrically, inspiration was taken from our friend group and a song from a Friday night music session that none of the Jeans were involved with since we were playing a show with our old band, The Ultimate Warriors, that evening. It’s definitely a tribute to our close friends, though I’m not sure it was seen that way when playing rough mixes for them. I think we’ve played this song live more than any other song from this record and it’s always a fun one that dissolves by the end when we play it live.
Up next is “I’m Turning Now”, which can definitely be classified as a song. In my head, this is the worst Pissed Jeans song, but when I listen to it, I don’t turn red with anger or embarrassment. This song for me is kind of just there and I don’t have much of an emotional connection to it. It’s almost like two songs that got put together with no real affiliation. I like the gallop beat Sean plays and there are elements of the guitar parts I like and others that I don’t. There is a surf influence to this and I played my 1967 Mosrite on this track. I miss that guitar very much. The second part is my poor attempt at a Randy Holden impersonation played with a lot more self-awareness and much less confidence than he ever would have.
“Caught Licking Leather” is one of my favorites from this record and a song we used to play live a lot. Kind of wish we still did honestly, because I really get to play with how the guitar is interacting with the amps. I don’t miss the tuning and the bridge on my old SG, but it was the best for jamming my hand in between the pickups for feedback. We had crafted this a bit before going in to the studio and Sean came up with the drum beat that really drives the song. I think Dave came up with the main notes for it and we laid out where the vocals would hit. Speaking of my old SG, back in 2008 we were playing Primavera Sound. At the time probably the biggest stage and crowd we’d played to. I think we were starting “Caught Licking Leather” and I look down at my guitar and the guitar headstock is just flopping around. I still have no clue exactly what happened to break it off. I go grab my Telecaster and there is some issue with the input jack and that’s not working. I was eventually bailed out by someone in the back with a guitar that must have not seen that I just went through two broken guitars and entrusted me with theirs. I feel fortunate this happened during “Caught Licking Leather”, which allows for me to not be there, although it likely turned in to a ten-minute-plus version of it due to these issues. This song was also put on a CD comp that came with Mojo magazine for Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary and I think it’s a great representation to possibly be the first song heard of ours by some.
“The Jogger” is another track that was fun to create in the studio. In my mind I wanted something relatively rhythmic and almost ambient in a way while still be created through a guitar. It’s funny to look back and see what you did with the options you had at the time. I was still in the mindset of essentially plugging in, turning up to ten and only coloring my sound with a few modulation effects. I think for some of the drippy picked parts I used a Korg Pandora’s Box direct into the board. I appreciate how this turned out, because I know today that it would be completely different. Looking back, this was kind of the theme of the album being a snap shot of the time. Not everything is perfect, but it’s how it was meant to be. The influence for this song comes heavily from the Systematics and the first few SPK singles. I think Matt’s lyrical content was poking at the middle class yuppie blandness of life and what we were seeing around us at the time. Sean added some extra vocals and Matt broke out the gooseneck for a solo. Hoping to get an appearance of that thing again on our next record.
The album closes with “My Bed” and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I forget this song exists sometimes. This song was never officially played live, but I feel like maybe we jammed on the opening riff once or twice? This is a pretty long one and when I listened back, I actually quite liked it. Amongst the other influences listed above, I was consuming a ton of Randy Holden’s Population II album and the Dust Hard Attack record. This was also a time when our local record store, Double Decker Records, which is one of, if not the best record store on the planet, was getting in tons of psych reissues. After I was wading through tons of them that were of no interest to me, I found the Ellison and Boulder Damn reissues that both were influences as well. I love how the guitar sounds for the beginning part which I think is almost exclusively the Sunn 1200s on ten. I also always love songs that have a faster part at the end and this concept was also used for the song “Spent” on King of Jeans. The final part of the song bares a strong resemblance to my favorite Dust song.
If you’ve read this far, I thank you for taking the time out of your day to do so. While this isn’t my favorite record, I know it was our introduction to a lot of people. Eternally thankful to Jonathan Poneman, Andy Kotowicz and the rest of Sub Pop records.
Thank you, Brad! Now, most bands might quit here, but Pissed Jeans aren’t most bands, so here are Brad’s YouTube picks for this edition! A friend of mine once referred to this Hoax video as “our generation’s Nine Inch Nails at Woodstock”, and I can’t say I disagree.
It’s video time and this month I’m giving you two! First is Hoax playing in a recycling plant. An absolute visual classic and a show that I wish I was at. Hoax rules and you should listen to all their records.
Second, in honor of the release of their discography is Lincoln live at More Than Music fest 1993. If Firestorm, No Spiritual Surrender and the No Comment Downsided seven-inch weren’t released in the ‘90s, the Lincoln seven-inch on Watermark would have been the best of that decade. After you watch this, go dig in the dollar bins for a copy of the Glendale EP.
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You can start here and work your way back for Matt’s thoughts on Hope For Men! Sorry it’s on Facebook.
I remember when we showed up to play with Body Count, the venue security yelled “the emo show is already over!” at us, because we did not look like people who should be in a band opening for Body Count and a daytime emo show had recently wrapped up at the same venue.
Randy’s great band before joining the Jeans!