Trapped in the house with icicles glittering all through my window, the slick street throwing sunbeams back in my face, the day’s listening material practically screams out to be played: Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre’s Snowblind in the Rising Sun. As the early days of the pandemic taught us, being housebound is the absolute best time to get your choogle on. And this is the group to do it with.
The success this group’s had with staging all-star charity tribute albums (Heirs of the Dog: A Tribute to Nazareth, Five Minutes To Live: A Tribute To Johnny Cash, and Mutants Of The Monster: A Tribute to Black Oak Arkansas) might cause casual listeners to forget that they’ve put six albums out over more than a dozen years’ time, all crammed with quality originals. They not only know their way around a riff, they can forge it into a song. And that’s exactly what they do on their latest outing, released last fall.
There could be no better album kickoff than “Voices,” a boogie riff that won’t stop, except when it does, allowing singer Joey Killingsworth to toss out “All by myself, always the same/Stare into the the lie, it’s always a game,” as one verse goes, perhaps making sure we know the “voices in my head” are nothing to worry about.
A spirit of rollicking, rocking fun permeates every minute of this album, even when the chords are laden with doom. And the plainspoken, everyman voice of Killingworth underscores the good times, placing the group squarely in the Mid-South with a refreshing lack of affectation that’s all too rare in this genre.
As for what kind of fun they’re celebrating, the band is quite up front about what makes for their good times, tagging themselves as “country rock,” “hard rock,” and “stoner rock.” And the lyrics pull no punches when it comes to calling out their favorite substances. “Summer of ’93” seems to make references to “windowpane,” and one can assume that someone took a heavy trip thirty odd years ago; the title track sings of being “snowblind in the House of the Rising Sun, on the lam and on the run,” suggesting the involvement of snow-like contraband; and “The Border” offers some sage advice to a galloping beat that recalls the early days of cow punk: “Don’t take weed across the border, or you might get patted down.” Quick on its heels comes “Nothing to Lose,” an ode to “a wake and bake morning, come on stop snoring, get your ass in here and get out of bed/Pack yourself a bong, come on sing along, follow ‘long to the words in my head.”
And yet there’s a more serious side to these voices in Killingsworth’s head: “Life falls apart in the blink of an eye,” he sings on “Life of the Party,” which alternates between a nervous, scratchy riff and a thunderous power-chord chorus. “Company Man” is a portrait of a man who “wants to go out on the town” with a sardonic twist that skewers anyone that “lives for the company” even as twin guitars in perfect Allman Brothers-like harmony kick in with an intoxicating hook. “Cities will crumble, burn to the ground” goes the opening line of “Bleed the Day” which combines a Black Sabbath mood with a Metallica-like crunch. And “Change the Channel” celebrates our ability to snap out of an apocalyptic rut, with Gerald Stephens’ John Lord-like organ wailing through the intro.
One thing that the many excellent records of 2022 prove, from the Subteens to the Drip Edges to HEELS, is that Memphis rocks, and this offering from Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre is Exhibit A. The pounding chords and solos of this album are irresistible, and sure to knock any case of blindness right out of you.
Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre open for The Supersuckers at the Hi Tone Cafe, Saturday, February 4, 8 p.m.