"Premium" by Werewolf Jones
Werewolf Jones' first full-length LP Premium on Virginia's Big Neck Records. Recorded by Kirk Scarbrough (The Cheetahs) at Detroit's favorite watering hole-cum-studio Outer Limits Lounge, these songs document a band successfully sharpening their sound to a razor's edge. Werewolf Jones has come into their own, annihilating both sonic un-necessities and any sense of idealism or goodwill.
Formed in 2017, they released a self-titled cassette in 2018 and a self-titled 7" the following year, striding towards perfecting their lovingly miserable punk. The result is something like a less brutal Brainbombs, or a noisier Reagan Youth, or the unwitting child of their Detroit lineage, from Destroy All Monsters' rowdy psychedelics to the hardcore intensity of Negative Approach.
On Premium, addictive basslines serve as melodic buoys in a sea of lacerating riffs and scuzzed out vocals, bookended with two songs that perhaps best illustrate the Werewolf Jones sound. Album opener "Careless" distills themes sonic and lyrical: the song slowly builds into its own haunted catchiness while Hunter sings about wasting away at the bus stop, spending one's life living a lie. Echoing the blank void in that band's name, album closer "NO CAR" opens sounding very much like a dirge before Cohen gives shredded voice to the frustration constantly shimmering behind every note.
Werewolf Jones' discomfort with the state of humanity bleeds into their music, at times uncontrollably. It's growing in your gut, spreading through your bones, infecting your pathetic brain. The songs are desperate, anxious, raucous. The musicianship is tight and practiced, so their live energy actually penetrates the recordings. Their hearts are racing. Your heart is pounding. It's sick and loud and terrible and wonderful.
Tracklist
| 1. | Careless (formerly cum bathtub) | 3:24 |
| 2. | Whale Sounds | 2:34 |
| 3. | Nothing Better | 1:55 |
| 4. | Jobless | 2:43 |
| 5. | False Prophet | 2:38 |
| 6. | Running Digital | 1:57 |
| 7. | I Got It All | 2:35 |
| 8. | Escape Me | 2:27 |
| 9. | Taste of Metal | 1:45 |
| 10. | Fixing It | 1:29 |
| 11. | No Car | 3:08 |
Credits
Werewolf Jones is:
Adam Hunter on guitar and vocals, Aaron Cohen on bass and vocals, and Heath McManus on drums.
License
All rights reserved.Tags
If there is such a thing as Michigan punk, it's Werewolf Jones. Musically, the band falls perfectly in line with the Detroit lineage of punk that starts with the noisy psychedelics of Destroy All Monsters, continues with the hardcore rock of Negative Approach, and meanders into the experimental territory.
This page is managed by Morphius, distributor for Werewolf Jones.