JelloHat

JelloHat just may be one of the best bar bands around town. So sidle up to the bar, get yourself a shot of whiskey with a beer back and settle down for a night of serious drinking. I mean music. Yeah that's it. JelloHat makes that comfortable down home music you just like to sit back with a beer and enjoy. Described as "electric horse funk" or alternative country funk, I really had a hard time hanging a label on JelloHat's cozy sound until a Texas native summed it up for me: "It sounds like an Austin band." So there you have it: all you Texas-Ex's now know where you can get your taste of twangy, blues drenched, funk infused, rockin' American music.

There are a couple of things that I really like about this band. The upbeat mix of covers and originals really keeps the audience in mind. Often eschewing neat little pop packaged songs for longer jams, an original tune like "Let's Call the Cops" will melt into the Beatle's "Bathroom Window." Shredding Dire Straits covers ("Waterline") had audience members standing and cheering half way through, as did tasteful Dead covers, "Mexicali Blues" and "Friend of the Devil". Original material interwoven throughout the program maintained the same musical caliber and consistency of the well-known tunes. Like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, lead singer and guitarist James Hatfield led the audience on an energetic romp spanning funk, R&B, country, folk and of course, good ol' rock'n'roll. Listen for the finger picking folky masterpiece "Aluminum Jim" to get a sense of the rootsy original compositions that JelloHat is capable of.

The second thing I really like about JelloHat is their sheer joy of performing. You know that this is a band that just doesn't take itself too seriously when it starts the first set with the comical Neil Diamond cover: "You're So Sweet" (You're Soooo sweet/Horseflies keep hanging round your face...Front teeth missin'/That's fine for kissin'/You're nothing like those girls from New York City). And the fun never stops after that. However, lest you think that JelloHat is trading cheap laughs for real talent, it is interesting to note that Hatfield and bassist Paul Gelormini have been playing together for over 10 years. The band is extremely tight, tight, tight and their polish and infectious excitement spills over to the audience. Patrick Mundy's tasty drum fills and driving beat propel the variegated rhythm underpinnings and uber horn player, JC Reed, rounds out the rough edges with delicious saxophone and flute solos. The characteristic tradeoff of saxophone and guitar leads has become one of JelloHat's trademark sounds.

Live performing is what JelloHat does best. Although JelloHat's debut album, Cocktails?, is well produced, it fails to capture the electricity of the live shows. On Cocktails? we see the world as it appears at 4:00am looking across a seedy cocktail lounge through the smoky haze of watered down scotch, lost dreams and drowned sorrows. The recurrent themes of isolation, alcoholism, and escape ultimately find their most powerful expression in the toxic rock eulogy, "Sidewinder Fang," complete with nausea and headache the morning after.

Despite some of the dark lyrics, the album clips along at a steady pace. Freely borrowing from funk, blues, and R&B, there is an infectious enthusiasm and exuberance for life that cannot be squelched. The radio-ready, straight-ahead rock ballad "We Could Be Good," seeks some way to salvage a doomed relationship ("We're the couple from Hell, God knows"), and the uptempo rock tune "P.C Mex" declares "Life is good, life is fine" on the most positive, life affirming track on the album. Twangy guitar licks peppered throughout the material suggest the emergence of "electric horse funk" (a funked up cross between Dire Straits and Stevie Ray Vaughn) which is fully realized in JelloHat's live sound. Expect to hear crisper, snappier versions of these songs performed on stage.

It will be interesting to hear what this band can do when it goes back into the studio to record its sophomore album (titled Chaser? perhaps?) In the meantime, check out this self-described "San Francisco Band" when they play around the Bay Area - but don't bring your arty friends. JelloHat may not be the "next big thing" and for that matter, they are not doing anything "new." But when you are sick and tired of wading through the swing band dujour and the mediocre avant-gross bands that are glutting the club scene these days, it's kinda nice to kick back with a beer and enjoy the guilty pleasure of a good ol' rock'n'roll band. And what JelloHat does, it does VERY WELL.

You can track down sound clips, more info and upcoming gig dates at the band's website, www.njjl.com/jellohat/

Cheryl

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