Our very own James Moore wrote about this GEM JONES record, ADMIRAL FRENCHKISS, a ways back. I didn’t get the memo though! Having now more deeply nestled into the waiting arms of this record though I am smitten! Ridiculous rock is practically the only rock that I can concentrate on in 2014. And I can’t say I have heard many rock records as of late that are as ridiculous (meant in the best way possible, even if that means reaching outside of the words accepted definitions) as what these Iowa City person(s) are shoving our way. GOATY TAPES is the (spot on) pusher. GEM JONES is the rock magician, having been so for quite some time, with a deep release list to be seen on bandcamp to show for his/ their effort at the very least. Some of these past recordings have come out on (Iowa City’s own) NIGHT PEOPLE and CGIFRIDAY even. But in the here and now it is just a bit back in time in our 2014 that I reach, for the ADMIRAL FRENCHKISS record.
And since James already wrote about the record as a whole I’m just going to touch upon one of the tracks that most stirred my inner being. I am going with the tape’s closer, “Ectomorphic Love.” In this track we have a band working their own take on a Prince vibe. It is shambling. It is messy, spilling its love clear across the designated dance floor that no one is using because everyone is crowded in around GEM JONES (and they are just not playing that close to the dance floor really). And it is spiritual. Tongue is somewhere around the cheek, but maybe not in there fully (I’d have to actually get out to Iowa city for a personal look if I were ever to know for sure). And as you will plainly hear if you listen, GEM JONES’ falsetto is hanging all the way out. A five and a half minute ride through the tunnel of love that I, and perhaps many of us, wish we could have had, but instead we were eating Bugles, or pressing our sweaty palms against the window (or both). And the guitar playing is righteously demented. Thank you for that guitar player of GEM JONES. My well off the beaten track pop fantasies are being sated in this latter part of 2014.
