Jesus Vio – Do You Like Led Zeppelin? (BUFU Records)

Jesus Vio is perhaps the Boston underground music world’s most amazing, under-sung songwriter. Vio, via his old band CAMP HOPE, his current band FREE PIZZA, and solo recordings (like this record and early 2013?s wonderful DEBES SIEMPRE ESTAR CONTENTO JESUS?.?.?.) shows a flair for melody, as well as an ability to incorporate the unexpected into what you think you should expect from a power pop song, or a punk pop song, or a post-punk song even. He’s written way too many amazing songs for me to think otherwise at this point. When FREE PIZZA’s full length comes out next year people are going to pay attention, and I mean people beyond the dense and rich Jamaica Plain underground music community that I’m lucky to share with people like Jesus. Anyway, check out this guy’s music for a refreshingly original and real take on known music forms. The longest of the 6 songs found here is 2:49, and the rest are under 1:30. This is power pop, with touches of the blues (don’t run away), and the kind of classic rock that the album’s title asks you about. “Ooh Es Ah” should by all rights be horrible, but instead it makes me want to punch holes in the ceiling in the most positive way possible. “2013? is a strange guitar solo excursion, that once again defies the constrictions that would seem to be placed on it by the parts that make up the sum that is “2013.” A beautiful bluegrass-like guitar line closes out the song and the album. Seems to me like Jesus chose a good number of the different pieces that he used to construct this 6 song whole, based upon their uncool-ness, their leper-like general response within the underground. And then he turned the whole thing on its head, and bashed out a quick and awesome batch of songs with those materials. Maybe he didn’t approach it like this? I’ll have to ask him. Either way, I think you should try loving this future piece of Boston underground pop history. I already do.

This write up originally appeared on MY FAVORITE BOSTON & NEW ENGLAND RECORDS of 2013 list. Some of the records on my list never got written up on the Hassle site otherwise. So in the cases where write-ups from the list will also work as stand alone posts I’m re-posting them, to shine a little bit more light on what I believe to be their awesomeness.