Friday
Mar052010
Jetboy's 'Off Your Rocker' Rules!
Friday, March 5, 2010 at 12:01AM 
I was supposed to talk to Billy Rowe of Jetboy yesterday but a ton of technical problems on my end pushed the interview back to today. I spent most of yesterday listening to Off Your Rocker to get ready for the chat.
The new Jetboy album was digitally released just this week and it's worth your time and money.
Holy Glam! "Perfectly Wrong" sounds just like Rocks-era Aerosmith. I'm serious. The guitar breakdown is so Joe Perry-esque, I almost fell off my couch. The song is just that good. I also really love "Going Down (Above the Clouds)." I just can't say enough good things about Off Your Rocker. I'm really looking forward to seeing Jetboy (again!) at the M3 rock festival in Maryland this June.
Buy the album now via iTunes.
"Perfectly Wrong"
Reader Comments (13)
Nope, Brad isn't doing ALL the leads on 'Rocks' but he does play both rhythm and lead on "Nobody's Fault" and that is my favorite Aerosmith song on 'Rocks' and my second favorite from the band, period. Brad plays lead on "Back in the Saddle" too, but no one ever gives him credit for that. I guess because Perry wrote it with Tyler?
Not that Perry and Brad can't play the same lines interchangeably, because they can. That's the sort of guitar team they are. It's more about tone with Perry and that's what I'm referencing above. He's sloppy in a good way.Brad is a better, more technical player but Joe has that feel...and tone that is so recognizable. Of course, if you love Aerosmith like I do, you can pick out Brad's tone easy enough too. He's criminally underrated as a player. He writes the heavier riffs, which made Aerosmith (a once) gritty band.
Now I have to go listen to 'Rocks' again! I hope they tour America again soon after last summer's debacle.
- Allyson
I've always had a love/hate thing for Jet Boy, though I've always loved the classic tune, "Feel The Shake". And it's true, I've always heard a little Aerosmith in their sound but also Cult and kind of an amalgamation of all the L.A. Glamsters from the sleazoid (Faster Pussycat) to the country western ((hahaha... you know who they are, when they all switched outfits and picked up a bunch of acoustic guitars, etc...)
Back on the more interesting topic...
Joe has said on record that "Rocks" is his fave album (on That Metal Show) and that he wants to perform "Rocks" in it's entirety in concert when Aerosmith tours again. Let's hope they do that. Just plunk it right in the middle of the show. That would be the killerest!
He has also said he wants them to put out a Rocks kind of album next. Please, Pleez, Puleeez!, do that! He's been threatening that for years. Just frickin' agree to it and do it already, Tyler, sheeeeez!!!
Hey, and as far as Whitford goes, you all are so right! What a monster. Too bad they won't remaster that Whitford/St. Holmes album.
It's actually pretty good. St. Holmes is one of the unsung (no pun intended) great singers of Classic Rock. And though the songwriting isn't as strong as what he wrote when he was in Ted Nugent, nor is it as strong as what Whitford contributes in Aerosmith, it's still got some great guitarwork from him which is, unfortunately, just buried on this poor quality sounding CD.
It must have been screwed up in the recording process or something because it sounds like it was recorded in a closet.
Rocks!
p.s. Very well articulated and informative, Al, concerning Whitford vs. Perry. I remember reading about this stuff in the various Rock Rags over the years, starting in '75 up to the present and you've telepathically encapsulated all of it in two paragraphs! Kudos! Tyler always has remarked that he likes Perry's playing cuz it's sloppy! Hahaha!!! Come back little Tyler, come back!!!
"Thoze were the dayz my friend, we thought they'd never end..."
Y'know come to think of it, I witnessed evidence that Whitford can carry his own, when Perry spent half of the time foolin' around off stage or switchin' guitars 5 times when I saw them off "Night In The Ruts" in Oakland in '79 just weeks before he quit. Whitford carried the whole thing with nary a wink.
Look, I love Perry but Whitford really is right there with him. I guess it's just that Perry is more randomly astral or something in the sound of his leads. They just have more personality comin' through or whatever it is... It's kinda intangible and not just "tone" alone, Al, though I do think that's a big part of it.
See, being an oldster ain't all bad... I got to witness a lot of Rock'n'Roll History in person. Sorry, I'm going on and on. And I ain't dead yet... I'm meeting a 25-year-old smarty pants brunette for drinx in about 45 minutes. Gotta get outta this Metalboy! outfit and slip into something a little more incognito but I think I'll forgo the Brooks Brothers suit for this one...
I published a rollback (unedited) when I added my comment. Sometimes that happens with Squarespace. Makes me crazy.
- Allyson
Like when a guitarist just walks into Guitar Center or wherever and he could just strap on different guitars all day and though there might be subtle differences, he still has his own distinct guitar sound, that is, if he's a total original, like Perry, thumbs and all!
As big of a Jeff Beck freak as he is, and admittedly so, Perry still sounds like Perry no matter how hard he tries to be Beck. Which is cool. But don't even get me started on Beck. Alright, just a little...
The thing about Beck is, he's such a master, such a virtuoso, he could probably do impressions of Perry just for sheer amusement in about 5 minutes and think the whole thing is a joke, and just go back to his whirling dirvish manuevers without a second thought about anything Perry might want to lay on him, if he even bothered to jam with him, which he has occasionally and with a little smirk on his face, too.
Like I think they did at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions once or something like that. Aw, what the hell, you can't knock Perry for idolizing the guy and I suppose we should knock Beck a little bit for being so dismissive of Perry and the like (maybe he's not quite so cruel these days, as you'll see in the article)...
Knock yourselves out this summer with all these festivals but if you want to see a real guitarist, just go see him with Clapton. Now that's what I call an old school "shredfest" with Beck comin' out on top every time, I assure you.
No matter who you throw at this guy, even Clapton, he'll spin 'em like a top... And Clapton will be the first to admit it (see below).
Just listen to "Wired" and you'll know what I'm talkin' 'bout and check out that interview with Beck and Clapton in last weeks Rolling Stone. Even Clapton says in it that Beck just runs circles around him as a player, easily. Dudes and Dudettes, he is what Rock and Roll is supposed to be all about!
p.s. "Perfectly Wrong" is awesome! I think this is some of Jetboy's best stuff yet! Downloading the new EP now, "Off Your Rocker"! Killer!
Ally, spot on concerning Whitford and Perry. Brad is responsible for most all of the heavier shit on the earlier albums. He absolutely IS criminally underrated.
Playin' for 35 years, though, I bet you still live in a damn fine zip code when it comes to your playing. Do you have any stuff out there like on YouTube, etc.? I would be curious to hear some of your guitar work! I bet you ROCK!!!
Funny, I got my ex-lead guitarist's nephew to take lessons from Derek St. Holmes and now I'm co-writing material for his new band he's forming. It was his instinct to begin auditioning drummers first, which he is in the process of doing now.
So cool to see this latest bunch of kidz gravitating toward real R'n'R and not the Unrock crap du jour that's so predominant today. It's also cool that they've shunned their older brother's and sister's rap crap, too!
The kid's 17 and shreds pretty good, but he's gotta listen to more of the blues, as Derek told him to.
The kid'z fave band is Dokken (one of my faves, too! George Lynch!), however, and that was before I got to him, hahaha!!!
The Kids of the Glam Metal Legion shall arise! All Hail Rock'n'Roll!