Dr. Teeth?
No, not the Muppets band, Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem. They were a driving, florid Rock Band with a big personality in the middle of it. And JoJo And The Teeth?
The Teeth, yes. But JoJo is at the center of things. And that big personality? Here it is again.
JoJo And The Teeth are close-lipped about their origins, although Canada and the Isle of Wight have been mentioned, but that doesn’t matter. Not where they’ve been. Where they’re going to? And where they are now.
They have influences from the Ramones to Queen to Fleetwood Mac to Aerosmith and the great thing? You can hear it all here and more besides. Their press kit tells us the ‘Daily Express’ describes them as;
‘…mixing retro blues rock with glam bluster and blazing guitar solos…’
while Louder Than War, when referring to JoJo Donoghue, told us;
‘…she has collected a bunch of musicians who can clearly produce a joyous sounding racket, not to mention a visual impact which you may find increasingly hard to ignore.’
That will become apparent when you listen to the album.
No More Good News? JoJo and The Teeth Brings Us New Music
Ironic? That title might refer to the current cost of living, inflation, illness, Brexit, the UK, and US doubting themselves; this might lead us to believe there’s No More Good News.
But if you listen to this JoJo And The Teeth album, you might not agree. Because this music makes you smile, get off your sofa and dance like you don’t have any eyes on you.
And this music doesn’t mine one seam, there are so many influences that you’ll get so much of what you like.
From the Glammy soul and stack-heeled sass of opener ‘My Babe’; ‘it’s the powerful vocal performance that brings the song to life’ (rightchordmusic.co.uk) to ‘Is This A Dream?’ with building acoustic and Indie feel; they then throw in a rather unbridled Hair Metal solo.
This is different. You can’t guess it and I love that.
Take the title track which has a simmering feel of reined-in power but with a remembrance of the UK chart New Wave from the late 70s. And talking of charts, this JoJo And The Teeth closer ‘Oh! Brother’ has an easy rolling, chart style which would surprise us if JoJo And The Teeth hadn’t confounded our expectations throughout this album.
There are lots of Day Glo n’ Dirt Punk Rock rooster doisters, but not quite as varied and developed as this. When you take Cheap Trick like Pop Rock of ‘Don’t Get Too Heavy’ complete with a flowing Classic Rock six-string solo with Indie almost ‘We’re Just Animals’, things are open and very cool.
Rightchordmusic are correct;
‘Jo-Jo & The Teeth knows exactly how to capture the attention of their listeners…’
JoJo Donoghue is like a smudged Punk Hollywood leading lady who reached her peak about 5 years ago. But who has realised that means freedom, not judged by looks, able to say what she wants and keen to do so. And now Jo-Jo And The Teeth are going to deliver that.
Credit; Kamila Jarczak
The vocals don’t dominate, they deliver the song, thepunksite.com might say of ‘Is This The Dream?’
‘a vocal the drives straight at you like a bullet from a gun but also adds;
‘and a guitar that sings at you like its life depended on it.’
it is these songs that matter and when they’re this good, care and attention is entirely appropriate.
JoJo is above the title, but The Teeth sparkle too. This is a band and a damn good one, groovy, classy, nasty, and very entertaining.
No More Good News? You won’t think that when you’ve listened to this album.
Leave a Reply