Jesus Jones
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Jesus Jones | |
---|---|
Origin | England |
Genre(s) | Alternative rock |
Years active | 1989— |
Label(s) | Food (1989–1993, 1997) EMI (1993, 1999) Liberty (2002) Nebula (2005) Mi5 Recordings/Koch (2001–2002) Mi5 UK 2004 |
Members | |
Mike Edwards Jerry De Borg Al Doughty Iain Baker Gen |
Jesus Jones is a British London-based rock group that recorded and performed in the late 1980s, throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s.
Contents |
[edit] History
Incorporating elements of electronic music styles such as house and techno to an indie rock format, along with fellow British groups such as The Shamen, Pop Will Eat Itself and EMF, Jesus Jones was one of the leading purveyors of the early 1990s "indie dance" scene. The band is led by Mike Edwards.
They achieved initial critical acclaim with their 1989 album Liquidizer, and in particular, the single "Info Freako", which featured buzzing rock guitars with samples and a hip-hop sensibility, relatively new for the time. The track was particularly championed by Bruno Brookes on his Radio 1 evening show. They are best known in the US for the track "Right Here, Right Now" on the 1991 album Doubt. It is a song about the swift end of the Cold War, and was a No. 2 hit in the U.S. but reached only No. 31 in the UK; and which was resurrected in 2006 as an advertising jingle for the American retailer Kmart, an image campaign for CBS News, and was used in promotional advertisements for the now defunct TV channel, TechTV.
Other hit singles from the Doubt album included "Real, Real, Real" and "International Bright Young Thing". In the year that Doubt was released, Jesus Jones won the "Best Newcomer" award at the MTV Awards.
The follow-up to Doubt was Perverse which, although a big seller, did not reach the worldwide hit status of Doubt. The fourth album, after a hiatus of many years, was the ironically titled Already, after which Jesus Jones and their record label EMI parted company. The band remained in contact and came back with the low-selling London in 2001 on the indie record label Mi5 Recordings. EMI issued Never Enough: the Best of Jesus Jones, a collection of greatest hits whilst, in the meantime, the band moved from the North American-only Mi5 to the newly established Mi5 Recordings UK.
In 2004 they released the EP "Culture Vulture", whilst in 2005 DJ and record producer Robbie Riviera had a club hit with a remix of "Right Here Right Now", but did not manage to follow his previous single "Bang" into the Top 40.
2008 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has used "Right Here, Right Now" as her campaign theme song.[citation needed] 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Jerry Brown used it as his campaign theme song.[citation needed]
They were also mentioned in an epsiode of Adult Swim's television show "The Venture Brothers" in the Season 2 episode "20 Years to Midnight".
[edit] Musical innovators
Jesus Jones is less widely known for musical innovation, however band leader Mike Edwards is an enthusiastic proponent of new music technology and presented a brief BBC Radio series describing its history.
Their first producer Craig Leon described them as "easily the loudest band in history".
The third album Perverse lays claim to being the first rock album recorded entirely digitally.[citation needed] As a result, the jacket sleeve does not list the traditional guitars/ drums/ vocals credit; it instead lists a frequency range: 20Hz to 4Khz- Al Jaworski, 300Hz to 8Khz- Jerry De Borg, drum type sounds- Gen, etc. Mike Edwards lead vocals are the only non sampled acoustic instrument on the record.
[edit] Band members
- Mike Edwards (born Michael James Edwards, 22 June 1964 in London) - Vocals, guitars, keyboards.
- Jerry De Borg (born 30 October 1963 in Kentish Town, London) - Guitars.
- Al Doughty - (born Alan Jaworski, 31 January 1966 in Plymouth) - Bass.
- Iain Baker (born Iain Richard Foxwell Baker, 29 September 1965 in Carshalton, Surrey) - Keyboards, programming.
- Gen - (born Simon Matthews, 23 April 1964 in Devizes, Wiltshire) - Drums, additional percussion.
[edit] Discography
Year | Title | Label | Other information |
1989 | Liquidizer | Food | reissued in 2002 (label: Food) |
1989 | "Info Freako" | Food | |
1989 | "Never Enough" | Food | |
1989 | "Bring It On Down" | Food | |
1990 | "Real Real Real" | Food | |
1990 | "Right Here Right Now" | Food | |
1990 | "International Bright Young Thing" | Food | |
1991 | Doubt | Food | reissued in 2002 (label: EMI) |
1991 | "Who? Where? Why?" | Food | |
1991 | "Right Here Right Now" re-release | Food | |
1992 | "The Devil You Know" | Food | |
1993 | Perverse | Food | |
1993 | "The Right Decision" | Food | |
1993 | "Zeroes And Ones" | Food | |
1993 | Scratched (Japan only) | EMI | |
1997 | Already | Food | |
1997 | "The Next Big Thing" | Food | |
1997 | "Chemical No.1" | Food | |
1999 | Greatest Hits Album (Japan only) | EMI | |
2001 | London | Mi5 Recordings/Koch | |
2002 | "Nowhere Slow" | Mi5 Recordings/Koch | |
2002 | "Come On Home" | Liberty | |
2002 | "In The Face Of All Of This" | Mi5 Recordings/Koch | |
2002 | Never Enough: the Best of Jesus Jones | EMI | |
2004 | "Culture Vulture" | Mi5 Recordings UK | |
2005 | "Right Here Right Now" (Robbie Rivera featuring Jesus Jones) | Nebula |