| G. B. Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bowmanville, Ontario |
| Genres | Post punk |
| Occupations | Musician, artist, filmmaker |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, drums |
| Years active | 1980s-present |
| Associated acts | Fifth Column, Bunny and the Lakers, Opera Arcana |
G. B. Jones is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher of zines based in Toronto, Canada. Her art work has been featured at galleries around the world,[1] and her films screened at numerous film festivals, both in Canada and abroad.[2] Her most recent musical project is Opera Arcana.
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In the early 1980s Jones joined her first band, the experimental industrial synth punk group, Bunny & the Lakers. Led by songwriter Peter Morgan and including Howard Pope among other fluctuating members, the band released one limited edition LP record called Numbers, which has since become a collector's item. The trio performed live only once in Toronto.
From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, Jones performed with the experimental post-punk band Fifth Column, playing drums, guitar and background vocals, and was one of the co-founders of the group. The band's first album, To Sir With Hate was released in 1985.
The group went on to release three singles and two more albums. All-Time Queen Of The World was released in 1990 and a video for the song "Like This" was produced. Their last album, 36-C, contained perhaps their best-known and most controversial song, "All Women Are Bitches". Released prior to the album as a single by K Records in 1992, "All Women Are Bitches" was reviewed by Everett True and chosen "Single of the Week" by the UK paper Melody Maker. Along with the "36-C" album, the band released two more singles and also appeared on a number of compilation albums and film soundtracks. In 2002, Fifth Column's last release appeared on the Kill Rock Stars compilation album Fields and Streams.
In October 2007, the recording Raise Your Paw To The Sky And Break The Truce by the Italian dark ambient group Mariae Nascenti was released on the Final Muzik label, with G. B. Jones appearing as a guest vocalist.
By 2010, G. B. Jones was working with Minus Smile of Kids On TV on a new musical project called Opera Arcana.[3]
G. B. Jones has directed and appeared in a number of underground films. In 1990, she and Bruce LaBruce held J.D.s movie nights in London, Toronto, Montreal, Buffalo, New York and San Francisco, showing their no budget films made on Super 8 mm film. The Troublemakers premiered at this time and proved influential, although rarely screened afterwards till the mid 2000s. In 1991, she starred in the feature filmNo Skin Off My Ass by Bruce LaBruce, which has been said by Gus Van Sant to be Kurt Cobain's favourite movie.[4] To date, her own films have all been made on Super 8. Her best known work from the 1990s is perhaps The Yo-Yo Gang, released in 1992, a 30-minute exploitation movie about girl gangs. The film stars a number of well-known musicians, including Fifth Column members Caroline Azar and Beverly Breckenridge.
Jones' film The Lollipop Generation, which had been a work-in-progress for 13 years, had its premiere on April 3, 2008 at the Images Festival in Toronto. The film stars Jena von Brucker, Mark Ewert, Calvin Johnson, Joel Gibb, Jen Smith and many other musicians, performers, and artists.
G. B. Jones first became known for her drawings, which had been published in the fanzine J.D.s, which Jones founded and co-published with Bruce LaBruce, the initials 'J.D.s' standing for Juvenile Delinquents. The editors wrote a manifesto for the punk publication Maximum Rock 'N' Roll and, at the end of the decade, released a cassette tape entitled J.D.s Top Ten Tape, featuring bands from the U.S.A., Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.
In 1991, these drawings began to be shown in galleries, first in New York City, NY, U.S.A., and then around the world. In 1996 a gallery in New York released a book of her drawings, posters, record covers, and other artwork, entitled G. B. Jones, with commentaries by Kevin Killian, Dodie Bellamy, Dennis Cooper and others. Although widely available in the U.S. and Europe, copies were seized at the Canadian border and it was officially pronounced banned in Canada .
In 1991, Jones and a rotating roster of editors, including Jena von Brücker, Rex, Johnny Noxzema, Caroline Azar and several others began releasing the often contentious zine Double Bill, frequently referred to as an 'anti-zine' or 'hatezine' (as opposed to 'fan'-zine), a new category in the self-publishing world. Five issues were produced, the last one in 2001. During publication the zine was written about in The Village Voice and the editors collectively contributed to the seminal Riot Grrrl fanzine Girl Germs.
In the early 2000s, Jones began turning her attention to other subject matter in her drawings. Her work now explored darker themes: surreal lollipops; ruined buildings; car crashes; and the religious and pagan imagery of the record cover she produced for the Hidden Cameras' EP the arms of his 'ill'. G. B. Jones appears briefly, dressed in black and wielding a knife, at the end of The Hidden Cameras video I Believe In The Good of Life which appeared in 2005.
Jones' significant contribution to artist publications was most recently acknowledged in the book, In Numbers: Serial Publications by Artists Since 1955.[5]
Jones' work has appeared in a wide variety of media including film, fanzines, magazines, books, anthologies, posters, t-shirts, and on record, cassette and CDs, and their covers. As well, her drawings have been shown in art galleries and museums, and her films at film festivals, throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. She is currently represented by Los Angeles-based art gallery Lexander.[6]