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THE (HOLLYWOOD) JONESES
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I HATE THE SUNSET STRIP.....
COWBOY JUNKIES |
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One of the last of the great "loud and snotty" REAL trashy glam
rock'n'roll
bands who WERE 100% authentic were Hollywood's Joneses. The Joneses really
did have that raunchy, fifties rhythm and blues stilletto appeal that
always informed the REAL Johnny Thunders. Whiney, brattish, sneering
vocals, yearning high-lonesome for another fix, scuzzy dueling guitars
shades of the greats, horny piano pounding worthy of Jerry Lee or Little
Richard, catchy choruses that you could never be certain about-was he
singin' about dope or chicks? Either/both/probably dope, mostly. Jeff Drake was a total white Chuck Berry/Hank Williams Sr./Johnny Thunders style street fightin' dandy. A diamond geezer. A Gentleman Gangster of the Old West. The Genuine Article. Born in Anaheim, and raised in Merced, California, Jeff absorbed a steady stream of Elvis and country music from his Pa and later dug the stomping British glam he heard on the radio. |
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Jeff Drake's scorchin' brand of rhinestone junkie cowpunk has been
an influence on not only all them lousy Sunset Strip bands who copped the
whole cowboy glam and creepers look from him and the Clash and Andy McCoy
and Jeffrey Lee Pierce and Keith Richards and Gram Parsons, but his look
and sound have also left their whine-stain on loads of the best
underground rock bands we got left out here in the shanties of Jonestown. Bands like
American Heartbreak and the Dragons. The Chamber Strings
and the Saviors. Slow Motorcade and New Romantics. From the Hangmen to the Humpers. A lost generation of FLASH METAL OUTLAWS all owe a toast to the original "rocknroll bankrobber", JEFF DRAKE and his ragged lot of scarvey ramblin' men. (NOT to be confused with those other JONESES, the suckshit Boston bar band who made that beer commercial and sounded like a really bad Bad Company---but nobody outside Boston probably remembers those saps anyhow.)
THE HOLLYWOOD JONESES first made their splash in the early eighties by
appearing on some much-beloved hardcore punk compilations and by being the
stand-out track. Their seemingly ill-conceived appearances alongside all
the testosterone crazed hardcore surfer bands was appropriate in a way,
however, because the early 80's Orange Co. punk scene nurtured Jeff's
glitterbilly revival right alongside all the Thrasher aggression skatepunk
bands, and Drake goes back like a rocking chair with cats like Duane
Peters
and Steve Olson. After getting the sack from the purist Aristocats ("Not
Howdy Doody enough") Drake put together the early Joneses with people like
Olson and Ron Emory (T.S.O.L.) and Paul "Mars" Black (Mau-Maus, L.A. Guns) |
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__________________________________________________________________________________________ CRIMINALS... |
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After doing some hard time for bank robbery in the early 90's, Drake
resumed releasing cool singles and E.P.'s and getting involved in various
band projects again. It seems the Joneses had aged to perfection like
Maker's Mark whiskey and every few years, a new crop of cool kids with
goop
in their hair and trouble on their minds always seem to discover "Tits & Champagne" or the "Anita Fix" e.p. in some record store and they go in search of all the old stuff and the JONESES enjoy a fleeting little resurgence of popularity for awhile. Sympathy released a righteous retrospective called "Criminal History" a few years ago and I remember it generated dozens of interviews and features being penned in all the hipper underground rags from back then. It's always been a bit startling to yours that both Jeff Drake and his brother, Scott "Deluxe" Drake of HUMPERS fame, both have these really conservative opinions about certain topics. |
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I guess I find it particularly
surprising because all their music is from such an unbridled place of
anarchy juice guzzling, dirty excess, and drunk-tank wanton hedonism, but
one gets the impression that their Pop mighta been one of those real old
fashioned, button-down, blue-collar fifties type of guy. Jeff and Scott do seem to have one of those tumultuous sibling rivalries like the Kinks and whoever but they called a truce, at some point in the past decade to record and release the perfect rocknroll party record. Go get a gallon of cheap vodka and turn on "After School With The Vice Principals" and then, try to stay outta jail. It's potent stuff, kids! Like Andre Williams or "Little Queenie" or "L.A.M.F." or "Positively Sick..." and in addition to the collective talents of the Bros. Drake, the VICE PRINCIPALS also boasted the guitars of Badass Billy Burke from the Humpers - one of the most underappreciated guitarists in the flash metal sub-culture. JEFF also had another band on Bomp! records for awhile called AMANDA JONES-after the Joneses, the Rolling Stones song, and the lithesome lead singer, MANDY who was once Duff from Guns N Roses beautiful wife and a member of L.A. cult-heroines, the Ringling Sisters and the Lame Flames. Amanda Jones were a trashy power pop band kinda like the Shangrillas or Blondie or NY DOLLS and their catchy, ace-hit "First Time" is blaring in my skull as I type this. If that song was never a Rodney on the R.O.Q. Pick-To-Click, then he could be slippin'.... DRAKE always claims he's in retirement, but if some hip boutique label wants to put the guy back into the studio, he's usually game. Last I heard, he was sober as a judge and going to college. Weird, huh? Drake had been hoping to do a snarly solo album for Sympathy a few years ago and had lined-up a whole list of oldschool Tinseltown punk rock luminaries to guest-star should anybody wanna get involved and finance it, and I really wish they would, cos Jeff Drake's pretty much the living personification of the glammish-punk-trash/real rocknroll/flash metal suicide ethos we all celebrate here at Sleaze World Headquarters. Anybody who digs the classic sleaze of Early Guns N Roses, old Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, the Lazy Cowgirls, the Dogs D'Amour, the Gun Club, Tex & tHe Horseheads, the Bounty Hunters, or the Only Ones is bound to totally love (the original Hollywood) JONESES -who paved the way for all the good, bad, and ugly flash rock that came outta L.A. in the eighties. JEFF DRAKE IS KING OF THE COWBOYS! -Pepsi Sheen ___________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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Further: Trigon Records Sympathy for the Record Industry More Joneses! |
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___________________________________________________________________________________________ Back to List Home |
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All them 80's hairband guys really did go outta their way to poison the
masses against real rockn'roll, especially the purest raw forms of
traditional trashy-glam-punk, with their boorish metal-head impurities,
fondness for watered down Norse mythology, and capitalist jock dumbfuckery.
You'll always hear all those corporate cock rock frauds loudly trumpeting
their love of Ian Hunter or Johnny Thunders, but who are they kiddin'? All
they liked about Johnny Thunders was his wayward hair-do. You think they