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Junkbox - Guru - review from screamingtarts.com
When you get the blues, what's better than some blues... this certainly applies to Junkbox's new single, Guru, which is as charged a bluesy-rock issue as you can wish for. The energy coming from the band is palpable, a Cramps-like bassless act: two mean guitars, basic, cymbals-rich, rhythmic drumming, and vocals thrown at you like Mick-Jagger-sings-the-blues... on speed.
It's fast, it's furious, it's melodic and it's rocky, lyrics which are alternatively deliciously wicked ("looking good and feeling shit, you had a lot of time to get used to it" in Guru) and touching, yeah would be soppy in b-side Strange ("she's looking good and she knows... gimme some loving I'll start walking") but cannot be so due to the riffs and the sheer drive of the piece.
Prep Sheriff closes what should surely be a triple A-side single, with more acid guitars and banging of the drums.
Incidentally, this single is the namesake of an earlier "demo" EP, while Junkbox's LP ("Junkbox") will be released on National Parking Records in the USA in August.
Punk-blues like nobody's business.
Pucci.
From Bath Moles club: http://www.moles.co.uk
A bass-less trio of two guitars and drums, they had more in common with bands like the Dead Boys and the Saints that played rock and roll with a punk spirit, than with other bass-free bands like the White Stripes. Junkbox were elemental, played with total commitment, and had simple tunes that were not stupid that made you sing along on first hearing. They were quite brilliant, really. They lacked the calculation of the Bamboos and were better for it. One guitarist, a short-haired [young]Mick Jagger lookalike sang lead and played his guitar through a bass amp so it filled the bass role. It worked a treat; they had a fine R&B rhythm that makes me disagree with the descriptions of them as blues-based like the Soledad Brothers. No, definitely not. The other guitarist filled out the sound in every way, occasionally vocally, all of the time guitar-sonically. On paper, very similar to the Bamboos, but these guys rocked intensely from their inner core and I liked ‘em best.
Charley Dunlap
There's no trash with Junkbox talking
Band: Junkbox
Thu Sep 9 11:34:58 2004
by Emily Warner
Down in the depths of the famed Tin Pan Alley studios lurks a mysterious creature; part blues, part noise, and part human. This bizarre creation is Junkbox, and they have taken a break from recording to talk to Rm13 about anything and everything that can be thought of.
"This is where we’ve been doing our album," John looks around the tiny room where a poster of Syd Barrat stares at us all. Between working, recording and gigging they are all knackered.
John: "It’s good ‘cause there’s loads of good bands around at the moment and we get sort of dumped in with them and they all seem to know each other and we don’t know anyone! (laughs) I think that it’s really healthy, loads of people are in bands now, I mean there’s good ones and crap ones there’s more good ones than there have been for years, but there’s still crap ones".? Darren cuts in- "There’s more crap ones than there used to be, but more better ones"?. John: "A few years ago you’d go into town to see a band and they’d be absolutely shit but now they’re playing anywhere."
Junkbox play anywhere too. Their first gig was at the 'Armpit' in Liverpool- they built it themselves with 'Gelatin' as part of the Liverpool Biannial arts festival in 2002. Some bands may play well-established venues, but not many can say they created their own!
The three of them met each other at University, but didn’t form the band until much later. When they were there, Darren fell ill with meningitis-, and was hospitalised after John called an ambulance.
John: "We didn’t know Shoko very well at the time and Darren he was alright, it was touch and go for a while, but he was alright, he’d had the penicillin and he was recovering, but nobody told Shoko and she thought he was dying"?
Shoko: "Someone came in saying he was dying". Shoko visited Darren and brought nearly 400 origami birds, which she strung together.
John: "and she came to visit him"
Darren: "I was fine! I was fine!" While he was living it up in hospital poor Shoko thought he was on his last legs. But, as John reckons, that when he (Darren) was lying in his hospital bed he thought "she’s got an eye for detail, she’ll be a good drummer, if I can just get out of here, if I can just survive the next 24hrs then I’ll form a band with you!"
Darren: "And just before Shoko came along with these beautiful birds, I got a Snoopy balloon!"
Shoko: "I thought that was the last day to see him". John and Darren look stunned before falling about the place pissing themselves laughing.
Darren: "No! You thought I was gonna go at the end of the night!" (This seems to be news to everyone, and is greeted with howls of laughter. And let it be known that John hates Earl Grey tea).
Daren: "I like Syd Barrat". The conversation has moved on to influences. "He was a bit fucked up (Rm13: A bit?!). He was mad- he grew potatoes on his feet, that’s why we covered it up." He points to a strip of duck tape on the poster, covering Syd’s feet. John points out John Spencer and The Cramps. "Yeah" Shoko replies.
When they’re recording, Junkbox do it with a clear mind, and they all do it together. When they get into the studio they rehearse a bit- get tighter, and "accidentally" wrote six songs the other evening.
John: "When we do this stuff we do it when we’re not thinking of anything, we all do it together, like make a noise or something.?
Shoko and Darren: "Jammin’!" (they all break into fits of laughter).
John: "We’ve been recording it ourselves, so it’s all self contained."
Darren: "We’ve tried to keep as many people away from it, not that it’s precious, but just because we’ve been in this thing for so long"
John: "The more people it involves, the more complicated it gets, we know how we want to sound. We’re not your normal group."
Darren: "We don’t like football."
John: "So that’s half the nation out!" (laughter)
Darren: "Or the Olympics, and that’s the other half. A lot of bands have this thing where, "oh he was a bit tall" or, "you know what I mean"
John (to Darren): "We are exactly the same height". Shoko mumbles something, and he turns to her. "yeah you’re short aren’t you. What shoe size are you"
Shoko: "I don’t know, (shrugs)"
John: "You’re a three"
Darren: "Three!"
Shoko: "I think I’m a four or a five?54.5cm"
John: "What size is that"?
Shoko: "42 or 40"
John: "Yeah but what"
Shoko: "Miles!".
The end of the interview? Watch this space?
Emily Warner
Live Review from www.roomthirteen.com
Tin Pan Alley Festival - London
July 11th (sun)
Junkbox (4/5) are the first up on the stage, and open the festival with sharp axe work and heavy drumming as they plough on through a short yet sweet set. Their playing is tighter than the Bank of England, and they show the world what a three-piece outfit can deliver. The good beat is set and held together by hip drummer Shoko Ariba and blasting though some brilliant numbers they really wake you, and everyone else within spitting distance, up- any louder and your brains would have been blown out of your head.
Live Review from www.clearandrefreshing.jp
The Libertines / The Cherubs / Junk Box venue: Colston Hall place: Bristol(UK)
date: March 4th (Thu)
[Clear And Refreshing holiday report]
"Hello, we're the support band" says Darren Van-Asten, lead singer with brutal, uncompromising blues-rock hotheads Junkbox, just before unleashing another one and a half minute noise bomb into the middle of the steadily filling theatre floor. John Devolle's guitar snarls like a hungry dog and Shoko Ariba's powerful drumming keeps things tight. She has a kind of Meg White thing going on and there's no bass but the Detroit influence is superficial, the short, sharp power-bursts get in, make their point and get right back out again like the Downliners Sect covering Wire and it's a winning combination.
After this, most bands would have a hard job coming over as anything other than bloated and excessive.
Guru E.P. from "Do something Pretty" Fanzine
So much great music is made through exploration, innovation, contemplation, abstraction, and experimentation, yet here are Junkbox, doing none of these things, and still sounding vital. Each short song a statement, a single point to be made, with the music equally abrupt. In this context, it succeeds: prickly guitar riffs sharp enough to draw blood, thumping, primeval drumming, and vocals so demanding and guttural, you feel that you must obey. And obey I do.
‘One That I Want’ is possibly the most direct proposal of lust you will hear this year. Opening with a wailing ‘You’re the one that I want, you’re the one that I need, come back to me’ and delivering with more intent every second of the abrupt one minute thirty three seconds, this is a distillation of music: simply playing the most effective riffs at the most effective moments. While many bands playing live sound like a half-baked version of their recorded selves, Junkbox come polished (in an undeniably grimy way) and deliver with more fervour, more bite and even more intent.
This could sound so derivative, it could sound prehistoric, but it doesn’t. It’s no Radiohead, but it is a throbbing, intense message, delivered in the clearest, quickest sentence.
Rachel Cawley
www.dosomethingpretty.com
As described by Artrocker:
"JUNKBOX. London bass-less three piece. London via Detroit that is. Gritty, dirty, low slung punk rhythm and blues as demonstrated to us by the likes of White Stripes, Soledad Brothers, Lee County Killers, Bob Log and even London's The Kills. Slide guitars and tunes named after ZZ Top. It's the new Thames Delta Blues-punk!
From 'DrownedInSound' Review
"Their DIY approach is breaking shambolic wind in the faces of the gathered masses for the umpteenth Artrocker extravaganza. An audience of excited and excitable people are desperately vying for space in this cramped and seedy feeling underground box-room. Reminiscent of the Cramps and Jon Spencer, the band are attitude over ability, meaning over melody. It sits very well in this context"
Bull&Gate website
"Junkbox are well worth a look we think, they sound like a punk Elvis fronting a White Stripes/Fall ensemble" ."JUNKBOX. London bass-less three piece. London via Detroit that is. Gritty, dirty, low slung punk rhythm and blues as demonstrated to us by the likes of White Stripes, Soledad Brothers, Lee County Killers, Bob Log and even London's The Kills. Slide guitars and tunes named after ZZ Top. It's the new Thames Delta Blues-punk!
PRINT REVIEWS
WEB REVIEWS
Junkbox - Guru - review from screamingtarts.com
When you get the blues, what's better than some blues... this certainly applies to Junkbox's new single, Guru, which is as charged a bluesy-rock issue as you can wish for. The energy coming from the band is palpable, a Cramps-like bassless act: two mean guitars, basic, cymbals-rich, rhythmic drumming, and vocals thrown at you like Mick-Jagger-sings-the-blues... on speed.
It's fast, it's furious, it's melodic and it's rocky, lyrics which are alternatively deliciously wicked ("looking good and feeling shit, you had a lot of time to get used to it" in Guru) and touching, yeah would be soppy in b-side Strange ("she's looking good and she knows... gimme some loving I'll start walking") but cannot be so due to the riffs and the sheer drive of the piece.
Prep Sheriff closes what should surely be a triple A-side single, with more acid guitars and banging of the drums.
Incidentally, this single is the namesake of an earlier "demo" EP, while Junkbox's LP ("Junkbox") will be released on National Parking Records in the USA in August.
Punk-blues like nobody's business.
Pucci.
From Bath Moles club: http://www.moles.co.uk
A bass-less trio of two guitars and drums, they had more in common with bands like the Dead Boys and the Saints that played rock and roll with a punk spirit, than with other bass-free bands like the White Stripes. Junkbox were elemental, played with total commitment, and had simple tunes that were not stupid that made you sing along on first hearing. They were quite brilliant, really. They lacked the calculation of the Bamboos and were better for it. One guitarist, a short-haired [young]Mick Jagger lookalike sang lead and played his guitar through a bass amp so it filled the bass role. It worked a treat; they had a fine R&B rhythm that makes me disagree with the descriptions of them as blues-based like the Soledad Brothers. No, definitely not. The other guitarist filled out the sound in every way, occasionally vocally, all of the time guitar-sonically. On paper, very similar to the Bamboos, but these guys rocked intensely from their inner core and I liked ‘em best.
Charley Dunlap
There's no trash with Junkbox talking
Band: Junkbox
Thu Sep 9 11:34:58 2004
by Emily Warner
Down in the depths of the famed Tin Pan Alley studios lurks a mysterious creature; part blues, part noise, and part human. This bizarre creation is Junkbox, and they have taken a break from recording to talk to Rm13 about anything and everything that can be thought of.
"This is where we’ve been doing our album," John looks around the tiny room where a poster of Syd Barrat stares at us all. Between working, recording and gigging they are all knackered.
John: "It’s good ‘cause there’s loads of good bands around at the moment and we get sort of dumped in with them and they all seem to know each other and we don’t know anyone! (laughs) I think that it’s really healthy, loads of people are in bands now, I mean there’s good ones and crap ones there’s more good ones than there have been for years, but there’s still crap ones".? Darren cuts in- "There’s more crap ones than there used to be, but more better ones"?. John: "A few years ago you’d go into town to see a band and they’d be absolutely shit but now they’re playing anywhere."
Junkbox play anywhere too. Their first gig was at the 'Armpit' in Liverpool- they built it themselves with 'Gelatin' as part of the Liverpool Biannial arts festival in 2002. Some bands may play well-established venues, but not many can say they created their own!
The three of them met each other at University, but didn’t form the band until much later. When they were there, Darren fell ill with meningitis-, and was hospitalised after John called an ambulance.
John: "We didn’t know Shoko very well at the time and Darren he was alright, it was touch and go for a while, but he was alright, he’d had the penicillin and he was recovering, but nobody told Shoko and she thought he was dying"?
Shoko: "Someone came in saying he was dying". Shoko visited Darren and brought nearly 400 origami birds, which she strung together.
John: "and she came to visit him"
Darren: "I was fine! I was fine!" While he was living it up in hospital poor Shoko thought he was on his last legs. But, as John reckons, that when he (Darren) was lying in his hospital bed he thought "she’s got an eye for detail, she’ll be a good drummer, if I can just get out of here, if I can just survive the next 24hrs then I’ll form a band with you!"
Darren: "And just before Shoko came along with these beautiful birds, I got a Snoopy balloon!"
Shoko: "I thought that was the last day to see him". John and Darren look stunned before falling about the place pissing themselves laughing.
Darren: "No! You thought I was gonna go at the end of the night!" (This seems to be news to everyone, and is greeted with howls of laughter. And let it be known that John hates Earl Grey tea).
Daren: "I like Syd Barrat". The conversation has moved on to influences. "He was a bit fucked up (Rm13: A bit?!). He was mad- he grew potatoes on his feet, that’s why we covered it up." He points to a strip of duck tape on the poster, covering Syd’s feet. John points out John Spencer and The Cramps. "Yeah" Shoko replies.
When they’re recording, Junkbox do it with a clear mind, and they all do it together. When they get into the studio they rehearse a bit- get tighter, and "accidentally" wrote six songs the other evening.
John: "When we do this stuff we do it when we’re not thinking of anything, we all do it together, like make a noise or something.?
Shoko and Darren: "Jammin’!" (they all break into fits of laughter).
John: "We’ve been recording it ourselves, so it’s all self contained."
Darren: "We’ve tried to keep as many people away from it, not that it’s precious, but just because we’ve been in this thing for so long"
John: "The more people it involves, the more complicated it gets, we know how we want to sound. We’re not your normal group."
Darren: "We don’t like football."
John: "So that’s half the nation out!" (laughter)
Darren: "Or the Olympics, and that’s the other half. A lot of bands have this thing where, "oh he was a bit tall" or, "you know what I mean"
John (to Darren): "We are exactly the same height". Shoko mumbles something, and he turns to her. "yeah you’re short aren’t you. What shoe size are you"
Shoko: "I don’t know, (shrugs)"
John: "You’re a three"
Darren: "Three!"
Shoko: "I think I’m a four or a five?54.5cm"
John: "What size is that"?
Shoko: "42 or 40"
John: "Yeah but what"
Shoko: "Miles!".
The end of the interview? Watch this space?
Emily Warner
Live Review from www.roomthirteen.com
Tin Pan Alley Festival - London
July 11th (sun)
Junkbox (4/5) are the first up on the stage, and open the festival with sharp axe work and heavy drumming as they plough on through a short yet sweet set. Their playing is tighter than the Bank of England, and they show the world what a three-piece outfit can deliver. The good beat is set and held together by hip drummer Shoko Ariba and blasting though some brilliant numbers they really wake you, and everyone else within spitting distance, up- any louder and your brains would have been blown out of your head.
Live Review from www.clearandrefreshing.jp
The Libertines / The Cherubs / Junk Box venue: Colston Hall place: Bristol(UK)
date: March 4th (Thu)
[Clear And Refreshing holiday report]
"Hello, we're the support band" says Darren Van-Asten, lead singer with brutal, uncompromising blues-rock hotheads Junkbox, just before unleashing another one and a half minute noise bomb into the middle of the steadily filling theatre floor. John Devolle's guitar snarls like a hungry dog and Shoko Ariba's powerful drumming keeps things tight. She has a kind of Meg White thing going on and there's no bass but the Detroit influence is superficial, the short, sharp power-bursts get in, make their point and get right back out again like the Downliners Sect covering Wire and it's a winning combination.
After this, most bands would have a hard job coming over as anything other than bloated and excessive.
Guru E.P. from "Do something Pretty" Fanzine
So much great music is made through exploration, innovation, contemplation, abstraction, and experimentation, yet here are Junkbox, doing none of these things, and still sounding vital. Each short song a statement, a single point to be made, with the music equally abrupt. In this context, it succeeds: prickly guitar riffs sharp enough to draw blood, thumping, primeval drumming, and vocals so demanding and guttural, you feel that you must obey. And obey I do.
‘One That I Want’ is possibly the most direct proposal of lust you will hear this year. Opening with a wailing ‘You’re the one that I want, you’re the one that I need, come back to me’ and delivering with more intent every second of the abrupt one minute thirty three seconds, this is a distillation of music: simply playing the most effective riffs at the most effective moments. While many bands playing live sound like a half-baked version of their recorded selves, Junkbox come polished (in an undeniably grimy way) and deliver with more fervour, more bite and even more intent.
This could sound so derivative, it could sound prehistoric, but it doesn’t. It’s no Radiohead, but it is a throbbing, intense message, delivered in the clearest, quickest sentence.
Rachel Cawley
www.dosomethingpretty.com
As described by Artrocker:
"JUNKBOX. London bass-less three piece. London via Detroit that is. Gritty, dirty, low slung punk rhythm and blues as demonstrated to us by the likes of White Stripes, Soledad Brothers, Lee County Killers, Bob Log and even London's The Kills. Slide guitars and tunes named after ZZ Top. It's the new Thames Delta Blues-punk!
From 'DrownedInSound' Review
"Their DIY approach is breaking shambolic wind in the faces of the gathered masses for the umpteenth Artrocker extravaganza. An audience of excited and excitable people are desperately vying for space in this cramped and seedy feeling underground box-room. Reminiscent of the Cramps and Jon Spencer, the band are attitude over ability, meaning over melody. It sits very well in this context"
Bull&Gate website
"Junkbox are well worth a look we think, they sound like a punk Elvis fronting a White Stripes/Fall ensemble" ."JUNKBOX. London bass-less three piece. London via Detroit that is. Gritty, dirty, low slung punk rhythm and blues as demonstrated to us by the likes of White Stripes, Soledad Brothers, Lee County Killers, Bob Log and even London's The Kills. Slide guitars and tunes named after ZZ Top. It's the new Thames Delta Blues-punk!