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JOAN JETT – Bad Reputation
from: meanstreet.dreamhosters.com
by Paul LaRocco
After 30 years of sandblaster punk and urgent rock ‘n’ roll, JOAN JETT is trying something new. But SINNER, her first studio album in more than a decade, doesn’t stray from the classic sound Jett proffered with the RUNAWAYS and, later, the BLACKHEARTS. Its difference lies in the words. Angered by the current state of affairs, Jett, for the first time, penned political commentary to go along with biting relationship tales. "Riddles," for example, lashes out at the Bush administration’s communication tactics, ending with a soundbite of one of the President’s famous verbal missteps. This summer, Jett and her backing band take the new songs on the Warped Tour, which she tells Mean Street she imagines to be "some sort of musical traveling circus."
Do you think you guys, the Germs and the Buzzcocks [other veteran punk bands on Warped] can teach any of the newcomers a thing or two?
I don’t know if we can teach anybody anything, but we can share a lot of experiences; maybe roadblocks bands can run into. How do you get around that? Or how do you stay not dispirited, just excited? It’s a very tough business.
Is it tougher to sustain longevity these days?
I think you obviously have to have something to say, or something that you represent as an artist, that really connects with people. Sometimes it’s not even something that you put your finger on…But I think today, maybe people have an advantage, because technology might help. Bands, if they can’t get a record deal, they can print up their own stuff, put up a website, get people to go to that. I didn’t have that opportunity.
Would you say your influences are the same today as they were 20 years ago?
Pretty much. When I hear new things I like, I’ll incorporate it into, I guess, what you call the Soundtrack of Your Life: the things I grew up listening to, which would be early ‘70s British glitter music. Bowie, T. Rex, the Sweet; a lot of records that people over here never got a chance to hear. Great three-minute rock ‘n’ roll. And then the whole punk rock scene, with the Ramones and all the English bands. The RUNAWAYS were touring a lot in England, so I got to see a lot of stuff right as it was happening, like the Clash playing in 1976, when ‘pogo-ing’ was a new word. To see two thousand kids all jumping in the air at the same time was mind-blowing.
I noticed there’s a Replacements cover ["Androgynous"] on the new album.
I think I could kind of relate to those things [Paul Westerberg wrote about], people’s gender roles. I’m always like, "I’m a girl and I like being a girl, but I don’t like being told how to dress." Those really rigid roles still exist [today], even more so I think because there’s this allusion that feminism is happening and everyone’s equal. But in a way, it’s still the same. I still can’t find shit to wear.
The first track on the album, "Riddles," ends with that famous Bush "fool me once…" stumble. I don’t think that was unintentional.
Really, [the song] is just about the way the administration doesn’t speak straight to us. I worked for Howard Dean, campaigned for him and talked to people about why I thought he should be president. And I still do. I like the way he spoke, beyond just being able to get results. Like balancing the budget 11 years in a row; all things he did up in Vermont. So to see the difference and the way this administration doesn’t talk straight to you, or completely obscures what they’re saying, or makes it like 1984, where black is white and hot is cold and good is bad. Like clear skies means we can pollute more, or healthy forests mean we can cut them down.
After writing the social/political commentaries, do you see yourself doing more of that?
I don’t think there’s any going back.
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