“Brimming over with words, intelligence, humour, badly sampled beats and scary proselytizing... ...But much better” – Everett True
REVIEW :IRISH EXAMINER USA
Working Class Hero: Jinx Lennon
By Joe Kavanagh AUGUST 5 2009
As the Irish economy continues to circle the bowl, buckled and broken by the greed of rapacious banks, unscrupulous developers and the silence of too many people who expected the Golden Goose to live forever, it has become fashionable to knock the greed that gripped the country for the past 15 years or so.
Like trying to find someone that opposed integration in post-1970 Mississippi, or a voter that cast their lot with George W Bush, it is almost impossible to find people in Ireland who will confess to being overtaken by the voracity that fed the Celtic Tiger, until it became so avaricious that it consumed itself.
Caught up in the infectious materialism that consumed the country, even the most cynical will now admit that the nation lost some of its identity in recent times, an issue that we are now trying to redress as we awaken from a spell that is now be seen for the illusion it truly was.
While many are quick to deny that they were ever swept up in fevered materialism brought about by a broke nation suddenly coming into money, the list of names that openly questioned where we were traveling as we held onto the Tiger's tail is pitifully puny.
Only now, when the money is gone, has the debate over who we are as a nation and where we are going as a race, truly become an issue that engages most Irish people, though there were a scant few who viewed Ireland's economic boom as the sound of a cultural bomb going off.
Jinx Lennon
Jinx Lennon was one such voice; an artist that is perhaps only matched by Damien Dempsey, in terms of questioning just which way the good ship Ireland has been headed over the past decade.
Bono is the consummate example of what those in literature might term a high-mimetic hero; a man who views himself - and is in turn viewed by many - as being above the people, pursuing a noble calling that keeps him apart from the rest of us mere mortals.
In contrast, everything about David Jinx Lennon is of the low-mimetic variety, a man born of the people, who speaks with our voice and articulates many of our fears as he struggles with the same issues that we do on a daily basis.
Born and raised in sometimes gritty but always colorful town of Dundalk, Co. Louth, his introduction to music involved a peculiar fusion of rebel music, soul music and crooners, handed down to him by his parents and family whose tastes ranged wildly.
Growing alongside this love of music was an equally abiding affection for the written word, most particularly that of music journalists such as Steve Sutherland and Paul Morley, whose work instilled in him the realization of just how powerful music could be as a creative force.
As time went on, and his love affair blossomed, he was introduced to such names as Television, Elvis Costello and The Fall's Mark E. Smith, provocative artists whose influence would later shape his own songwriting style.
Always an independent operator, while others were falling under the hugely-hyped charms of Brit pop in the mid-90s,Jinxwas immersed in hip hop, absorbing the anger, imagination and vigor of acts like Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and Special Ed.
As the Celtic Tiger began to walk the land,Jinxmade a name for himself with Dundalk acts like Silver Seeds and Novena Babes, bands who were little more than local heroes, but were responsible for one particular watershed moment in his development.
As anyone who is familiar with Dundalk will tell you, the Louth accent is one of the strongest and most unique in Ireland, something that Jinx viewed as a hindrance early in his career, as he attempted to water it down in his singing voice.
Listening back to recordings of one particular jamming session, however, he noticed that upon launching into an off-the-cuff ditty called, Get The Guards, sung in an unapologetically Louth accent, the music became imminently more vibrant.
The epiphany saw him immediately drop all attempts at hiding his accent as he moved on to a career as a solo artist under his new moniker.
From his earliest days in the late-90sJinx Lennon was one of the most articulate voices in Irish music to take to task what he termed 'the Septic Tiger', and he soon built a reputation as Ireland's pre-eminent punk-poet in the mold of John Cooper Clarke.
While his ethos might well be born of the punk tradition, his music draws from a far wider field of influences, another trait that was evident from his earliest days as one of the nation's most unapologetically original acts.
Released in 2000,Jinx Lennon: Live at the Spirit Store, is an entirely befitting debut album for such a unique artist, replete with drunken hecklers, and a nerve wracked Lennon, who traverses a multitude of musical styles, including cover versions of Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan and even Culture Beat's Mr. Vain.
He continued his path of intelligent discourse mixed with madcap flourishes with his next two albums, the superbly named 30 Beacons of Light for a Land Full of Spite, Thugs, Drug Slugs and Energy Vampires (2002) and Know Your Station, Gouger Nation (2005).
Both could be termed unconventional protest albums, offering social commentary on a country that appeared to have lost its way somewhat and, worse still, didn't seem to care.
In contrast to most protest writers however, Lennon's work is never preachy, as he offers himself up merely as an observer shining a light on the issues while leaving us to make up our own minds on where to stand on them.
His work is also typified by a supreme honesty, superb literary skills and a positively wicked sense of humor in a tradition that is as much Flann O'Brien/Myles na gCopaleen/Brian O'Nolan as any Irish music equivalent.
He is, as he puts it a songwriter that "likes to get his hands dirty", and of his 2005 work, once declared: "I wanted this one to be more of a protest album about Ireland because I was tired of listening to insipid singer songwriter types sounding like greenfly on a rose bush waiting for a German shepherd dog to p*** over them while the world fell to pieces around them."
Accentuating this recording output was a live show that has become something of an underground legend around Ireland.
Touring the length and breadth of the country, he has earned a reputation as one of the hardest working and most entertaining live performers that the country has ever seen.
As anyone who has been lucky enough to catch one of his shows will attest to, a Jinx Lennon Jinxshow is a gloriously irreverent affair that borders on the evangelical.
Oozing stage presence he delivers impassioned versions of his songs, interspersed with spontaneous outbursts and the type of storytelling that is sadly lacking in many modern artists.
His reputation is such that Ireland's national television station, RTE, commissioned a documentary on his life in 2007, Noisemaker, which offered a snapshot of this compelling and cerebral character.
In April of this year, he returned with his most accomplished work to date, Trauma Themes: Idiot Times, an album that continues his analytical questioning of society, life and love, while managing to grow exponentially in a musical sense.
It is perhaps darker than previous works, with many of the lighter moments given emphasis by the vocals of his longtime collaborator Paula Flynn.
Song titles such as Everyone's Got A Mental Home Inside Their Head, The Men Who Saved The Face Of Football, and My Head Is Slowly Disappearing Up My Own Arzzzz, continue his mischievous scrutiny of our surrounds but it's not all fun and games.
Inspired by a recent legal case that gripped the nation, concerning the trial of Mayo farmer Padraig Nally who shot and killed intruder/thief John 'Frog' Ward,Jinx is at his poetic, impious, rationalist best, singing: "If someone breaks into your house to murder you/ You should be entitled to stick a knife in their eye and say/ Listen if one of us is going to die/ It's not going to be me."
It is an album that shows further progression in the career of an Irish act of more than a little importance, and perhaps now - more than ever - people will be willing to listen to an artist who has lived too long in the Irish underground.
Jinx Lennon is not just uniquely Irish, he is quite simply unique, which coupled with his immense talent, forthrightness and messianic mission makes him a splendid splash of color in a music world frequently populated by people whose entire personas exude gray.
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CONNECTED MAGAZINE -GIG GUIDE
Jinx Lennon is'nt going to lie to you ,its not his style.Hailing from Dundalk,his spoken word lyrics specialise in brutal reality and irony-a refreshing blend these days when RTE and SKY News et al,are seemingly on a mission to re-assure and frighten the shit out of us
ALBUM REVIEWS
TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES
IDIOTS BEWARE:JINX IS BACK NICK KELLY ,IRISH INDEPENDENT
Saturday March 21 2009
This country has produced its fair share of singer/songwriters who can't see further than their own plectrum and sing about little else but their own reflection. But with Ireland in the midst of a collective nervous breakdown, it seems like it's high time someone tried to reflect in song what's really happening right here, right now.
I remember going to see the Fatima Mansions play in the early 1990s. Cathal Coughlan would often begin a song with a tragi-comic spoken-word intro that seemed to sum up the state of the nation at any given time. Part bar-room philosopher, part punk poet, Coughlan aimed both barrels at his carefully chosen targets, the often surreal imagery of his steaming streams of consciousness braided John Cooper Clarke with Bill Hicks.
Having long since exiled himself to France, I sometimes wonder what the contrarian Corkonian would make of the fine mess we've got ourselves into now. There seems to be precious few artists out there with the smarts or the willingness to take up the cudgels. You could argue that Damien Dempsey has had a go, especially with his broadsides against clerical sex abuse ('Industrial School') and the heroin epidemic that has large swathes of our cities in its grip ('Ghosts of Overdoses'). But there are still too many shades of green in his music for my liking.
You might also point to the title track of Paul Cleary's Crooked Town album, which castigated the cubs of the Celtic Tiger for their racist attitudes towards our immigrants. Yes, but that was eight years ago.
Do any of the modern day troubadours have the spirit of Cathal Coughlan coursing through their veins? They appear to be few and far between -- but I believe Jinx Lennon is one. I like the cut of his jib. He called one of his albums 30 Beacons Of Light For A Land Full Of Spite, Thugs, Drug Slugs And Energy Vampires, which I'm sure is a favourite on the playlists of 4FM
The follow-up, Know Your Station Gouger Station!!! featured a photo of our hero laying prostrate by the side of an anonymous motorway. A star of the County Louth, Jinx distinguishes himself from his peers by refusing to sing in the mid-Atlantic twang that has become the industry standard.
Instead, Jinx's accent is unapologetically -- and unmistakably -- hewn from the sod of Dundalk. So much so that you half expect him to declare, a la Stan, 'I'm the gaa-ffer -- what I say goes' . . . an observation which I'm sure will earn me a clip round the ear next time I find myself anywhere near Termonfeckin. (But I plead diplomatic immunity: my dad's an Ardee man!)
Jinx's trademark get-up of snazzy suit and shades would make him look like a door-to-door Mormon or shady FBI spook if it wasn't for his habit of Tipp Ex-ing his sunglasses with his latest slogan -- which instead makes one think of Northern agit-pop masters That Petrol Emotion (who pulled a similar trick on the cover of their Babble album). More than the Petrols, though, Jinx seems closer to an Emerald version of New York troubadour-poet Hammell On Trial, with whom he has toured here.
Jinx's new album Trauma Themes, Idiot Times -- released yesterday on his own Septic Tiger label -- thrusts a steel-capped Doc Marten into the underbelly of 21st century Hibernia. From heartless taxi drivers watching passively as their passenger is knocked down, to the soullessness of the new-sprung ghost estates in the greater Dublin commuter belt, Jinx casts a withering eye on modern Irish life -- and decides that, yes, it's mostly rubbish.
Combining the soap box with the beat box, Jinx is part manic street preacher, part Mike 'Streets' Skinner. He defends the right of isolated old people to defend their homes from burglars; he decries the soccer hooligans of his home town. In 'Folk Music For The Midlands', he casts a cold eye on life in a part of the country that, Pure Mule apart, has been largely neglected by our songwriters and filmmakers (with good reason, says you). From the lonely old pensioner stuffing her mattress with wads of bank notes to the smug nouveau riche upstarts, Jinx paints a picture of a people full of fear and (self) loathing.
The factories in 'Ascend! Ice House Hill' belch out carcinogenic smoke and rats with brain tumours lie dead in the ditches; sinister gangs of alcoholic middle-aged men with perverted sexual tendencies lurk on the outskirts of town . . . Local women go missing, never to be seen again.
As for the general public at large, Jinx doesn't much like what he sees "all through the offices and restaurants": "You're not even 23, and you've already got the sourball, blank, puppet, stupid, quarry-stone grey, taxi man face."
As chat-up lines go, I'd say it needs a bit of work. To be fair, there are moments where Jinx puts down the loud-hailer and tries a little tenderness, usually with 'Miss Paula Flynn' (she who sang that silky cover of Bowie's 'Let's Dance' on a TV ad) in tow to soften those Louth vowels. 'The Ferris Wheel at Dowdallshill' is positively romantic.
The worry for Jinx is that the populace, jaded from the endless drip of bad news stories from the front line of the Recession, will run a million miles from anyone banging on about life as it's really lived in this banana republic.
Somehow, though, I can't quite see Jinx queuing up for the next round of X Factor auditions. Jinx Lennon – Trauma Themes Idiot Times – (Septic Tiger)
IRELAND ON SUNDAY-DANNY MC ELHINNEY 4/5
I saw Jinx support Christy Moore last year.The audience did'nt like Jinx and let it be known by booing him.Christy was furious and attempted to pull his own show.To Christy Jinx is a genius.He is a punk -folk poet of the most confrontational challenging kind:his words slam into you ,deriding your complacency. Dance rhythms ,acoustic guitars,Theremin and the imaginative interjections of singer Paula Fynn enrich tracks such as Funeral Faysis and the wonderfully spot on Taxi Man Face.Protect Thyself and Home could be seen as incitement.I loved this album but if you are offended easily,avoid this Dundalk depth charge.
TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES - ALAN JACQUES LIMERICK INDEPENDENT
IF the Louth noisemaker’s last album ‘Know Your Station Gouger Nation’ was a ‘King Lear’-like ‘madness before the storm’ epiphany with dark swirling clouds casting an ominous shadow over modern Ireland, then this time round Jinx uses that very same psychosis as a means of self-preservation as he dances rabidly on the Celtic Tiger’s mangy and reeking pelt.
With rapid economic growth in Ireland during the nineties and noughties we were happy to sell our souls for sunshine holidays, houses with two cars in the driveway, nights on the beer, golf club membership, lapdances and IKEA furniture.
Dundalk legend Jinx Lennon, a revolutionary musical figure compared by actor Keith Allen as “a cross between Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, and Ian Paisley” tolled the death knell for our boom times with intelligent and witty lyrics spat out at a bullet pace in a thick and deadly border-town brogue.
Now that the party’s well and truly over, Lennon is back with a new album ‘Trauma Themes Idiot Times’ examining our spiritual deadness and how we have turned into an Island of ‘Invasion of the Bodysnatchers’/’Stepford Wives’ type entities. However, this is no bleak winge-fest of a record but an uplifting call to arms for every Irish man, woman and child to redeem themselves of that ‘gimme gimme’ mentality and dig deep within their souls to find true hope and purpose.
In his own words this unique and inspiring artist explains, “These sounds are not just for those tired of listening to the empty heads, but also for the helicopter Icarus people who crash land back to earth in these Idiot Times”.
‘Trauma Themes’ is a much darker record than ‘Know Your Station Gouger Nation’. Throughout the album Jinx comes across like a bacon and cabbage-chomping version of Patrick Bateman, the well-groomed serial killer from Bret Easton Ellis’s ‘American Psycho’ novel. There is a claustrophobic atmosphere to most of the songs here as we are lured into the murky and unhinged corners of a mind tormented and suffocated by loneliness and frustration brought on by the apathetic nature of the world around it.
“I am institutionalised behind walls/ my house is like a purgatory box/ I use a machine of plastic, steel and glass to take me to nasty places I haven’t seen before/ without leaving my room,” Jinx earnestly confesses on ‘My Head Is Slowly Disappearing Up My Own Arzzzz’.
A visionary and poetic lyricist, Lennon walks that fine line between madness and genius as he delivers lunatic bursts of exhilarating social commentary filled with rawness and rage. But he needn’t worry about his own sanity as it soon becomes evident on ‘Everyone’s Got A Mental Home Inside Their Heads’ that he does not hold the exclusive rights on crazy.
“There’s no need to walk round town like you are a SIM Card in a new range of phobias/ Cos no matter what you do or where you go/ There is one thing that quickly becomes apparent and that is/ Everyone’s got a mental home inside their heads,” he assures us adamantly.
A man who believes in standing up for his rights, Jinx Lennon is a formidable foe that is not to be crossed. A true maverick, this punk-poet messiah has a distinct style and forceful energy that would slay you as fast as look at you with its provocative out of step beats, incendiary one-chord riffs and hot-headed bullhorn rants. He has the ghosts of Muhammad Ali, Che Guevara and Ian Dury riding in his corner so God help you if you tried to break into his Pearse Park bachelor pad. He stoutheartedly opines on ‘Protect Thyself And Home’ that everyone should be entitled to protect themselves in their own house.
“If someone breaks into your house to murder you/ You should be entitled to stick a knife in their eye and say/ Listen if one of us is going to die/ It’s not going to be me,” he proclaims with a serene calmness that would give you goosebumps.
Thankfully Miss Paula Flynn is on hand on tracks such as the poignant ‘The Ferris Wheel At Dowdallshill’ and ‘The Orange Cranes of Greenore’ to help subdue the murderous fury that streams out of Jinx’s every pore. And while her soft and sultry tones add a wonderful sense of creepiness to ‘Trauma Themes’ it quickly becomes apparent that there is no containing this barking headbanger.
He takes a swipe at nonchalant protesters on ‘Big Protest Day’ with his insightful glimpse into the psyche of people who turn out to support trendy causes just to be part of the crowd. “What is this protest about anyway? / Oh cluster bombs/ Well isn’t that nice/ And maybe later on we can get to the sales before the shops all close.”
On ‘The Men Who Saved The Face Of Football’, one of the album’s 16 highlights, it’s boorish and pea-brained football hooligans that feel the crappy end of Jinx’s stick.
While elsewhere the Mark E Smith-tinged ‘Taxi Man Face’ lets fly at the indifference of today’s society and how our selfish wants zap our lust for life. “You had a red face eager beaver/ Now you are no longer a believer/ Now you are full of rust/ You don’t believe you are going to the road to damnation/ But you must,” Jinx warns in a chipper tone like a man just gagging for the opportunity to gun down these mopish sheep.
Jinx Lennon jumps from genre to genre — electro, folk, chant, rap, and poetry — at breakneck pace. ‘Trauma Themes Idiot Times’ is a record that steadfastly refuses to be pigeonholed and while there is no question that Jinx’s ubiquitous style is an acquired taste; with music this original and rousing on the menu, you’d be an absolute idiot to not at least try and relish its mouthwatering flavours.
(5/5)
Jinx Lennon
Ttrrauma t
HOT PRESS :TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES
27 Mar 2009
Genre straddling, punk poet/MC/musician/stark raving madman returns to the fray with the gonzoid stylings of TTrauma Themes Idiot Times and it just goes to show that even though the Dundalk native may be growing older, he’s certainly not getting any mellower. Definitely not a record for the faint of heart, our hero’s eclectic songbook takes in influences from Joe Strummer to NWA and uses badly sampled beats, raw as an open wound guitars and screams, wails and grunts as percussion. However, if you think that sounds like a recipe for disaster, then think again.
You seeJinx is a true diamond in the rough. Once you get past the confrontational delivery, you’ll hear the beating heart of a true poet who skillfully uses music to underscore his cautionary tales (‘Protect Thyself And Home,’ ‘Taxi Man Face’). He also peppers his songs with a large dollop of humour (‘The Men Who Saved The Face Of Football’) and the record is as absurd as it is ambitious. Once again, Forkhill’s Paula Flynn (that’s just outside of Newry for those who don’t have a map handy) lends her honeyed vocals to Jinx’s witch’s brew and she helps sweeten Lennon’s more sour moments. WhileTrauma Themes Idiot Times mightn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, there’s no doubting that the performer is one of the most unique and daring artists to emerge from Ireland in quite some time. If you fancy a walk on the weird side, then pick it up.
4/5
Edwin McFee
METRO LIFE-EAMON DE PAOR
Jinx Lennon has carved a unique niche in Ireland's music and cultural landscape.Singing in a Dundalk accent so pronounced you could hang your coat on it ,he's the country's truth telling preacher-poet in residence,a vitriol dripping amalgam of Tom Waits,Nick Caveand a character from a Pat Mc Cabe novel.On his latest LP ,he embarks a sustained rant against what he deems to have been the wanton greed of the Celtic tiger era(you remember the Celtic tiger,dont you?)But there's more to the record than student socialist bile(though there's certainly plenty of that.Lennon is a mean guitar player and a gut bucket rumble upholsters even his most unhinged songs..Plus dulcet tonsilled Paula Flynn is on hand to coat his rants in sweetness and light .Even the most impassioned polemics go down better with a little sugar on top.
3/5
IRISH TIMES
IRISH TIMES /THE TICKET ****
JINX LENNON
Trauma Themes Idiot Times Septic Tiger Records ????
It’s impossible to decide whether Jinx Lennon is a poet, a chancer or simply a daft scoundrel. He’s
certainly a character, one endearingly out of step with the mainstream. Think John Cooper Clarke atop a beer-crate soapbox on a dreary Friday night in Dundalk. Nevertheless, the Louthman revels in eccentricity, and his latest album brandishes more of his unique social commentary. Vocalist Miss Paula Flynn provides the occasional melodic flourish, but Lennon’s lyrical deftness, combining comedy and tragedy in one fell swoop, means that the mostly jazz-poptinged soundtrack is ultimately trifling. Regardless, Jinx is a true individual, and there will always be a place for him – or at least
someone like him – in Irish music. www.jinxlennon.com
LAUREN MURPHY
ANALOGUE MAGAZINE TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES
BY KARL MC DONALD
One of Ireland’s less grumpy musical poets Mumblin’ Deaf Ro once talked about disrupting the small set of perspectives that music deals in, by writing from new perspectives. The idea was that breaking up the cosy relationship between the self-regarding “I” and the imaginary female “you” would help little-respected song lyrics move forward, and be a little more like literature. On his fourth album, Jinx Lennon goes a way towards fulfilling that mission. Over beats that are sometimes surprisingly catchy, he writes songs about the Other side of modern life - not so much angry complaints, which are plentiful and pouring out of everyone from Green Day to Lily Allen, but “awkward and real” criticisms. Rather than shouting nihilistically, Lennon seems to simply shine a light on things-as-they-are and say “see for yourself”. It works.
Some of the “trauma themes”: The fact that a football team is not a satisfactory replacement for actually living a worthwhile life, in ‘The Men Who Saved The Face of Football’. A study of the “don’t get involved” phenomenon of the unconcerned modern world in the particularly Fall-like ‘Taxi Man Face’. Sticking a knife in the eye of a house invader in ‘Protect Thyself And Thy Home’. Anything is potential subject matter.
It’s also a little refreshing just to hear the voice of the towns - a guy who speaks in a fairly thick Louth accent and makes no apology for it. There is no secondarity about it, no effort to squeeze through some sort of US/UK/urbane mould. Who else would bother with ‘Folk Music For The Midlands’, as Lennon does on the tenth track of this album? Where else are you going to hear about places like Oriel Park, Dowdallshill, Delvin Co. Westmeath or the De La Salle school from Ravensdale Forest? Or “mormons on bikes and in pairs” or even “some bollocks from Jonesboro I did an electronics course with”?
I suppose part of Jinx Lennon’s project is to make poetry out of those places and those people. There’s nothing that says they’re not worthy, and Lennon follows in a proud line of Irish poets and writers from Patrick Kavanagh through to John McGahern and Patrick McCabe by writing about them. That’s the way to get to “modern Ireland”, you see. You can’t just work in generalisations. You have to dig a little, notice things outside Dublin 2. Jinx Lennon, as much as anyone else, is writing the story of this country. Romantic Ireland is long gone and all but forgotten. What’s there now is a “tape recorder/answering machine/type voice”, a blankness with “rusted Pope’s medals” and memories of Italia 90 keeping people linked to a time long ago, but little else to permeate the bullshit of housing estates and “selfish stupid automatons”.
It’s not just a gloomy State of the Nation address though. It’s also incredibly funny, in a very dark way. And its songs, some of which come complete with potentially shout-along choruses, are eminently listenable. Which is convenient, because it’s almost important that people listen to this record, so that they can have the proverbial “one good look at themselves” in Jinx’s nicely polished looking glass.
THE IRISH NEWS-TRAUMATIC HOME TRUTHS FOR THE TIMES-DAVID ROY
Sounding a lot like Mark E Smith with a thick Dundalk accent (and perhaps a few more rao records in his collection)David ''Jinx ''Lennon is known for his wry and incisive musical commentary on the horrors of modern life.While Jinx stops short of penning full on protest songs , most of the tunes on his 2006 breakthrough album KNOW YOUR STATION GOUGER NATION and and brand new release TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES are fuelled by a palpable and all too familiar sense of confusion ,fear and general unease about the way things are today. Previously ,his socially charged lyrics have covered everything from racism(Stop giving out about nigerians)to surviving the misery of the daily grind(You must forgive the c**nts),making him one of the most refreshingly fearless and relevant songwriters in Ireland.On the new record Jinx grapples with sport as religion (The men who saved the face of football),protest as a lifestyle choice(Big protest day)and the injustice of the justice system(Protect thyself and home).One major theme running through TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES is the danger of succumbing to an apathetic existence .the title of AWKWARD AND REAL is Jinx's musical manifesto in a nutshell.Part of Jinx's plan to keep things 'awkward and real'is to sing in his own distinctive accent ,which helps turn his trademark lyrical repetition into a border county battering ram-albeit one occasionally offset by the rather more dulset tones of his musical co-conspirator Miss Paula Flynn. ''Your accent gives you a whole individual thing-you become a character ,someone who is bursting out on their own and flying a flag for somewhere.I really like the idea of that''.
irish examiner-Joe kavanagh
Jinx Lennon
Trauma Times, Idiot Themes
In a period where musical acts are increasingly cross-pollinating into some kind of homogenous, bland soup, Jinx Lennon stands defiant, a man driven by a higher calling and a freakish ability for inventiveness. A gripping mixture Mark E. Smith/John Cooper Clark/ Phillip Larkin and a host of other left-field poets, he remains a distinctly Irish entity, so divergent as to make him utterly unique which is no small feat in a world where everyone would like to think themselves different. His fourth album is certainly his most musically accomplished to date, adding a touch of electronica to the folk-influenced balladeering, for which he is renowned. Turning his acerbic wit and fierce intellectual gaze toward the state of modern Ireland and the greater materialistic world she inhabits, he has created an album that shines a mirror on the fakery of our foolish pursuits. All the while, he remains self-effacing, cerebral and starkly original on an album that offers further proof of one of the country's finest unsung talents. Long may he rant.
TRAUMA THEMES IDIOT TIMES-John Meagher IRISH INDEPENDENT
Friday March 20 2009
The punk-poet from Dundalk is one of the country's singular talents. Once you've heard Jinx Lennon's acerbic, witty words, you're unlikely to confuse him with anyone else. His spoken-word 'songs' can pack quite a punch. He has made his name dissecting the ills of modern society, and there's no let up on this 16-track album as he offers his unflinching take on malevolent nightclub bouncers and football hooligans.
I would recommend seeing this man in action -- this album certainly suggests the live experience is not to be missed -- but as an album, this will have very limited appeal once heard, absorbed and appreciated. Maybe that's just me. **
CONNECTED MAGAZINE
Jinx Lennon Trauma Themes For
Idiot Times *****
A punk poet in the vein of John Cooper Clarke,
Jinx Lennon's one of Ireland's greatest living
storytellers – a comedian, a preacher, a
troubadour and a rebel but, overall, a Celtic
Tiger philosopher. Track two, 'My Head Is Slowly
Disappearing Up My Own Arzzz' sets the tone
wonderfully. 'Protect Thyself And Home' argues
that everyone has the right to 'stick a knife
into the eye' of burglars. Nobody can listen to
Jinx Lennon and not be affected. Instantly he
becomes your best friend, your blood-brother,
your cooler cousin; giving priceless advice in
this fucked up world
CLARE PEOPLE INTERACTIVE
Trauma Themes Idiot Times
Jinx Lennon -Trauma Themes Idiot Times-Self Released
8/10
.
.There is no one – and I mean no one – in Ireland making music quite like Jinx Lennon. With the release of his latest album the Louth poet come punk-songster it finally stretched his legs, ready to take flight.
And if ever their was an artist who possessed the ability to diagnose a nation in the middle of a nervous breakdown it’s Lennon.
The tone is set early with the deliciously self deprecating ‘My Head Is Slowly Disappearing Up My Own Arzzz’. What follows is 16 songs of anger and pain, fantasy and joy – no holds barred, no ideas left unchallenged, no feeling left unhurt.
But the key is that hand-in-hand with the punk-poetry comes a soundscape that is immensely listenable. Much of the credit for this must go to the increasing prominence of Miss Paula Flynn - you remember, the girl who sand ‘Lets Dance’ on the Ballygowan advert.
True, this album is still unlikely to get too many spins at your local club but you can easily listen to Trauma Themes Idiot Times without feeling like you’ve been through a soul destroying sermon.
Andrew Hamilton
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST
Jinx Lennon Trauma Themes Idiot Times (Septic Tiger Records)
Louthmouth is back. Jinx Lennon, the soi-disant punk poet from Dundalk, has returned with a fourth album which, as ever, casts him as a sort of border version of John Cooper-Clarke, only with even rougher edges and less polish.
To a backdrop of simple, no frills garage rock, Lennon belts his yarns of Louth life out in a pleasingly unsanitised Dundalk accent, even if you find yourself thinking once or twice that Steve Staunton has wandered into the studio. But there’s a surprising amount of anger here – Protect Thyself And Home advocates murdering anyone who breaks into your house, Taxi Man Face ridicules an ageing cab driver
‘‘full of rust’’ in ‘‘a soft dull place’’, and Big Protest Day is a broadside at barricade-manning marchers who don’t even know what they’re railing against. The rough-and-ready nature of much of the music is a big problem: the bellowed, wordless chorus of Everyone’s Got a Mental Home Inside their Head sounds totally silly, and The Ferris Wheel at Dowdallshill is simply a hastily-strummed mess. You can imagine a lot of this stuff being much more effective in a live setting, so it’s no surprise that Lennon is renowned for being a fine on-stage performer – another thing he has in common with Cooper-Clarke, whose records have never matched the glory of his gigs. *** J O’B
| 'JINX LENNON' 'KNOW YOUR STATION GOUGER NATION!!! |
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| JINX LENNON comes from Dundalk, a small manufacturing town in Eire, just south of the border with Armagh. He is a deliriously angry poet. He's an inventive, soulful musician and an inspired social commentator. The 20 tracks on this album are a blistering set of Steve Bell drawings, got up as MARK E. SMITH songs with VAN MORRISON Celtic Soul and Anticon rap poetry. His head-spinning virtuoso delivery scorches along from dense poetic rant to hypnotic mouth sounds and deep Nashville singing. He notices, names and shames our worst crimes, our hair loss and our grubby streets and then forgives them. He entertains, educates, maddens and inspires. He should be on the telly every night. "Coming up next on the Ten O' Clock News, JINX LENNON excoriates out sinful consumerism, with an affectionate speedball meditation on the word styrofoam, yeh!" Somehow I've made this sound a bit worthy. Well forget that. JINX LENNON does real music, real poetry, real agit-prop rap and real performance. This isn’t some whimsical bleater with a beat box and a few cute lines. This is heavy duty up-there-with-the-best, smugness-shattering, literate assault rifle ammunition. And it sings like a bird too. There are a couple of lovely songs where Paula Flynn's rich voice softens the mood. The links with Irish folk song and American country music bubble up to the musical surface and pour ancient balm into the wounds of contemporary despair. St. Brigid's Shrine is a mysterious song about the disruption of jealousy and the abstract love for things and people we have lost. I think it is. With the (deviant) children's chant "Fireplace-itis" It will make you cry and laugh just long enough to be ready for the megaphone street yelling of "S.U.F.Y. Hospitals" (stand up for your hospitals!) and the live ambience of "Accept Yr Hair Loss". This potential Comedy Club self-mockery routine suddenly turns a blade to the stone and glints menacingly with "I started to realise no one gave a shit about me and my hair. They had their own wells of misery." |
Maybe the virtuoso track is "The Flesh Taxi", a sleazy knowing electro pop drone that stamps on the cocktail glasses of a depraved Saturday night and crushes them with a boot into the late night gutter of globalising criminality and miserable sex. To put it another way. Every time you think you have Lennon parcelled up as a category he shreds your misconceptions, turns out the contents of your pocket (and maybe stomach too) and slaps you on the back with the tattooed hand of human warmth. A special mention, too, for the Pogues echo of "You Are No Scumbag". I would like this as my Christmas song for 2006 and onwards please. It's a lilting, hesitant waltz with a trumpet, extra voices and "big shiny balls" in every hall. "no need to feel that you a toerag. You-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou-ou are no scumbag". With a street brawl thrown in. Yeh. www.jinxlennon.com |
| author: Sam Saunders | |
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| REVIEW :30 BEACONS OF LIGHT FOR A LAND FULL OF SPITE THUGS DRUG SLUGS AND ENERGY VAMPIRES by Jean Encoule/TRAKMARX Every now & again an LP drops out of the ether to grab you by the short & curlys & savagely shake yr preconceptions until they burst. “30 Beacons Of Light For A Land Full Of Spite, Thugs, Drug Slugs & Energy Vampires” by Jinx Lennon is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Music as primitive as possible is good for us, claim the sleeve-notes – wise words, indeed. Utilising vaguely Hamell-esque acoustic abuse, JCC-ian observational humour, Iggy fired delivery mechanisms & a Mark E Smith work ethic, Jinx Lennon takes punk, folk, hip hop & traditional values & mashes them to a pulp round the back of the coal-shed whilst the police are looking the other way. From the acoustic punk of “Bubble Electrician”, via the skewed pop sus of “You Shouldn’t Try To Fuck Someone’s Head Up” - all the way to the affecting “Proud To Be A Nobody From Co.Louth”, “30 Beacons Of Light” contains more ideas in 32 songs than most groups have in their entire careers. Jean Encoule was so impressed with Jinx Lennon he selfishly kept the LP to himself over the Xmas holidays & subsequently failed to burn off copies for the rest of us in the process. As punishment for this indecent act of supreme ignorance, he was subsequently made to cyber-walk all the way to Dundalk to ‘catch up’ with Jinx & find out what makes him tick: trakMARX – Jinx, welcome to the humble pages of tMx – how you doing? Jinx - I’m trying to swim through the apathy molasses that the month of January always seems to imbue my spirit with. I’m trying to ward off the energy vampires - but of course the worst one is inside the head. trakMARX – You cite The Stooges & Pixies as spurs that have led you on. What other influences inform yr sound? Jinx - I always loved folk music when I was a kid - whether it was Marty Robbins singing about El Paso or naff stuff like the Christy Minstrels - or the rebel songs that are part of growing up in Ireland - especially near the border. My uncle used to have 8-track tapes of all this stuff when I was a nipper, going to my Gran’s house. I used to learn to sing along to all those songs. I’m a big pop kid at heart. “There Goes My First Love” by the Drifters really got me when I first heard it on the radio. I was 11 - it was like some beautiful sexy woman sitting on your lap - licking your face and singing lyrics into your ear about all the nice things waiting for you when you reached your teens. It doesn’t sound as good or traumatic now - of course - but at the time it was like a secret code lesson about sex before I learned what the word meant. There were a lot of interesting things happening just after Punk. Punk itself - I looked down on initially – mainly because the stuff I had heard seemed to be just about vomiting in people’s faces. I secretly loved The Undertones & The Skids - but when I was fifteen I was buying Queen records. I suppose that amongst the biggest influences that got me into music as a creative force that you could use to express the shit in your head were journalists in the NME, Sounds, Melody Maker around 81,82. People like Steve Sutherland & Paul Morley. Many probably hate Morley now that he is a media darling of sorts - but he was really passionate about music which I could dig - & his diatribes always inspired me. Mark E Smith would always have something interesting to say at this time - even the likes of Simple Minds seemed to have a Spartan essence floating on an invisible raft cooked up by Morley & others with guff about “perfect pop”. Later on - I got into Television & wordsmiths like Elvis Costello. I bought “Get Happy” & relished the way he played about with his lyrics. I enjoyed the bitter words that he combined with bright soul music - he was like a Venus Fly Trap leading people on with the sweet melodies - only to corrupt them with his jaded view of things. I suppose he was a portal into all the other usual figureheads - like Dylan & Van the Man - but also the Fall - even hip hop. I listened to a lot of Tim Westwood around ‘95 - when I was fed up with much of the music of the time. I was working as a night-watchman and I became like a kid again - hearing the Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Special Ed - it seemed a lot more fun than listening to fucking Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins. Other shit like Suicide is also important. The Gun Club too - deceptively simple - yet deadly. trakMARX - Has music still got the power to change perspectives in these complacent times? Jinx - Every so often there is a sort of mass consciousness thing in music - it happened about six or seven years ago when people got fed up of bands & grabbed their acoustic guitars again. Someone who had been doing that for years - like David Gray - who had seemed to be like a pariah in 93 when placed alongside Pearl Jam or something - suddenly found himself in superstar status as a figurehead of this nouveau folk movement. Now Mr. Gray is no revolutionary - but his big album was perfect coffee table music for thirty some-things, wine bars & background music for students cramming in their studies - because it does not make you think. The average person in the street will always find it too much of a bother to listen to someone like myself - who brings the home truths in - even though I do it with a bit of tongue in cheek. I don’t think music can be both popular to the masses & revolutionary - except in certain eras - and this is not one of those eras - there are too many distractions & choices that dampen the hunger for real polemic. Most people just want comfort - even though the outsiders who dig for fire are out there - burning bright - as you good people @ trakMARX know. At the end of the day there is just too much fucking music – full stop - & the real jewels find it hard to shine through the murky saturated aural grime. The big modern music festivals are so well planned - & so lucrative - they remind me of the Quatermass TV series in the 80’s: set in a post apocalyptic world where lots of kids had gathered at Stonehenge because they thought aliens were going to take them to a new beautiful planet - when all the time the aliens were just using them for protein for food supplies. Just shootin’ - fishin’ a barrel, my good man! trakMARX – “30 Beacons” is yr second LP – talk us through yr back catalogue. Jinx - I was in a few bands in the nineties - Silver Seeds, Novena Babes - local heroes who never escaped the local bubble of hometown hero status. My first album as Jinx Lennon was “Live At The Spirit Store” - released in 2001. All the tracks are different to the stuff on “30 Beacons”. It’s a document of a gig in my hometown of Dundalk in November 2000. It was a very volatile crowd who were pissed. Some of them were really getting testy - shouting up abuse - as you can hear on the album. I was probably shitting myself - I know I wanted to be anywhere other than playing that gig at the time - so it’s a good document of one of my early gigs. I was walking on a thin line - with disaster threatening to overwhelm my stage show that night -so it feels like a real live album – warts & all. I threw in a few hip hop covers - Public Enemy, Wu Tang Clan, Genius - & a cover of Culture Beats “Mr Vain”. I stand by it in that it still sounds like it was made five minutes ago. I appeared on an album called “First Transmission” in 1997 - a compilation of local Dundalk bands. It was the brainchild of local scenester - David “Bobo” Manning. Mostly grungy acts - a couple of punk bands - I have a song called “Evening Gown” on it which is a pure ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ pop number inspired by Phil Spector. I went under the name of my old band - Novena Babes. I appeared on another compilation in 2001 called “Loud” with a song named “Bonfire Summer Song” inspired by the Beach Boys and Suicide. I also appear on a song on the current album by a great Irish band from Cork called Stanley Super 800 (out on Bingo Records) - which I wrote the lyrics for & sing on - called “The Revenge of the Vinegar Man”. I play a version of this in my current shows. It tells the story of a chip shop owner who gets his own back on a bunch of lads who do something distasteful with a bottle of vinegar. trakMARX – You toured with Ed Hamell a while back – how did that work out? Jinx - A lot of people reckoned I sounded like Ed & the guy who runs the only really decent venue in my home town (The Spirit Store) told me to get in contact with the promoters of a tour he was doing in Ireland in Dec 2003 - so I made it my business to do so. The first show was in Dundalk. Ed heard me singing a new song I was trying out called “Forgive The Cunts” - & confided in me that he’d made a point of asking the Irish promoters if the support act for the tour were ‘quiet’. He said he was tired of hearing singer/songwriters playing laid-back songs - I suppose James Taylor-ey type of stuff - so he was pleasantly surprised - I think. The first tour with him was better than the second. He is pretty dedicated to his art. I always feel a sort of religious fervour with Hamell - every show is played as if it is his last. On the second tour we played a real redneck type disco bar place in the town of Tralee in Kerry. The venue was horrible & he said to me before the gig - “you know this is going to be shit” - in a resigned voice - & it was. The sound was awful & the crowd was drunk - but he won them over like a snake charmer. You cannot help but be impressed by someone like that trakMARX – You’ve also played out with The Fall. How did you get on with the famously curmudgeonly Mark E Smith? Jinx - I never met Mark E Smith when I played with them in Galway - but I did meet him in 84 in Dublin - backstage with Brix and Karl Burns. I was drunk and I was trying to slag him about Echo & The Bunnymen - or something. He just grabbed me by the shoulder and asked me for a fag. In other words – if you don’t give me a fag - fuck off! I knew the drummer - Spencer Birthwhistle - from meeting him one time in Manchester a while back - chit chatting about music to him - not knowing him from Adam - he just happened to be driving a cab at the time - so it was funny meeting him again as sticksman. We were having a laugh about that - nice fella. The Fall were great that night in Galway last summer. They rocked the fucking place. Mark looked great onstage - like Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgin’s narky brother. Night of the year - I think. Yeah - he’s got it. He’s like James Brown or one of the original Chess blues guys. They just are who they are. Their sheer force of personality keeps them imbued with greatness. Timeless. trakMARX – Lyrically you use humour to highlight some pretty serious issues. Does it help to make people laugh while yr making them think? Jinx - What did Julie Andrews say in Mary Poppins? “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”. If I didn’t put a bit of humour in the music it would sound whiney. Irish people have got a natural sense of humour that is generic - all the stuff that works that is Irish has got this essence - just as long as you don’t overdo it. There are some awful Irish comedians making a killing in Ireland spouting the obvious with a few digs at politicians or the catholic church - yet this doesn’t really get anyone’s backs up. It’s feel-good comedy for ‘nouveau riche’ young couples who spend their Sundays worshipping at the alter of B&Q or IKEA. People like Tommy Tiernan in Ireland are put on a pedestal as some kind of Bill Hicks-ian iconoclast while he’s more like a hand puppet on a kids TV show. There are a lot of things that are dark and vicious in Ireland that at the same time become hilarious because of the natural contradictory way of life over here. “Father Ted” was great - it really caught something intrinsic about Irish people - but it is interesting to me that the show had to be made in another land. It was too real - too full of home truths - & would not have been accepted as a home-grown show. As a Channel 4 production - that was different. It was wrongly seen as a British concoction by many. The attitude was - “foreigners made it” - so it smoothed things over even though it shocked a lot of people at the beginning. Neil Jordan’s “The Butcher Boy” movie I love - because I empathise with the main character - Frank Pig - who was a fucked up soul from a border town - a bit like myself. Hilarity is a vital spark that is in some of the best music. You can hear it on the “Velvet Underground & Nico”. Lou Reed and co - they sound like they are taking the piss out of Nico in the chorus of “Femme Fatale”. Mick Jagger constantly sounds like he’s doing the same thing on all the Stones sixties stuff - but it makes it more human - more real. Same with the Fall & Beefheart. I always had a problem with revered things - like Jimi Hendrix - the music just sounds like he’s waving his cock at you the whole time. Testosterone overdose music. trakMARX – You sing in your native accent – even though this means you run the risk of being misunderstood by some. Was this a conscious decision? Jinx - I have never been able to disguise my accent. I got tired of listening to local people putting on Kurt Cobain “irrrrrrrrrrrrr” type inflections when they were singing - so I suppose there had to be some sort of conscious decision not to try to hide it - but really I couldn’t do it any other way without sounding stupid. I get compared to a Dublin troubadour named Damien Dempsey who Morrissey took a shine to recently. He sings in his own voice - but I think the fact that there are few Irish people who are not in the traditional folk movement who have the confidence to show where they come from is still a novelty. Feargal Sharkey of the Undertones had a local Derry accent - and they were great - the best Irish pop band ever. I admire & feel inspired by deceased local Poet/novelist Patrick Kavanagh - who was a rough diamond who never pretended to be from anywhere but the small village of Inniskeen where he originated from. He believed he could see something universal in his own parish that was enough to flesh out the basis of his art. A belief that all the great societies - Greek, Roman, etc - were intrinsically parochial in nature. trakMARX – It seems a long time since the glory days of The Undertones, Rudi & The Outcasts. Have things really been that bad all these years? Jinx - There are some really good album releases coming out of Ireland now - but there has always been an awful lot of bollocks - & although U2 can’t be blamed totally - I would definitely point the finger in their direction as emasculators par excellence. In the 80s there was their facetious Mother Records label – sky-scraping (or barrel scraping) Bono voiced clones at the ready with hennaed forelocks. In fact - besides bands like Whipping Boy & The Slowest Clock - & forgotten heroes, The Blades - there was a total wasteland in Irish alternative music around Dublin until recently. Cork City is a different matter. Almost all of the most vital outfits in the country come from Cork - and they all sound different - from great pop outfits like Fred to Simple Kid, Stanley Super 800 - loads more. All the best folk troubadours seem to originate from around here too. What happens to Irish acts is that a lot cannot seem hold on to their magic because they want to follow the money & they end up making cunts of themselves. I saw some great bands full of kinetic energy who ended up corseted in stage effects & trendy clothes - compression on their records - their fire pissed on - their Zippo lighters snuffed out. There is definitely some great stuff about just now. I’m listening to a band from Dublin - a hip-hop act called Messiah J & The Expert. I was wary of it before I parted with my money - but it’s great. Also - there’s a great band from Lurgan (Armagh) called The Blues Experimentation Society that I played with recently. trakMARX – You describe yr approach to yr art as ‘washing yr hands in dirty water’. What do you mean by that? Jinx - Hopefully I always will be close enough to my subject to recognise the importance of the truly dark stuff out there - because computers, mobile phones, etc - have a tendency to isolate the natural instincts. Every so often a dose of smugness & comfort arrives at my door like the approaching storm clouds in that film “Elephant”. I’m trying to keep my hands in both dishes of dark & light. I would hate to start thinking I know more than every one else - to be humble is a gift. If I ever see myself being put on a pedestal I feel I will be fucked. trakMARX – What’s a bubble electrician? Jinx - This is about the realities of being a musician in a small town where everyone knows you - & your peers give you a swell head when you’re playing gigs - saying you’re brilliant - this & that & stuff. You end up walking on air until you go to the city - & then you realise no one gives a shit. You either deal with that & move on - or else retreat back to where everyone knows you - & bask in the sunlight of this until eventually the milk curdles - & the bubble bursts. You come to resent other people because inside you blame them. People are naturally bubble electricians - as they build you up with their kind words and stuff - but it’s up to yourself to just appreciate it for what it is. Laugh at yourself for rising up in the air like Muttley in Dick Dastardly - & quickly get back down to the making of your music. trakMARX – Your music blends savagery and beauty – often in the same song. Where did that come from? Jinx - I had something like “Swordfishtrombones” by Tom Waits in mind when I was making my last album because there’s a real ‘Quality Street’ selection box of styles - things like “Jonesburg Illinois” that just suddenly appear after something gritty - it’s that contradiction that I wanted to communicate because some people think I’m like this human Tasmanian devil or something. A bit of tenderness sometimes makes it very much more real – because that’s what life’s like. A lot of roughness with periods of snapping awake and seeing the magic in things - like a beautiful February blue and gold afternoon. trakMARX – “You Shouldn’t Try To Fuck Someone’s Head Up” is a very obvious 45 – but it’s never going to get played on the radio. Is this indicative of the Jinx Lennon contradiction? Jinx - I know I am probably never going to be on TOTP – but so what. I only really began to make something I felt was genuinely worthwhile the day I stopped trying to play music I thought would appeal to the masses. This stuff is like therapy & meditation to me. When I get onstage I know that there are people out there who feel all alone in the world when they go to a gig to see a show most of the time - and they walk out with nothing extra in their hearts - which was the way I felt most of the time when I’d go to a gig. So I try to get across that little bit extra and lose it somewhat onstage - like the holy rolling character Robert Duvall plays in “The Apostle” - making a bit of a twat of myself - but that’s part of the Jinx Lennon show. A friend of mine with kids says he throws on my live album when he feels pissed off - he says he listens to this ‘madman’ losing his head - & it clears his own head for him. Like Peter Finch in “Network” - articulating his rage - “I’M MAD AS HELL & I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANY MORE”. I do feel resentment sometimes - like anyone with a heart does - that I’m not as popular as Coldplay or something - but I’m better off, really. I look up to people like Alan Vega & Marty Rev of Suicide - they were ignored for years yet they kept on with it - coming out with great timeless albums every so often - solid - ignoring being ignored. It’s important to have the fortitude of these people or the old blues guys playing for themselves - making music for itself. trakMARX – What’s A Sticky Head? Jinx - Its actually a term of derision that originated with people within the Republican movement in Ireland - but in the song itself is about certain bars in my home town which don’t take kindly to those who look like they are not the ‘salt of the earth’. Longhairs & students or foreigners. A musician friend of mine was making an album & Nick Cave’s engineer happened to be over making it with him in Dundalk. They both went for a drink in what I call the Mason/Dixon line part of town. They both didn’t add up to specifications in this bar - they hadn’t got regular heads (moustaches, Celtic t-shirts, no.2 haircuts, etc) & they had a sort of bad experience - being stared at by certain parties in the bar when they sat down. The Aussie accent filling the place didn’t help things. They got out quickly when they saw their presence was not wanted & went into the Chinese restaurant next door - but were followed in by someone from the bar - who sat and stared at them ominously all through their meal. trakMARX – You employ a few Hip Hop shapes here & there. Is that parody or homage? Homage - definitely. I love hip hop - & as I said already - I used to work as a night watchman & the thing that got me through the night was my hip hop tapes I got from the radio. I used to inhale the Tim Westwood show on BBC radio from 1995 to 2001. I have around 30 hours of the stuff I transferred to mini disc recently. Hip hop is definitely like punk to me in its DIY personality, humour & simplicity. It was not that popular amongst the masses at the time when Blur & Oasis were omnipresent - but the Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, KRS 1, Showbiz, OG records & many others gave me a slowly forming focus for my own music. It saved my life at a time when I was so pissed off with music that I had even bought a Queen tape. I still dig it - there been a lot of good stuff recently - like MF Doom & Skinnyman - even guys like Dizzy Rascal have their own personalities and set out their stalls sufficiently at a time when there is so much music out there yet so little originality. Its definitely part of the public consciousness as far as the slang is concerned - with every halfwit on TV and radio talking about being ‘back in the day’ & giving ‘shout outs’ - & desperate housewives in the News Of The World problems page talking about ‘getting jiggy’ in a threesome with the toy-boy next door & his bit of fluff - but the best stuff remains firmly in the underground while the trendy kids dig Outcast. trakMARX – “Drug Slug” really hits the nail squarely on the head with regard to the selfish nature of substance abuse. Is it written from personal experience? Jinx – It is a biographical song & that’s why people like it - cos that’s what it can be like - & I have been in that situation once or twice since I wrote it - so life goes on. I still like a few ‘west points’ from time to time. I indulged in the usual things during the Smartie era because it was there in front of you - at the same time a lot of people I know have recently made acquaintance with the ‘Charley Fella’ & they cannot see the way it has turned them into complete cunts - so I don’t know. Drugs definitely damage you - but I have very political feelings about arseholes running the country who protest about the horrors of illegal substances yet won’t open their mouths about the more devastating ramifications from alcohol abuse because they don’t want to piss off the breweries cos of all the spondulicks they are getting from them. trakMARX – When can we expect a follow up to “30 Beacons”? Jinx - I am currently working on new stuff – it’s coming together so far - but I am taking my time with it cos I don’t want to get too wound up around it. I am making it with a guy in Dublin - Steve Lynch - who has a totally different approach from the last person - Jason Varley - who I really enjoyed making “30 Beacons” with. It will be more studio orientated this time - but I have to watch that cos I want to keep it raw and human. What will make it more interesting is my secret weapon in the form of a fantastic singer from Forkhill (Armagh) named Paula “Magic” Flynn who will be sharing vocal duties with me. Should be out this year. trakMARX – What live dates have you got coming up? Jinx - I have just been invited over to the Antifolk festival in New York for the 18th of Feb - & I have a tour of Ireland that starts on the 7th of Feb. I will be playing the UK soon - but no definite dates yet. trakMARX – And finally - what constitutes success to Jinx Lennon? Jinx - Getting the taste of making a new record - relishing the taste - making sure more people hear my stuff - forgiving those I hate. Trying and be righteous - but letting the devil shake his tail an odd time. |
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