Jet Lag Gemini - Fire the Cannons
Rating
RIYL
PoisonFenix TX
Cartel
New Found Glory
Tracklist
1. Run This City2. Doctor, Please!
3. The Bad Apples
4. Bittersweet
5. Stepping Stone
6. Fit To Be Tied
7. Just Say How
8. If It Was Up To Me
9. Every Minute
10. Keep This With You
11. Picture Frames
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Jet Lag Gemini is kind of what a mating between Poison and Fenix TX would sound like: a pop-punk framework with hair-metal solos thrown in to change things up. Their album, Fire the Cannons, adheres to this doctrine on every song, and for the first three or so, it’s a pretty good record, but by “If It Was Up to Me” the formula has kind of run its course and the album becomes boring and stale. Credit can be given to the band that they can keep these relatively unimpressive, repetitive songs fresh for as long as they do, but even the highlights of the record begin to falter after a few listens.
The songs follow the pop-punk creed so elegantly laid down by Matt Skiba in the song “Pop Punk Band,” in which they proclaimed, “Bore us, bore us, get us to the chorus.” Jet Lag Gemini’s songs hinge on the short, catchy chorus, blasted at the listener more times than the quippy little phrase deserves. For songs like the opening two, “Run This City” and “Doctor, Please!” it’s pretty effective, producing catchy, likeable songs. The instrumentation is solid, especially when Vlad Gheorghiu decides to shred, producing a novelty effect that works for about half of the CD before it becomes completely ridiculous.
However, as is the case with many pop-punk records, the songs simply run their course, becoming far too predictable to the point where the last five or six songs are pretty much indistinguishable. The solos, while well performed, run their course as well, feeling completely ridiculous and out of place, not really adding variety by the end, but exist as a kind of punch line to the triteness of the music. The best song on the album, “The Bad Apples,” tries to take the band in a different direction, trying to blend the glam-rock and pop-punk influences, changing up the tempo, feeling more immediate and less rehearsed than the other songs. Yet, any innovations or techniques tried in the song are abandoned by the next.
Fire the Cannons isn’t a bad pop-punk record, just a generic one. It offers a couple of really catchy songs that are worth a second (sometimes even a third) listen but nothing earth shattering. The band is certainly talented from the vocals to the screaming guitars, but lack originality, feeling more like a retread of old pop-punk bands than a new one.
--Matt McGraw
Comments
Toronto
Columbus, Ohio
Recommending: Anberlin, Interpol, Chamberlain, House of Heroes
Minnesota
Yeah, I totally agree.
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That is a very "subtle" scheme ... since I obviously did not post that message you attribute to me. You call me "mindless" because I happen to like Fire the Cannons and Jet Lag Gemini? You have a right to write bad reviews and make bad calls. You are not the first one, or the last one to do that. When the Beatles went to Decca Recording in 1962, they were turned down. The label declared "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." So, you are in good company. Fire the Cannons appears on 14 different lists as one of the best 10 albums of the year. On one of them JLG is #1. Aside from Alternative Press and Guitar Player and a ton of other more or less significnat reviews praising the New Jersey kids, the March/April issue of Guitar Edge (has a special on Van Halen)is also very laudative of the band, of its music and especially of their lead guitarist, Vlad Gheorghiu. Could you take a suggestion of constructive criticism without getting so personal?
Sacramento, CA
fuck off.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
Beer Blog
Los Angeles
i agree and thus are opinions are further validated.
postrockpaperscissors
Beer Blog
Los Angeles
postrockpaperscissors
Beer Blog
Sacramento, CA
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
When you find a guy employing such language as "fuck off" to make his point, you know is a guy who values people, music and common sense ... a lot less than he values himself. You know also that the individual's selfesteem is at its lowest in his current life. So, man, in which prestigeous magazine should I look your magnificent name up since Associated Press, Guitar Player and Guitar Edge are not good enough for you. They're good enough for Van Halen, but what the hell does he know. Are you implying that for a band of kids 17-20 years old who just got out their first full lenght album being on 14 separate lists in the top ten best albums of the year and being called one of the best albums for the past years in their genre, for Vlad "The Impaller" Gheorghiu to be considered one of the better guitar players in todays America counts for nothing in your book? The above anti-JLG review got three meagre comments. Two and a half of them (wink!) are favorable to the band and to their music. Are we to believe that all the other people have no idea what they are talking about and that only you guy(s), the creme de la creme of decoy music make any kind of sense. And who came up with this name for the website after all? According to the Webster dictionary in my house, "decoy" means "a thing or person used to lure or temp into danger or a trap". So, what are the goals here, to lure people with baseless spiteful reviews into the trap of cadishness and then bombard them with expletives and poor grammar?
Now, on an even more friendly note. What is the point of reviewing the kind of music you obviously do not like. Cause there is no credibility in saying, for example, that Beethoven and Motzart suck when you actually don't like classical music to begin with. If Jet Lag Gemini writes the kind of music you don't dig, why bother writing about them? Just to show the world (to all three of us readers, that is) you're having a differnt point of view than the majority? Make no mistake about it, you have accomplished nothing. Actually, the lack of a pertinent argumentation proves that JLG is not the kind of band you are trying to portay as being. Give your best shot at finding what is good about other peoples lives, and that will certainly enchance your selfesteem. You feel like being critical. Fine! Give your best shot at constructive criticism. I am all for it. Otherwise, you can only have what you give, and you can only give what you have.
Peace man.
Hahahahaha, I think I love you.
...Admiral Ackbar?
Beer Blog
Beer Blog
Minnesota
Find me EVERYWHERE:
Beer Blog
Sacramento, CA
hey, man, everyone here knows i'm a cocky motherfucker who's desperately in love with himself.
oh, i wasn't aware that eddie van halen read these magazines faithfully and based his entire career on trying to replicate the amazing bands they review each and every month. here i was, thinking maybe he kinda did his own thing and these magazines just happened to like it. man, i completely need to re-think everything i've ever known now.
yeah, i kinda am implying that. i rarely agree with anyone's "top lists," especially from magazines as commercialized as those you listed, who have a vested interest in keeping their revenues high, even if it means selling spots on their year-end lists. granted, doghouse is not exactly a powerhouse of a label. but we also need to bear in mind my previous statement re: these magazines that love any album with a solo, no matter how oddly placed or uninteresting.
i think that's a safe assumption, considering this place is basically a mecca for this style of music and we still gave it a bad review.
it's named after an album the owner enjoyed as a kid.
i already addressed this, but then again, i am responding after you posted everything.
who spells mozart with two t's? also, this comparison doesn't make sense, because mozart & beethoven are considered among the best composers of all time, whereas jet lag gemini has one album. they have done nothing to establish themselves amongst the top of their respective genre. and i am well within my right, as a listener of tons of music from a wide variety of genres, to be able to say a band sucks, regardless of my feelings toward their exact genre. i may not like country music, but i can still appreciate what few good artists there are in that field. much like i don't like this style of music, but every once in a while, a band pops out at me. this band, however, does not.
because we review just about anything here at decoy. and if it's bad/bland, we will let you know. why would you want to review only good music? you need to show you can differentiate between what makes music great and what makes music stale. also, what is this majority you keep referring to? does 51% of the world fucking drain their balls while listening to this album? because, frankly, i'd never heard of these dudes before i saw the review. and differences in opinion are what make american great! and myself even greater.
we're not trying to portray ourselves as a band...we're a music website.
i'm not really sure what this was all about. but uh, okay.
I'm not here to make things better; only to observe and pass judgement.
Love you right back and, yes, "caddishness" is the correct spelling.
Who said anything abou vH trying to replicate other bands reviewed in Guitar Edge? And yes, good thinking: You write, "these magazines just happen to like it". Indeed, they like Van Halen, and using the apropiate dose of enthusiasm, they like, among others, Jet Lag Gemini and Vlad G. You just helped me make the point I was traying to make when I posted my first comment.
<<yeah, i kinda am implying that. i rarely agree with anyone's "top lists," especially from magazines as commercialized as those you listed, who have a vested interest in keeping their revenues high, even if it means selling spots on their year-end lists. granted, doghouse is not exactly a powerhouse of a label. but we also need to bear in mind my previous statement re: these magazines that love any album with a solo, no matter how oddly placed or uninteresting.>>
Give us the name of a single magazine that has no "vested interest in keeping their revenues high". How does that translate though in ... everything you read there is bull? What is wrong with having one or two good solos in your album. The greatest known cats are the ones who can smoke them strings. You have a right to believe that in the JLG's case the solos were "oddly placed or uninteresting" and I respect that. I also totally disagree with your opinion and incidently so is the vast majority of the reviewers.
<<wo spells mozart with two t's? also, this comparison doesn't make sense, because mozart & beethoven are considered among the best composers of all time, whereas jet lag gemini has one album.>>
The official spelling is indeed "Mozart". Many of us spell it "Motzart" for a reason: it is much closer to the way they pronounce it in Austria. But, once again, you are correct. Other than that, for all the obvious reasons I could have never dreamed of having Beethoven and Jet Lag Gemini on the same pedestal. As mentioned before, and as you yourself are acknowleging, these is a bunch of young kids with one album (plus an EP they put together in the basement of a friend's house). I used Beethoven and Mozart to make my point: if you don't like a certain kind of music it does not mean its ambassador is not a good musician. You obviously got that, as we read:
<< i may not like country music, but i can still appreciate what few good artists there are in that field. much like i don't like this style of music, but every once in a while, a band pops out at me. this band, however, does not.>>
and you are obviously admitting to not liking "this style of music", which is absolutely OK.
<< why would you want to review only good music? you need to show you can differentiate between what makes music great and what makes music stale.>>
My answer to this is the same thing I have been saying from the beginning. Your question however comes in conflict with what you've stated only two lines above. Their album is far from being perfect, and other reviewers have not hesitated to mention that while considering it one of the best albums of the year. It is not about reviewing "only good music" but about tearing into a band that plays "this style of music" you just said you don't like. How can you be objective in your review when you don't like the genre to begin with?
<<also, what is this majority you keep referring to?>>
The majority of the current reviews.
<<i'd never heard of these dudes before i saw the review.>>
You are not the only one who never heard of them before. Maybe you should have googled them. In less than two years their myspace site got over 600,000 hits, they already have fans all over the world and yes, this is only the beginning. Their label, DogHouse is a small independent label, but I know for a fact that there is at least one major label that is putting money as we speak into promoting them.
<<differences in opinion are what make american great! and myself even greater.>>
I certainly agree with you on this one too. It is the main reason why I gave you my opinion today. I am not sure though it makes me feel "greater", but it is great to be able to communicate your thoughts as we are seeking that balance in our life that makes us understand what is going on with our at times not so wonderful world. We certainly do not expect Jet Lag Gemini's career also to be influenced by our take on their music.
Beer Blog
Minnesota
Find me EVERYWHERE:
Des Moines, IA