Music Monday: Pissed Jeans Grow Up (+ Free MP3)

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Pissed Jeans
King of Jeans
Sub Pop

To people whose last whiff of Sub Pop came sometime in the late ’90s—as grunge’s last fart lingered just a little too long—Pissed Jeans probably sound like an evolution of sound. Their hard, slow-swinging punk is soaked in the patented, scuzzed-out heaviness that once made the label a king maker.

A critical distinction, though: Pissed Jeans have an absolutely ferocious angst creeping through each song, and deep punk roots, which makes them palatable to people (like myself) who could never get down with the Northwest grunge scene. Hailing from Allentown, Pa., the band draws its sound more from the old Amphetamine Reptile roster of noise rock or, going further, from the hectic noise of Touch & Go’s Jesus Lizard and Butthole Surfers, or even Flipper.

 

On King of Jeans, Pissed Jeans’ third album (due out tomorrow on Sub Pop), the band mates continue their battle with the monotonies of life. Their irritation with the everyday hits a crescendo here, as heard in exercises of witty hyperventilation like the opener “False Jesii Part 2” (click here for a free MP3), “Lip Ring,” and “Dream Smother” (about being too tired to do anything). Wave after wave of self-loathing and doubt wash over you, filling your lungs with salty, nervous sweat, soaking you in an uncomfortable reality that maybe hits a little too close to home. I can relate anyway.

Some songs, like “Request for Masseuse,” crawl through the speakers and slink around your head not unlike an old, warmed-over Black Sabbath dirge, slowly singeing everything in its path. As you’re still putting out that fire, they turn around and smack you with “Human Upskirt” a fast, killer, no-frills hardcore song—not unlike something Richmond, Va.’s Government Warning would unleash.

If you wanna see Pissed Jeans flaunt their massive macho dot, check out “Goodbye (Hair).” It stand outs in that singer Matt Korvette talks over uncharacteristically sluggish backing music in a laconic, tormented way, lamenting the loss of his hair. Not a catchy sing-a-long—no topping “Boring Girls,” off PJ’s 2005 debut, Shallow—but a song of raw, twisted man-angst more tortured, more real than anything you could read in Men’s Journal or Esquire.

That’s the band’s secret ingredient. Each album—consciously or not—contains the theme of growing up, if not just getting older. Shallow wallowed in late-teen/early-20s anxiety (Cue “Ashamed of My Cum.”) Their follow-up and 2007 Sub Pop debut Hope For Men, channeled a transition from relatively carefree teenager to young man trying to make it on his own (“I’m Turning Now”). And now here we are with King of Jeans, expertly skewering (or being skewered by?) early signs of middle age.

Pissed Jeans are currently touring on the West Coast. You can follow MoJo music reviews on Twitter via #musicmonday or at @MotherJones.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate