Aural Fixations

THE JELLY JAM
The Jelly Jam
(InsideOut)
JUGHEAD
Jughead
(Ear Candy/InsideOut)
As you may know, Ty Tabor's main gig is with Houston's King's X; as guitarist and singer, he's the Lennonesque vocal counterpart to bassist Doug Pinnick's hot rod pipes. For over a decade Tabor and Pinnick (along with drummer Jerry Gaskill) have unleashed albums that were never bad, and occasionally quite good (1989s Gretchen Goes to Nebraska being considered by many fans and critics to be the pinnacle of King's X's catalog). He branches out into side projects here and there, though, and lately he's been rather prolific.

The Jelly Jam is essentially an ongoing side band of Tabor's, two-thirds drummer Rod Morgenstein (Dixie Dregs, Winger) and bassist John Myung (Dream Theater), a revamped Platypus minus keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Forging on as a trio, they're nevertheless Tabor's band, as he produced and mixed the CD, wrote the lyrics, and did some engineering (i.e. setting up and recording, i.e. grunt work). Immediately on "I Can't Help You" the band sounds like they're using Tabor's songs as an opportunity to conduct a prog workshop; odd time signatures and hotshot touches flesh out the arrangement. This isn't Rush's Moving Pictures by any stretch of the imagination, but there's a definite sense of the musicians pushing each other.

Still, Tabor remains deeply rooted in pop hooks and vocals. For a man who has admitted in interviews that he never wanted to sing, lush harmony parts such as those found on "Nature's Girl" just flow from him. But before long the bridge rolls around, and Myung plays an impossible riff that the band locks onto and rides for a while. It sounds like fun.

So it's a fine balance between the wistful pop and musician's bootcamp approaches. "Reliving," for example, finds Tabor singing "All the things about my youth/That made me high/I don't mind reliving/I was so much happier back then" before swan diving into his underrated six-string pyrotechnics. The title track could almost be from Gretchen with its volume pedal (or volume knob) guitar atmospherics and otherworldly echoes. The whole band works the vibe together, though, as Tabor lays on riffs and licks. It won't part any substantial bodies of water, but it's a far better piece of instrumental rock than most.

Jughead, on the other hand, finds Tabor working with ex-Platypus keyboardist Sherinian again. This time Sherinian is doing most of the singing, and the whole band (rounded out by sibling rhythm section Matt and Greg Bissonnette) writes. Immediately it's clear that Jughead is a power pop outfit, and in fact, one wonders if six degrees separated from their own sound is a punk influence somewhere. For a moment anyway.

Matt Bissonette is a perfect vocalist for this brand of energetic chunk and jangle, and having Tabor singing backup vocals must be like having Alex Rodriguez in the on-deck circle behind you. "C'Mon" is rockin' and rollin', and Tabor is doing his wordless vocal harmonies in the background, and life is good. (more)

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