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. [buy it]
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.
Tabor sings "Promise," which drips with emotion, though exactly what emotion is a bit elusive. Recently divorced Tabor sings, "She's getting sun on the spot where her ring used to be," though he doesn't sound very broken up about it. Maybe that's melancholia and resignation in his voice. It's ringing power pop, and no matter how many listens it'll take for the message to sink in, it's not easily forgotten. "Bullet Train" is back to that simple riff formula, though it's becoming apparent by this time that Jughead is falling into the trap of writing a few too many songs about a girl just referred to as "she."
"Yesterday I Found Myself," though, is the rhino in the bathtub, as the band turns decidedly progressive for 5:26. Suddenly Sherinian and the band sound positively ominous before taking a hard right into a rave-up chorus. Tabor rips up the solo, and we've got power pop/prog gumbo with harmony vocal topping. It may be the best song on the CD.
Aside from the final track, the meandering "Paging Willie Mays," Jughead spends the rest of the CD veering slightly to each side of the power/jangle pop line, and it's a pleasure to behold. "Be Like You," with its toms/bass workout behind the verses, would be a huge single were there any justice in the world.[buy it]
And in fact, that same just world would find King's X packing arenas (instead of opening for Dio) and the Jelly Jam and Jughead CDs eagerly anticipated by millions of fans and countless radio stations. Instead fans of Ty Tabor and King's X will continue to scoop up any related projects, knowing that they're onto something good. Brian Briscoe
For fans of: The Jelly Jam:Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, Eric Johnson Jughead:Moke, Sugarcult, early American Hi-Fi
THE JELLY JAM
