Young Agent Jones is back with a new album and new possibilities. The band is reportedly being courted by major record labels and after hearing their new album, Women Who Love Men Who Kill, I can see why. Young Agent Jones is composed of lead singer/guitarist Jason Jones, drummer Mike Yeager and bassist Ben Hodge. They have long been a staple of the Starkville music scene and since their debut album in 1996, they have been slowly working their way up the ranks of the national profile chart.
Surprisingly, Jones caught the rock buzz when he lost the inspiration to fulfill a childhood dream.
“I was a big polka fan growing up, I watched the Lawrence Welk show all the time,” Jones said with a laugh. “I’ve always wanted to play the accordion, but I never could get good at it.”
While Jones may have lost his infatuation with polka, he hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
Just by reading the track list, one can detect an insatiable sense of humor with comical track titles such as “I Can’t Fidget” and “Guilty Balloon.” However, it is not until the deeply buried “5waystoleaveyourstalker” when the hint of comedy finally comes up for air. A steel guitar and acted Dwight Yoakam vocals give it a country tinge while the lyrics give it a sense of well-meaning but dark humor, kind of like one of those old Merle Haggard songs that, when played backwards, brings back the wife, the truck and the dog.
The rest of the CD, however, is not quite as CMT-friendly. In fact, with the way this album shifts colors, it should be played on Animal Planet with all the other chameleons.
After hearing the first track, “El Ventriloquisator,” the listener may mistake Jones for Richard Butler, the raspy Brit who fronted ’80s mainstay Psychedelic Furs and mid-’90s burnout Love Spit Love. However, the greatest strength of the track lies in Jones’ lyrical ability to say “if only” in as many ways possible without actually saying it.
On the next track, “Franklin Mint,” Jones’ vocals shift to a more boyish tone like that of Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus, but the ’80s feel is still there with weighty guitar chords reminiscent of The Waitresses’ “I Know What Boys Like.”
Women is enhanced with tunes like “All You Are” and “Invincible” that are characterized by uplifting, pulsating Jimmy Eat World rhythms and spiraling guitar solos. Speaking of uplifting, some songs were written to be tributes.
On “Johnny Unitas,” Jones credits the legendary quarterback for practically everything short of parting the Red Sea. Of course, and with some irony, the tune was written well before Unitas’ recent death.
“It’s really a metaphor for fixing a love gone bad,” Jones said. “Johnny Unitas was a clean-cut athlete that people could associate with not just as a sports icon, but as an everyday guy, and that helped them get through their troubles.”
“A is for Arthur” is a jiving ditty performed in the key of the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” that does not just pay homage to tennis great Arthur Ashe, it roots for him as ardently as a die-hard Penn State fan at the Rose Bowl.
While the album has a few passing glimpses of cheeky pop from the decade of Pac Man and Reaganomics, the grunge revolution of the early ’90s does not go unnoticed. Tracks like “I Can’t Fidget” and “Stay On Your Side” serve as a sort of Nirvana/Stone Temple Pilots hybrid complete with razing guitar riffs, pummeling baselines and airy vocals that sound like they’ve been projected through a megaphone.
While Women succeeds at not taking itself too seriously, “Oh, Yeah…” gives the album’s deft hand a brilliantly appropriate sore thumb. It gives the listener a hint of driving, brutally honest Stevie Ray Vaughn blues-rock mixed with a dash of Sister Hazel pop-rock to keep it lively and radio-friendly.
In spite of all the nuances the band seems to inherit from the aforementioned artists, Jones said his influences include Frank Black, The Pixies, Sonic Youth and old-school Lenny Kravitz.
“I can live without the new Lenny though,” he said.
Like all songwriters, Jones sometimes has trouble getting his pen going, but when he does…
“It comes and goes, but once you start, it’s like Pringles,” he said.
With Women, Young Agent Jones has an album that is uplifting but not overly religious. Humorous, but not off-the-wall goofball. Confessing, but not depressing. Rocking, but not deafening. To put it in layman’s terms, it kicks butt.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Find out for yourself at the band’s CD release party tonight at Dave’s Darkhorse Tavern. The show starts around 9 p.m. with an opening performance by Nashville-based Second Saturday. Doors open at 8 p.m. with a $5 cover charge. For more information, call Dave’s Darkhorse Tavern at 324-3316.