The Observer, September 14, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 3
Jonny Lives! falls short with debut album
click to enlarge
The compliments have been showered upon "rock" band Jonny Lives! since their leadman Jonny Dubowsky graduated with honors from New York University as a philosophy and literature student. With accomplished band members Christian Langdon (guitar/vocals), Tommy USA (bass), and Jon Weber (drums), Jonny Lives! has benefited from an open art scene embracing its style in East Village, NYC. Dubowsky certainly cannot help dropping names when describing his music, citing "The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and The Who" all in the same sentence. In fact, Jonny Lives! are so good, they have been touring with Kaiser Chiefs all over in Europe before they even released a CD, prompting one UK music critic to hail them as "pant-droppingly brilliant."
However, the praise does not come to fruition with the release of Jonny Lives!'s first full album, entitled Get Steady to match the lead single. With the deep black and purple caricature of New York City plastered onto their cover and credentials unheard-of for a band so young, you would expect Jonny Lives! to blow the cover off your laptop. False. Popping in Get Steady gives you a sound more reminiscent of a Grand Funk Railroad tribute band, with slow, generic riffs that clearly expose their youth. These would be the guys who open up for the guys who open up for The Beatles tribute band at the local YMCA.
The voice of leadman Dubowsky is emo-esque as he tries to be rocking and wild, but instead delivers a performance that can only be described as lazy, bubbly, karaoke music. The perfect example on the CD is "Outside," offering nothing new or exciting, coming across as much more pop-sounding than you would expect. It represents the album as a whole. The Fray, Snow Patrol, John Mayer, and their like can appeal much more to the mainstream.
The Village Voice described them as the "Post-Radiohead future of rock." If this is the future of rock, let me run for cover. Nothing really comes off as inspired. As leadman Dubowsky croons on "Lost My Mind," one just has to reply back, "I just don't believe you."
As rock, the album is an utter failure, but the indirect style Jonny Lives! creates works for some of the songs. The best examples are the lead song "No Good" and "Diamonds and Roses." It's cute, bubbly, and fun music to listen to when you're outside throwing a Frisbee or something. I can see the East Village crowd loving Jonny Lives!. It's only a matter of time before the incessant tambourine wins you over. The most intriguing bit on Get Steady is "Everybody's Trying To Break You Down," purportedly inspired by Yoko Ono and easily doubling as the best song on the album. With Dubowsky going for a more raspy sound and bringing the drums more into the forefront, this song actually showed some creativity and perhaps a glimpse of hope for Jonny Lives!.
The best thing for Jonny Lives! to do is to get out of Europe and East Village, and come back to America to play at some real venues across the country. It looks like Jonny Lives! could use some soul-searching, a bit of a push by a big-time producer, and some sass behind their music, because the potential is there. Unfortunately, their first album is a misfire. They play with a false sense of security, which certainly won't cut it in the corporate music world.
