There's a Hole in Yer Music Collection an' it's called The Jug or Nots

The Jug or Nots

Anachronism is in.  Men (and women) are sportin’ waxed-up moustaches.  Craft libation makin’ is all the rage.  Midnight cyclists fantasize their neon fixed-gear bicycles earning them a spot in the lineage of daring penny-farthing riders from days of yore.

Anachronism has also been makin’ inroads in popular music as of late (again).  There are banjos on mainstream radio.  The bluegrass/hip-hop alchemy of Justified’s theme song has been nominated for an Emmy.  Baz Luhrmann’s revisioning of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby foxtrots to Andre 3000.

The nature of anachronism, however, is just that.  It’s anachronistic.  There’s always the omnipresent reminder that an out-of-time cultural reference is being made.  This isn’t a bad thing.  Anachronism exists for a reason.  But it’s also important to remember that interest in the “real thing” has also survived the test of time, and with Southern California’s Jug or Nots’ self-titled first release, that’s exactly what you are getting.  The real thing.

The Jug or Nots play traditional American street music from the 1920s and 1930s, and they do it all acoustic with bonafide traditional instruments including cigar box guitar, kazoo, washboard, and various kitchen utensils.  They perform as an ensemble on street corners, farmers markets, harvest festivals, tiny juke joint stages, and from the flatbed of parading hay wagons.  And when you see (and hear) them perform, you’re hard pressed to shake the feeling that perhaps you’ve momentarily slipped through a warp of some kind and are witnessing contemporaries of Cannon’s Jug Stompers or the Mississippi Shieks.  There’s no Twilight Zone here, though, folks.  The Jug or Nots are the real thing… and that’s just what they set out to deliver with their first studio recording: the Real Thing.  Good news.  They succeeded.

The Jugs’ initial recording offering is a collection of traditional and original tunes committed to posterity with the utmost care in preserving the “accurate” feel and sound the band works so hard to evoke with their live performances.  There is no anachronism here.  These gents determined to provide us with a set of songs that truly sound like they are from an earlier, simpler time, and that’s exactly what the listener comes away with.  If you like your jug music to actually sound like it was made in a time when jug music was king, this is the recording (and band) for you.  Their rendition of the “Spider-Man” theme will have you doubting your own cache of pop culture knowledge.  They make it sound like such a tried and true jug band tune that you’ll be googling the superhero’s history to assure yourself that you haven’t been wrong in your assumptions all this time and that Spider-Man is not actually a 1930s contribution to the comic world.

Don’t give up on anachronism, but don't mistake the Jug or Nots for such.  If you have a soft spot for a contemporary band that can transport you wholly into a bygone era, causing you to momentarily forget that the recording you are listening to is not actually 80 years old, then the Jug or Nots (and their CD) are the band for you.  They are traditional, heartfelt, bawdy, and very talented at the niche they are carving out for themselves.  Try them.  They’ll have you believin’ that “the sales tax is on it” is a brand new contention for regular fellers everywhere.

Lay yer hands on it here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jugornots

Watch 'em here:  http://youtu.be/WHG7JdOi7Ms