NOS Jones - Modern Life
Alternative/Alt. Rock, Pop, Progressive Rock
California, United States
Overall Impression: California based Prog-Pop compatriots, Nos Jones present their thoughts on today's society in the aptly titled "Modern Life". What starts life as a somewhat manic early 80's No Wave inspired bit of anti-pop, with allusions to first world problems (road rage, parking tickets, etc), soon calls out societies blind dependency on consumer culture. And with a chorus that reminds us all that, modern life is the first day of the rest of your strife. vocalist Karlen Kane shows that there is some serious intent in this music. After a jaunty piano and guitar solo, Kane highlights one of the more serious problems with modern life as presented in the lyrical passage, "Overfed internet child. Alienated, socially mild. Ku Klux rhetoric lingers. Take the gun from his cold dead fingers.". As a clear reference to the multiple young American shooters that have surfaced over the past decade, driven by a diet of racist and hateful rhetoric, Nos Jones use what could be a rather simple, low-fi pop number to deliver an extremely important and timely message about the more troubling sides of modern life.
Strongest Point(s): The vocals have a perfectly uninterested, aloof feeling, that compliments the subject matter of the song. Recalling vocalists along the lines of David Byrne, Fred Schneider, and Andy Partridge. The music is chaotic, and feels like the musicians could just be messing around in the studio. But upon closer examination, there seems to be a very deliberate intent to the arrangement and instrumentation.
Target Audience Appeal: For fans of the late 70's Art-Punk sound. Or early 80's New Wave and especially NY No Wave. Could also really appeal to Proto-Punk, College Rock, Alternative, Glam Rock, and Power Pop fans.
Artist target suggestions: The Fall, XTC, Devo, Talking Heads, Television, Pixies, The B-52's, The Modern Lovers, Nick Lowe, Wire, Elvis Costello, James Chance & The Contortions, Pere Ubu, Violent Femmes, They Might Be Giants, Cake, Buzzcocks, Ween, etc.
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About the Reviewer:
Joshua A. Pfeiffer is a music nerd who spends countless hours researching music, and curating public playlists and DJ mixes, to spread awareness of emerging musicians and to highlight the wonderful world of music history. Josh has a deep affection for most genres and eras of music, is an active, professional, award-winning DJ (DJ FACT.50 - Best of the Bay 2019 ~ SF Weekly), twitch streamer, amateur audio engineer and working musician. As founder, lead singer, and co-songwriter of the band Vernian Process, Josh has over 15 years of experience in the music industry. And for nearly a decade, was the owner and head writer for the online community post-punk.com.