Precious Jules - Self-titled (Album)
Once you’ve released something that’s cheap ‘n’ nasty, where do you go from there? If you’re Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Beasts of Bourbon) you get your producer friend in to accompany you on drums, he being Mike Stranges (Morning After Girls/Ripe). Then you add some spit and polish and christen it Precious Jules. Heat well and hey presto a glistening new self-titled and debut album.
Precious Jules sees the pair loath to admit that they sound like The White Stripes or The Black Keys, instead likening themselves to Hall & Oates or Wham! But that’s not true because they really do sound like the former pairings as they toy with rough garage rock, punk and pub rock styles with plenty of sneers and an all-round “bad” attitude. Their aim was to thrash some things and leave the results by the side of the road. Y’know have fun now and say up yours to any thoughts beyond the next three minutes.
The 11 tracks can be quite disposable and trashy, think like the New York Dolls with Salmon and Stranges messing with rock ‘n’ roll’s bad-ass nature, meaning it can be as crazy as a circus but also equally silly, offbeat, dirty and hedonistic. It’s basically the stuff of beer-soaked coasters; tight stained jeans; hazes of smoke; screeching yowls; youthful stupidity; and a rock swagger. Just another night down the pub really…
“The Precious Jules Theme” sets the scene with distorted guitars and lots of fuzzy feedback added to a rough-as-nails attitude, leaving Salmon to sound like one Johnny Rotten. “A Necessary Evil” is like a punk anthem put together with a pub rock flavour, think like The Screaming Jets’ “Better” meets The Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant”.
Kim Salmon is one prolific musician, having performed and created music in many genres over his decades-long career and on here we get pockets of that variety. “Shine Some Darkness On Me” is gritty blues like The Rolling Stones mixed with a country twang. And “The Urban Swamp” sees scary apparitions caught up in a contemporary and baron wasteland.
“Cheap ‘N’ Nasty” may have originally been written by Salmon with Dave Faulkner for The Cheap Nasties back in 1977. But here it is given a new lease on life and you could see it influencing everyone from The Ramones and The Saints to The Living End and even the creators of the television show, The Young Ones. Then there’s some buzzsaw guitar on “You’re A Backlash” and “Pearls Before Swine” sees some frantic music – almost like the soundtrack to an emergency – complimented by a droll delivery not unlike Mark E. Smith’s from The Fall.
Precious Jules may be a self-confessed: “Slick pop partnership masquerading as a glam/punk combo masquerading as a garage duo” but all this moonlighting proves there are far more jewels to be found in this particular jewellery box. These valuable blokes sound as enthusiastic, bratty and vital as a bunch of youngsters who think they know everything about the world, even though they haven’t seen shit. The fact that the record offers solid, raucous numbers from two elder statesmen of Oz music makes it seem like one rather spectacular pearl found in the bottom of the ocean and in a most elusive clam. So we must make sure that this doesn’t remain a forgotten treasure or worse, be stolen by pirates.
