#Matt Korvette

[sinceileftyoublog]

Mclusky's Good Intentions

Mclusky's Andy "Falco" Falkous

BY JORDAN MAINZER

"Fuck This Band". It's the name of the song Andy "Falco" Falkous and Mclusky have been opening their sets with on their triumphant return to many North American cities, including Chicago last Friday at the Vic. It's an effective calm before the storm of noise and chaos that inevitably enraptures the moshing crowd. And it's an appropriate sentiment, tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecating, referential to the very loud ruckus that presumably caused the initial postponement of these tour dates to begin with. A Molotov cocktail of aural health issues forced Falkous to make fans wait a little bit longer to celebrate 20 years of Mclusky Do Dallas. It was immediately apparent from the opening chords of "Dethink to Survive" that our patience paid off: Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone donning protective headphones, the band launched into a burst of razor wire guitars and pummeling percussion, and never stopped.

From left to right: Mclusky's Damien Sayell, Jack Egglestone, Falkous

Sayell, Egglestone, & Falkous

The post-hardcore band's influence is wide-reaching. You can hear Falkous' everyman sprechgesang in the cubicle shouts of Pissed Jeans' Matt Korvette, his frantic non-sequiturs in the nervy yelp rock of Squid, both of whom were featured on the house playlist before Mclusky took the stage. But the band continues to be good at its own game, too. Last year, they shared their first new material in 19 years, and they played two of those released songs on Friday, sounding like 2002 just as much as 2023. "Two minutes and forty five seconds is the optimum length of a rock and roll song," Falkous declared, after letting the audience know it was okay not to pretend they like new songs. But "Unpopular Parts of a Pig" is a trademark Mclusky tune, alternating between deceptively melodic shouts and droning chants, plus a loud-quiet-loud dynamic and sardonic lyrics chiding useless platitudes. Thematically and instrumentally, it nestled perfectly between the ugly guitar distortion and Damien Sayell's meaty bass on "Day of the Deadringers", and crowd favorite "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues". Meanwhile, the blown-out bass of "The Digger You Deep" and unreleased barnburner "Et Tu, Edwards?" gave the crowd a chance to let loose between "She Will Only Bring You Happiness" and "You Should Be Ashamed, Seamus", two The Difference Between You and Me Is That I'm Not on Fire songs that satirize the tortured artist and toxic masculinity.

Sayell, Egglestone, & Falkous

Really, though, to a certain generation of Mclusky fans, Friday first and foremost represented an event we thought would never come. To hear Falkous' introductory chirping on "Without MSG I Am Nothing", Egglestone's brawny thuds on "Chases", and the shout-alongs of "To Hell With Good Intentions" and "Alan Is a Cowboy Killer" was a thrilling exercise in nostalgia for some and disbelief for others. Towards the end of the set, Falkous took the time to thank everyone involved in the show, even those he had met just that night, an act of working class solidarity before his effortless bout of sarcasm: "This cavalcade of sincerity must end soon." Given Falkous' ability to lighten the mood through his well-intentioned derision, it's easy to see why Mclusky continues to be great today.

Falkous

Sayell

[spilladabalia]

Pissed Jeans - Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt

[thesearenotphotographs]

Pissed Jeans at Roberta’s

Full gallery available here.

For the second year in a row, Creem Magazine took over the backyard of Roberta’s in Bushwick, Brooklyn for an entire day for a show called Summer Sunburn. This year’s event began in the afternoon but since I was shooting something else, I didn’t arrive until right before Pissed Jeans took the stage as the headlining act.

The quartet from Pennsylvania performed songs from their new record, Half Divorced, along with playing older material and ending the show with “False Jesii Part 2,” from their 2009 album, King of Jeans, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year and has a reissued LP that you can purchase from the Sub Pop Records webstore here.

I realized during their set that I’ve been seeing them perform live for over a decade now and I’m so grateful that they’re still going strong albeit $62,000 in debt.

[senorboombastic]

‘Half Divorced’ - Listen to the eleventh episode of ’60 Minutes or less’, the new podcast from Birthday Cake For Breakfast – featuring Matt Korvette of Pissed Jeans!

Words: Andy Hughes ’60 Minutes or less’ – the new podcast from Birthday Cake For Breakfast – returns with one for the noise-heads, our eleventh episode featuring a particularly enjoyable chat with Matt Korvette, choice shouter in head-wreckers Pissed Jeans! Notorious noise punks with almost twenty years in the game, Pissed Jeans first melted this particular brain over a decade ago with a kooky…

[dustedmagazine]

Pissed Jeans — Half Divorced (Sub Pop)

Photo by Ebru Yildiz

“Too bad/we’re screwed,” Pissed Jeans vocalist Matt Korvette triumphantly spewed on “No Convenient Apocalypse,” the eponymous side A of last year’s standalone single. Come this year and the sentiment hasn’t changed much. But, for this band, has it ever? Gleeful, supercharged pessimism is what they do. If anything, in Half Divorced, the Allentown, PA, quartet’s sixth full-length Jeans get even more explicitly bummed; the stakes yet higher, the scraping on the way to rock bottom increasingly frantic. Titles like “Cling to a Poisoned Dream” and “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt” make past complaints like “Ashamed Of My Cum” (Shallow, 2005) or “Caught Licking Leather” (Hope For Men, 2007) seem trivial in the face of an interminable mid-life crisis, 21st century-style.

“Cling to a Poisoned Dream” and “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt” are back to back and act like a pair. Both are fast and raucous and delivered with a truckload of bravado. Of course, this being a Pissed Jeans record, the bravado never lapses but the words strip it naked. The former’s title is a refrain, each hopeful qualifier immediately undercut by a reminder that the pursuit will, at best, make you sick, even if you manage to “keep [your] head down [and] swallow what’s left of your pride.” The latter gets more specific. While you’re clinging, make sure you’re paying things down – sure, you’ll inevitably “pass it on to [your] child,” but you can look forward to “someday [being only] sixty one thousand dollars in debt.” Maybe you’ll even smile once in a while!

Pissed Jeans are one of the few bands who can be described (with little fear of provoking a contemptuous eye roll) as “skewering” things. This applies to their treatment of personal near-ruin, as in “Sixty-Two Thousand…” and “...Poison Dream,” and, just as sharply, to the odious other — the people they’ve been unlucky enough to interact with. The apex of the form is, appropriately, “People Person” from Hope For Men, but Half Divorced’s “Helicopter Parent” is a worthy addition to their canon of oblivious and unpleasant characters. From the first line (“Oh you started getting bored, so you went and had a kid”), Korvette excoriates the psyche, the past, the present and future of his titular target over an ominous, feedback-riddled stomp laid down in unison by the rest of the band. By the last lines (“It's time to reflect and maybe contemplate respect instead of/micromanagement because it's just a generational dead-end”), he’s moved past annoyance to hit on something more fundamentally disturbing. It’s not only financial debt that one generation passes down to another, but their vapidities and hang-ups. It’s a dead-end; it’s a vicious cycle.

Like their Sub Pop label-mates in Mudhoney, Pissed Jeans back up their humor and disgust with hurtling, curdling sonic assaults – you can practically feel yourself shoved into a cloud of sweat and moshing bodies when the chorus hits on “Junktime.” But there’s often more than initially batters the ear. For all the sturm und drang on Half Divorced, the component parts of each song are well-differentiated and clean. You get a clear sense of both the individual performances and their interaction. For instance, on “Everywhere Is Bad,” we’re greeted by the thick slashes of Bradley Fry’s guitar, but never lose track of the tight, manic beat of Randall Huth’s bass as it scales the writhing jungle gym of sound, courtesy of Fry and drummer Sean McGuinness — delightfully, the latter takes a break from blasting elephant-caliber birdshot to bust a round, infectious solo. The call-and-response litany of dismissals, in four words or less, of everywhere from Mars (“could use some air”) to hell (“too many dudes”), are the highlight of the song, but the groove carved out by the band’s heavy agility makes the punchlines stick.

Pissed Jeans have always been able to make a personal grievance or mild hassle sound existential — see putting on a tight black shirt versus not bothering on “False Jesii Part 2” (King Of Jeans, 2009) — but with Half Divorced the desperation gets dialed up. When, on “(Stolen) Catalytic Converter,” Korvette says “I feel sick/but I can’t puke,” it seems right to extrapolate the almost absurd helplessness widely. The crass, humiliating and, worst of all, mundane depths of lives that aren’t quite falling apart are well-plumbed in the back catalog and that chronicle continues here, with vigor and feeling. Like the figure on its cover, Half Divorced stares down a smoking hole in the ground, the band hollering for everyone (someone, anyone!) to come look. “Too bad/we’re screwed.” At least we know it now.

Alex Johnson

[theehorsepusssy]

hi HP! i’m always happy when you post music, i think we like a lot of similar stuff. do you like the band METZ? i feel like every time i listen to pissed jeans they come on, too. you might like them!

Im glad you like. I know Metz. They would pop up all the time when I had amazon music. I like Pissed Jeans. Matt Korvettes funny snarly face kinda gives me a boner.

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Audio: Pissed Jeans Share a Bruising Ripper

New Audio: Pissed Jeans Share a Bruising Ripper @ThePissedJeans @subpop @subpoplicity

Throughout the course of their 20-year history together, Allentown, PA-based punks Pissed Jeans — Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) — have never been known to go halfway: They’ve long been known for material that pairs feral vocals and acerbic, biting lyrics with buzzsaw guitars — and for their unhinged live show.  The Allentown-based punks’…

[daggerzine]

Pissed Jeans- “No Convenient Apocalypse”  (Sub Pop single)

Though it’s been six years since their last record (their 2017 full-length Why Love Now), not much has changed for these Allentown, PA noisemeisters. They’re still grinding stumps down to the bone, like a static mix of Poison Idea, Killdozer and Turbonegro. 

Vocalist Matt Korvette mentions “vaporizing cloud” in the opening lyrics, but it’s hard to tell what else he’s singing about, while the rest of the best merrily punches along. 

This song will be the a-side to a physical 7″ single released next month (with a live recording of “Bedroom Laughter” as the b-side) and is a teaser for the band’s upcoming full-length. 

Hey, it’s Friday, just celebrate this band is not only still together, but offering us gifts, too. Come on, don’t be shy....they don’t bite.  

www.pissedjeans.bandcamp.com

www.subpop.com 

[bostonpoetryslam]

Matt Korvette, published in Wax Nine

[slovenlyrecordings]

Matt Korvette at Yellow Green Red weighing in on anti-capitalism, creepers, and perfect punk with Tommy and the Commies.

[sinceileftyoublog]

KEN Mode Album Review: Loved

BY JORDAN MAINZER

For Winnipeg hardcore band KEN Mode, 2015′s Success was a sonic left-turn towards indie rock and punk. It didn’t fit them well. With their new album Loved, they return to the juxtaposition of darkness and humor that made 2013′s Entrench such a success. Along with Pissed Jeans’ Honeys, that album represented the apex of corporate working man’s rock--both PJ singer Matt Korvette and KEN Mode’s Jesse Matthewson worked full-time office jobs and often sang about the monotony of daily life with a tongue-in-cheek bend. Fast-forward to Loved, which seems like the proper follow-up to Entrench, and Matthewson--having started a business management services company with his brother and bandmate Shane and having moved to Thailand to study Muay Thai full-time--has the same sense of biting humor with the benefit of more life satisfaction. Loved is dark, but it’s more fun than Entrench, Matthewson’s sense of perspective allowing him to dig even deeper at the minutiae of life.

Not to say that KEN Mode have become autobiographical or even remote storytellers--Matthewson’s lyrics are still generically angry and wry, second-fiddle to the band’s pummeling instrumentation. What you can decipher makes its mark along with the music. On anthem “Not Soulmates”, he laughs, “You’re going to continue enjoying this mistake with me,” referring to a relationship with a shit-eating grin. “Feathers & Lips” is an upbeat track about aggressive politicians compensating for their lack of ability to physically fight. Eight-and-a-half minute closer “No Gentle Art” is one of many to feature saxophone from Kathryn Kerr; Matthewson’s screaming with her spinning woodwinds adds to the chaos of the song. And while her playing at the end of a grungy track like “The Illusion of Dignity” might seem out of place or forced, she jazzes up the complex, loud-quiet-loud “This Is A Love Test”. Matthewson, too, seems like he knows when to push and pull; he used to be completely pissed, but now he gives and takes, like the boxer that he is.

7.3/10

[spilladabalia]

Pissed Jeans - Moving On

[thesearenotphotographs]

Mudhoney, Pissed Jeans, and The Art Gray Noizz Quintet at Warsaw

On Saturday, October 13, 2018, Seattle’s Mudhoney played their only show outside of the Pacific Northwest in Brooklyn, NY. They were joined by their Sub Pop Records label mates, Philadelphia’s Pissed Jeans, and local act, The Art Gray Noizz Quintet.

I covered the show for Music Existence and the full gallery is available here.

Mudhoney and Pissed Jeans also played together in Manhattan eight years ago at Bowery Ballroom. Photos from that show are available on Flickr here.

[senorboombastic]

This One Song… Pissed Jeans on Junktime

Tell you what – we love hearing from artists when things go right. We equally love hearing from artists when things go dreadfully wrong. A song that was a piece of piss, written in 20 minutes? Or years in the making and a bastard to write? Whether it’s a song that came together through great duress or one that was smashed out in a short amount of time, we’re getting the lowdown from some of our…

[thebowerypresents]

Pissed Jeans – Rough Trade NYC – June 7, 2018

If you’re not moving fast enough, Pissed Jeans will move you. Maybe you’re like a chair—they have this real smacker of a song, you know, called “Have You Ever Been Furniture”—and that chair’s in the way of a full-scale stampede out the door, and despite its sturdy constitution, has no chance of staying put. A sludgy, sinewy punk band with an angsty attitude big enough for an aircraft carrier, Pissed Jeans have been blazing for years now, visiting New York City at least a few times a year from their home base in Philadelphia. Thursday’s headlining show at Rough Trade NYC felt like the unloading—unburdening!— of a long week.

Over time, their albums have gotten sharper sounding—less trashy lo-fi—but they’ve never not sounded like they’re bracing for impact, whether in a viciously defiant, howling kind of way or a dirge-y, stomping one. They’re still tearing T-shirts, assaulting microphone stands, affixing twisted smiles and bug-fuck stares at their audience, and spinning tunes that span everything from the indignities of the coddled man-child to astrology and TV romance.

Let’s see, standouts: “The Bar Is Low” and “Ignorecam” are things to be pummeled by—the former stabbing, the latter more of a sledgehammer with scream-bellow vocals atop. I’m partial to “False Jesii Part 2,” which makes the Jesus Lizard sound calm and librarylike, and “Bathroom Laughter,” that TV-lampooning song with the wackadoo QVC-informercial-parody video, which is flamethrower punk and hardcore. Start anywhere. You’ll get your head torn off and you won’t mind. —Chad Berndtson | @Cberndtson

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Pissed Jeans Shares Anthemic Ripper "Moving On"

New Video: Pissed Jeans Shares Anthemic Ripper "Moving On" @ThePissedJeans @subpop @subpoplicity @fdnieto @JoeStakun

Over the course of their 20-year history together, Allentown, PA-based punks Pissed Jeans — Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) — has never been known to go halfway: They’ve long been known for material that pairs feral vocals and acerbic, biting lyrics with buzzsaw guitars — and for their unhinged live show. The Allentown-based punks’…