'JUMBO' by Juicebumps: Channel Surfing in The Upside Down

Author

Michael Bang of Tell Me Tell Me

stream JUMBO

Have you ever wondered what a musical that roaches would put on after hours in a black box theater would sound like? Welcome to Juicebumps. Self described as “the Bay Area’s favorite hard to listen to spank-rock band, they excrete a signature blend of hot garbage & vaseline that goes down thick and leaves you hankering for less.” Opening song “Scatterbrain” sets the expectation: “My scatterbrain is in a million little pieces.” Juicebumps make it super clear from the start: this music is Weird with a capital W! It’s a radio show from the otherworld and it’s a great time.

The album feels like the muppets took over public access on Mars. “Supercool” sounds like a video game made by someone who got fired for putting inappropriate jokes in Metroid. “Dead Asleep” features gutter philosophizing, where tin foil hats are the height of fashion. Lasers fire “Supercool” into uncharted regions of electromagnetism. Music theory nerds get plenty to chew on (and probably spit out), with piles of dissonance, abrasive timbres, and collage like rhythms.

No vocal is un-affected, either by actual audio effects or general attitude. Voices and characters chime in on the Adult-Swim-core “Soopermart,” finally concluding “put me in the freezer looking for a good time one of us will die here.” The lyrics all come from whatever substation their cosmic antenna is tuned to. A bludgeoned Devo riff spines “Monosodium Glutamate” (I definitely already knew what that title means, I totally didn’t have to google it.)

They end with the banger-ballad-banger that is “Kanker.” As a whole this is fusion from smart minded bad students who didn’t respond to that book learnin’ but liked the creepy man who followed them to class. There’s some Primus, some Slint, some Ty Segall in his off kilter moods. It’s angular, it’s sharp, it’s dense, it’s playful, and it’s silly. There’s lots to love. Pairs well with Scary Scare, Nina Durango, and Gumby’s Junk. 5/5 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖