The Media's Latest Flame

By Joe Kavanagh

Over the years, the British music media has acquired a well-earned reputation for going somewhat overboard when it comes to generating hype for new acts, hailing them as the "next big thing" before they've even released an album, then decrying them as bums only weeks later, utterly oblivious to any apparent inconsistency in this process. Entire music scenes have been spawned by the force of the media's will, only to be put to the sword years, and even months later, among a clatter of smug missives claiming that "we told you they were sh**e" . Sometimes, in cases of bands like Stone Roses, Oasis or Arctic Monkeys, the fanfare is legitimately warranted as it paves the way for a genuinely important act, but, more often than not, journalists are simply filling their word counts or even conspiring with labels to create something worth writing about and, more importantly, something worth reading about, in order to shift copy. How else does one explain Menswear, Sigue Sigue Sputnik or The Darkness, whose PR machines burned far brighter than their talent. Even so, despite the fact that the UK media does knock bands down, and unlike their Irish counterparts, they attack the job of building them up with at least as much zeal, which is laudable in its own right. For me, there is a line in Alan Parker's seminal movie The Commitments, that perfectly illustrates the job of the music media, when the character Outspan (played by recent Oscar winner, Glen Hansard) turns to the trÈs-cool Jimmy Rabbite, and says: "You had the Frankie Goes To Hollywood album before anyone had ever heard of 'em. And you were the first to realize they were sh**e." The media's job is to anticipate trends and beat punters to the punch, and in the case that their search fails to turn up something of worth, then they are obliged to grab the next closest thing they can find because fallow years work in farming, but not in the world of TV and magazines. Unfortunately though, you can put all the lipstick you like on a pig but it's still a pig.

As a journalist whose mandate is to cover the music scene on the right hand side of the Atlantic, I am all but obliged to tell you about the latest band that are grabbing all the headlines and hype in the UK. The ludicrously named Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong (JL&TJJJ) formed a little over a year ago, when Jo Lean decided he needed a sideline from his main job as drummer with first-rate Brighton act, The Pipettes.

Armed with a clutch of self-penned songs, he took up singing duties and often recounts to interviewers about how he went about searching for the rest of the band, saying: "I realized I knew the three best guitarists in the country and managed to get one of them to play bass". Although stories circulate (mainly propagated by the band) that they had a single deal after their first sound check, a publishing deal by their second gig and a record deal by their fifth gig, the truth differs slightly, as they spent the first year of their existence working on their songs, holding off on playing live until they were entirely ready. Taking old Motown, Doo-wop, Dick Dale and garage music as their jumping off point, the band also incorporated pop elements inspired by the likes of Kylie Minogue to forge a sound they claim as their own, but something that others derisively pass off as "corporate indie". Their formula or not, the band hit paydirt in quick smart time, with no less than eight record labels in attendance at their tenth gig, a phenomenon that had many wondering if there wasn't more than meets the eye to these cocky new kids on the block. For every internet post that touted them as an important new band there were others in equal measure that passed them off as an overly polished ersatz Strokes, while rumors abounded that they were just a bunch of rich kids driven as much by their parents money, as any songwriting ability.

In Joe Lean's case certainly, there is more than meets the eye, with one journalist wondering aloud as to whether the brash vocalist is "an indie intellectual or prime pop buffoon." The grandson of Baron and Baroness Von Moyland, his real name is actually, Joe Van Moyland, and he also counts one Sigmund Freud as his great-great-uncle and Edward L Bernays (the "father of modern day PR") as his great-grandfather.

Like his esteemed psychologist ancestor, he is also prone to flights of alliterative fancy, telling one recent interviewer: "I think the current sonic aesthetic, as it were, is a really versatile and popular one, but over the last 20 years, this sonic aesthetic has become more and more diluted". While it's hardly enough to hang the guy for, words like that certainly don't diminish charges of pretentiousness. Additionally, his claims to be inspired by acts like New Kids On The Block and Jason Donovan, and his decision to write songs for Sugababes and Sophie Ellis Bextor, rankle purists. Finally, before he was making waves in a band with a silly name, he was acting under his real name, starring in cult TV show, Peepshow and period drama, The Tudors, although he recently dismissed actors as "vapid, ambitious little creatures". Strange words for a man whose acting career only ended months ago.

Naturally, this notion that Joe Lean and his cohorts are little more than a group of twentysomethings who would use any means necessary to attain fame would carry less weight if the music was actually nearly as good as they so belligerently believe it is. The evidence provided so far does little to persuade me that they are anything more than a poor man's Razorlight, with an equally irritating frontman. Their two singles, Lucio Starts Fires and Lonely Buoy (which is released next week but has been knocking around on the internet for months) are hardly the type of tunes that you could build a buzz around, never mind a scene. Some of us might have looked quizically at the coronation of the Klaxons last year, and the attendant, ephemeral New Rave Revolution that was cooked up by the British media, but at least the Klaxons had a fresh sound and a handful of compelling tunes. Bland and bereft of original ideas, the best thing that I could say about Joe Lean and company on the basis of their music so far is that they are not awful, but never has the gap between hype and substance been so distant in my opinion. Ordinarily, I actually feel sorry for bands who have the "next big thing" tag attached to them, such is the inevitable weight that it brings to bear but not so in the case of this act, who not only embrace the mantle but actually add their own hyperbole to the mix. Such is their self-regard that goodness knows how good they will think they are by the time their album arrives later this year, but suffice to say that their estimation will be a few clicks south of reality. In a recent interview, the band claimed that "any friends we might have had hate us because of the hype". Well, I am not adverse to a spot of hype, or even a turn at posturing, hate is too strong a word, but I don't like JL&TJJJ purely because of their music. And that's really all it should ever be about.

Make up your own mind on the UK's latest "best band ever" when Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong open for the Pigeon Detectives (an actual good band!) in New York's Mercury Lounge on March 11, or the following night when they play their own gig at the Big Apple's Union Hall.