They could’ve called the band Nature AND Nurture. Biological brothers Jake and Jamin ("jammin"?) Orrall hail from Nashville and happen to both be sons of singer/songwriter/producer Robert E Orrall. They were bred into music and formed JEFF the Brotherhood in 2001, as high school students. The pair couldn’t have avoided music if they tried, but it’s clear there is some God-given talent at work here as well.
Though their successful pop was more focused on country music, Jake and Jamin blend punk, psychedelic, metal, and even surf rock into an aggressive package that still manages to give off a laid-back sentiment that sets them apart from other blue-collar, male duos from the heartland. Yes, both produce wicked blues-based rock; but whereas Patrick and Dan of The Black Keys deliver a more soulful sentiment that is, by now, pretty tight, the Brotherhood sounds more unhinged, more helter skelter – somehow, more garage.
"Heavy Days" could be the most beautiful assertion of post-punk teen angst in the post-Nirvana era. With the entrancing guitar hooks and über-nonchalant, Jonathan Richman-esque vocals, it’s an anthem for simultaneously not caring and being angry as hell at the world. The observation "I guess it’s nice to see my friends, things are going pretty ok," bobs along over stripped down guitar (it only sports three strings – damn cheap hippies) in an aggravated salute to the mundane.
The lyrics suggest a reluctance to accept life being "pretty ok." The boys sound boxed in to the ho-hum world those lines create, and they pass on the turmoil via driving wah-wah guitar effects, raucous drums, and a vagueness in tone that not-so-subtly screams discontentment. You kind of want to smack them for delighting in cool affectedness. But they’d probably get off on that.
Let’s just agree to turn it up and enjoy them for what they are: A talented, eccentric duo that’s making the most of musical genes and circumstance, putting out a creative rock mélange that probably sounds as good in their basement as it will on the Lolla stage.
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