Track of the Day: Jukebox Zeros
Slightly later than billed, Slezegrinder brings you a brand new track courtesy of Jukebox Zeros. Click here for previous Tracks Of The Day. Stay tuned for another free track in our Tee Pee Tuesday feature!
Some people refer to Philadelphia as the City of Brotherly Love. Others call it Hostile City. I was there once, and I’m going to lean towards the latter. It’s so humid in the summer that your clothes are soaking wet minutes after leaving the house, and downtown Philly seems to have more than the average bustling metropolis’s share of aggressive, crack-addicted, multiple-amputees. Also, all the food will kill you. Everything’s slathered in cheese and stuffed into bread. It’s nuts. However, it’s also the home of some amazing rock n’ roll bands like, erm, Ween and the Hooters. And today’s subjects, The Jukebox Zeros.
Formed in 2003 under a cloud of cigarette smoke and liquor fumes, the Jukebox Zeros united over hard luck stories and a common love of dirty rock n’roll. Press them on it, and they’ll tell you how much they all dig the NY Dolls, Iggy, Thin Lizzy, and Cheap Trick, who they often resemble, in the big-honking-hooks department. They don’t often mention ELO, but they cover ‘em on the new record, nonetheless, so throw in a bubbly layer of 70’s cheese on top, as well. Fronted by Philly garage-punk legend Peter Santa Maria (ex-Beretta 76) and rounded out with a gang of hard-living miscreants, the JZ’s bash out fast n’ loose action-rock with sugar-sprinkled choruses, the kind of stuff you can either dance or riot to, depending on how your weekend is playing out.
A fun fact about ‘em: Peter Santa Maria is 20 years older than the rest of the guys in the band, yet he can run the fastest. He chalks it up to more years experience outmaneuvering parole officers and angry ex-girlfriends. Another fun fact: Mr. Santa Maria is a contributor to Philly-based rock/wrestling/porn/Custom Car Culture magazine Carbon 14. Yours cruelly got his start in that very same magazine. Check out their online home here: http://www.c14.com/ What else? Well, let’s ask Peter. He should know.
“We recorded the new EP ourselves at our practice space. We didn’t have the money to go to a real studio, but we also wanted the recording to sound raw and unproduced, so we just setup an 8 track recorder and knocked it out live. None of us had any real recording knowledge, we just kinda knew what we wanted it to sound like and just went for it.”
“We ‘competed’ in a battle of the bands sponsored by Little Steven’s Underground Garage when the band first got together 6 years ago. We lost out to some pretty boys who looked like The Strokes Jr. I honestly don’t even remember their names. Flash forward a few years later and we get personally picked by Little Steven himself to open up on the Philly show of one of the Little Steven Underground Garage tours, so I guess perseverance pays off. Ha.”
“Last time we opened up for the Fleshtones, Keith Streng hands me his guitar to play during their song “Push Up Man” (Keith and singer Pete Zaremba go into the crowd during this song and have a push up competition), and while I am trying to get up on stage with Keith’s guitar, I have had a good amount to drink this particular evening, I fall and almost snap the neck off of the guitar. Yikes. Scary moment. Luckily nothing happened to the guitar, but I did fuck my knee up. So much for me being a rock ‘n’ roll star.”
So there you go.
The Jukebox Zeros have just released a blazing new EP, the aforementioned rehearsal room wonder Rock N’ Roll Ronin, on Rank Outsider Records. I have given it several test runs already, and I can tell from the angry neighbors pounding on the walls that it rocks with sizable ferocity. It’s available now from CD Baby for the super-low price of only $8.00, but because we’re dealing with a gang of true-blue rock n’ rollers, they’re offering up the EP’s smash hit “Lawsuit Guitars” free to Classic Rock readers this week. Here it is, courtesy the band, and Rank Outsider Records.
http://rapidshare.com/files/245002052/03-Track_3.mp3
If you like what you hear, visit them at their website and buy whatever they’re peddling. Unless it’s covered in cheese. That shit’ll give you a heart attack.
PS: Want to read a blog written by a stripper in Philadelphia who gives you the lowdown on exactly why it’s called Hostile City? Of course you do.
Correcction!
Peter is young and good looking. And he doesn’t write for C14 anymore.
Me either. It was a good ride, though.