'What Would Jesus Drive?' Demo Review

My first article for Audioscribbler since the Angry Teenager (he'll be returning on Friday). Sadly not a great Demo to review. Get a bit of a prickle of conscience when reviewing demos if I don't like them because the last thing a band wants to hear when they're starting out is that they're shit. Unfortunately you can't give everyone a good review and sadly these guys don't get one. If it's any consolation for them my review itself's pretty poor as well.

Review

What Would Jesus Drive?: We Made This Type: Promo EP Review Date: 18/02/2008 Url: www.myspace.com/whatwouldjesusdrive Label: Split Records Your Rating: Unrated Add a comment to your rating

Simon Jay Catling

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In hindsight I probably could have made my mind up about What Would Jesus Drive? before reviewing this EP just by going onto their Myspace. In a real ‘fuck the world’ punk way they proudly claim ‘I don’t give a fuck about your band’ and proudly announce on one of their blogs that they have the IQ of a ten year old.

Quite.

So, onto the EP itself then. First track Boomtown Twats (see what they’ve done there?) actually starts off very well; reminiscent a little of Elastica just before they got lost in a world of silver foil and syringes, but when Amy Casey opens her mouth and proclaims ‘Fuck me it’s about time that someone took offence to what I said’ the cringe factor suddenly becomes apparent. Angry, tight, punk musicianship is fine, but if What Would Jesus Drive? think that they’re the first band to try and make a career on being controversial then they’re going to be sorely disappointed. Emphasising their Myspace motto the duo once again go on to claim that ‘none of us don’t give a fuck about your band’ with the kind of mind-numbing banality that seems to be far more successful than it ought to be these days. Fans of The Enemy will probably think it genius.

Second track I Think We Rushed Into This shows improved melody over the EP opener with the first person lyrics lamenting about rushing into a relationship with someone they’re not really that fond of. There’s a nice groovy little synth line and the whole thing actually ticks along rather nicely, although a mid section to flesh out the whole thing would probably be much appreciated. However; all this promise is sadly undone just over three minutes later with an absolutely logic-defying cover of Grease favourite and all round musical classic ‘The One That I Want’. I’m sure, well I hope, Casey and Tim Box are genuinely covering this for a bit of a laugh because God help them if they’re taking themselves seriously. The Travolta and Newton-John masterpiece was never meant to be dealt the treatment of angular Futureheads style jagged guitars and heavily accented sulky vocal deliveries; to be honest covering a song such as this is just the sort of antic your first high school band would decide to pull off in order to impress your peers at a school variety show.

On opening track Boomtown Twats Amy claims that ‘we don’t take kind to harsh words’ so I’ll try and keep this is as short as possible. Whilst What Would Jesus Drive? think that they’re running against the grain in a cocky and confident manner, they in fact merely come across as a band who need to do a lot of growing up, and fast. In they’re own words, ‘I don’t give a fuck about your band’. Sorry guys.