MEAN JEANS
NEW SINGLE WITH VIDEO "LOST MY MIND"
The new single with the video for "Lost My Mind" can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3PdZnFoNO4
Make way, Judge Judy! Mean Jeans take control of the courtroom with their irresistibly catchy new song "Lost My Mind". This is the new single from their highly anticipated album “Blasted".
Billy Jeans says:
"I had a dream where our bassist was a TV judge, and I think that’s his true calling. We put him in a judge's robe, scored our new song "Lost My Mind", and the rest is history. This video also serves as a pilot episode for a Judge Jeans series we would produce this year if anyone wants to get involved."
Since their formation 15 years ago, Mean Jeans have created their own slime-punk fantasy world. Looking at their six previous album covers, you’ll find junkyards full of bongs and yo-yos, macaroni galaxies, Jägermeister spaceships, alien saxophonists, and pink snails in bondage dripping with slime. On their latest album “Blasted", the trio clearly has wild years behind them and has seen quite a bit - on the cover, the three members emerge from toxic waste barrels, no longer mere caricatures of themselves, but as incredulous country maniacs still following a slime-punk dream and grappling with where it has led them. This is not to say that the Jeans have become jaded. In fact, the band - Billy Jeans, Houndy, and Junior Jeans - seems to be having as much fun as ever on this album, racing through these 15 rapid-fire earworms without taking a breath. They appear to focus equally on catchy songwriting and incorporating Easter eggs and absurd lyrical references, including (but certainly not limited to) Tim Armstrong's X-Files cameo, Mike Schank's PCP overdose story in American Movie, several songs with lyrics about their space-obsessed pop-punk relative Tom DeLonge, a borrowed chorus from Seal, and a not-quite-legal piano collage of well-known pop-punk melodies.
Anyway, this record is a fast and frenetic ride, albeit probably one made in Rick from Rick And Morty’s space cruiser and through time and space, rather than in any form of road-bound vehicle here on Earth. But this energy was likely amplified by the fact that the band recorded Blasted entirely on their own here on this planet. At least at The Trash Treasury in Portland, OR - the city where the band first met and one of the least Earth-like cities on the planet. At their own behest, the trio was completely on their own and tried to be in two places at once - in the control room and in the recording room. A portal gun from Rick might have made it easier, but who needs a producer or engineer? That’s just another cook waiting to spoil the delicious, fluorescent green slime-punk broth.
"Studio time is just more fun when no one is in charge," says Billy Jeans. "To some extent, I know what I’m doing, and to some extent, the other guys know what they’re doing, but none of us are professionals. For example, Junior had to run to the control room, hit the record button, and then run back while holding the bass, and then we played. It’s ridiculous, but when it’s just the three of us goofing around, the vibe is there.”
You can hear that all over “Blasted". It’s a quirky, wonderful, and crazy album, but not without its occasional serious moments. Mean Jeans are - after all these years - still a band that loves to party, and they continue to do so in these songs. However, now and then, you might feel a bit of regret, if not a full-blown hangover. The opener "I Don't Give A Shit Anymore" may sound like a nihilistic declaration of intent, but it’s more of what Billy calls a "anthem for the underthinkers", a direct response to him thinking about everything all the time, while "Look What Punk's Done To You", "Took Too Much", and "I Don't Know What I Did Last Summer" all address the decline of life in the fast lane. But then there’s also "Something's Going On", the best (and probably only) song ever written about the cult horror B-movie Class Of Nuke 'Em High from 1986.
At the same time, the album also serves as a kind of meditation on pop-punk, about what it means to be a punk band and not just a band that plays music in the style of punk. Can you be both? Is that even important? Maybe. Maybe not. What matters is that Mean Jeans have made an album with Blasted that defines what they are and what they are not at the same time. Most importantly, they had fun making it, and it’s an absolute joy to listen to. For Billy, that’s always the goal.
"We’re a band that’s here for the good time," he says. I’ve always thought if we’re not having fun, then it’s not Mean Jeans. That’s not a recipe for success in the music business, but I could complain about that all day if you want. "What’s the difference between a bitch and a punk?" He doesn’t answer his own question, but maybe you’ll find it somewhere in these songs
NEW SINGLE WITH VIDEO "LOST MY MIND"
The new single with the video for "Lost My Mind" can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3PdZnFoNO4
Make way, Judge Judy! Mean Jeans take control of the courtroom with their irresistibly catchy new song "Lost My Mind". This is the new single from their highly anticipated album “Blasted".
Billy Jeans says:
"I had a dream where our bassist was a TV judge, and I think that’s his true calling. We put him in a judge's robe, scored our new song "Lost My Mind", and the rest is history. This video also serves as a pilot episode for a Judge Jeans series we would produce this year if anyone wants to get involved."
Since their formation 15 years ago, Mean Jeans have created their own slime-punk fantasy world. Looking at their six previous album covers, you’ll find junkyards full of bongs and yo-yos, macaroni galaxies, Jägermeister spaceships, alien saxophonists, and pink snails in bondage dripping with slime. On their latest album “Blasted", the trio clearly has wild years behind them and has seen quite a bit - on the cover, the three members emerge from toxic waste barrels, no longer mere caricatures of themselves, but as incredulous country maniacs still following a slime-punk dream and grappling with where it has led them. This is not to say that the Jeans have become jaded. In fact, the band - Billy Jeans, Houndy, and Junior Jeans - seems to be having as much fun as ever on this album, racing through these 15 rapid-fire earworms without taking a breath. They appear to focus equally on catchy songwriting and incorporating Easter eggs and absurd lyrical references, including (but certainly not limited to) Tim Armstrong's X-Files cameo, Mike Schank's PCP overdose story in American Movie, several songs with lyrics about their space-obsessed pop-punk relative Tom DeLonge, a borrowed chorus from Seal, and a not-quite-legal piano collage of well-known pop-punk melodies.
Anyway, this record is a fast and frenetic ride, albeit probably one made in Rick from Rick And Morty’s space cruiser and through time and space, rather than in any form of road-bound vehicle here on Earth. But this energy was likely amplified by the fact that the band recorded Blasted entirely on their own here on this planet. At least at The Trash Treasury in Portland, OR - the city where the band first met and one of the least Earth-like cities on the planet. At their own behest, the trio was completely on their own and tried to be in two places at once - in the control room and in the recording room. A portal gun from Rick might have made it easier, but who needs a producer or engineer? That’s just another cook waiting to spoil the delicious, fluorescent green slime-punk broth.
"Studio time is just more fun when no one is in charge," says Billy Jeans. "To some extent, I know what I’m doing, and to some extent, the other guys know what they’re doing, but none of us are professionals. For example, Junior had to run to the control room, hit the record button, and then run back while holding the bass, and then we played. It’s ridiculous, but when it’s just the three of us goofing around, the vibe is there.”
You can hear that all over “Blasted". It’s a quirky, wonderful, and crazy album, but not without its occasional serious moments. Mean Jeans are - after all these years - still a band that loves to party, and they continue to do so in these songs. However, now and then, you might feel a bit of regret, if not a full-blown hangover. The opener "I Don't Give A Shit Anymore" may sound like a nihilistic declaration of intent, but it’s more of what Billy calls a "anthem for the underthinkers", a direct response to him thinking about everything all the time, while "Look What Punk's Done To You", "Took Too Much", and "I Don't Know What I Did Last Summer" all address the decline of life in the fast lane. But then there’s also "Something's Going On", the best (and probably only) song ever written about the cult horror B-movie Class Of Nuke 'Em High from 1986.
At the same time, the album also serves as a kind of meditation on pop-punk, about what it means to be a punk band and not just a band that plays music in the style of punk. Can you be both? Is that even important? Maybe. Maybe not. What matters is that Mean Jeans have made an album with Blasted that defines what they are and what they are not at the same time. Most importantly, they had fun making it, and it’s an absolute joy to listen to. For Billy, that’s always the goal.
"We’re a band that’s here for the good time," he says. I’ve always thought if we’re not having fun, then it’s not Mean Jeans. That’s not a recipe for success in the music business, but I could complain about that all day if you want. "What’s the difference between a bitch and a punk?" He doesn’t answer his own question, but maybe you’ll find it somewhere in these songs
