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The Jerks.
 Formed
after meeting up in a high school music program, and having
stuck with the current line-up for the last two years, The Jerks
are getting known throughout Adelaide’s punk scene. They won
dB Magazine’s competition to open the Loudmouth concert at Memorial
Drive last year, an experience they say gelled everything for
them, and they haven’t looked back since. They’re sure about
where they want to be right now and what they want to do: record
and play more music.
"With our next album, the stuff we’re writing at the moment is even freakier stuff. Like every song is..." says Alex, trailing off. "Mixed up without getting into that whole 70s-Yes-experimental rock kind of thing. Still punk rock," Matt adds with a grin.
But for now we have ‘Revolution Time,’ the first album for the young punks from the northern suburbs, recorded at Industry Studios in May last year on a shoestring. "We had limited money so we had to do it as fast as possible," Alex adds. Matt cuts in, "We saved up pretty much to the exact cent to get in there. We recorded those 15 song tracks in two days, so they were all bang, bang, bang, bang. You can tell on a few probably. But it was really good, we learnt a lot."
"It was more of an experience this one, hopefully people like it though," Alex adds. "With the next one, we’ll know what we’re doing more."
‘Revolution Time’ is a call, not to arms, but more to minds and attitudes to stand and challenge the crap that society dishes out. Their anti-commercial, down to earth attitude is captured in their songs.
"It’s all of our thoughts and influences, social and political, and Matt seems to put them into verse really well," says Alex.
"Alex is kind of like a political dictionary," Matt laughs. "We’ll say ‘Alex, Social Darwinism?’ – and he’ll just click out this long winded, technical speech and then I’ll just put it into this little verse, and four stanza’s that you can sing with a little clap to it. That’s kind of our formula. Working this way means that the songs have more than a single perspective to them."
They sing about the disadvantaged, disillusioned, and the maladjusted, from day-to-day hassles to larger social issues, from local streets to the global problems of war and injustice.
"It pisses me off, you get bands like Good Charlotte and they’ve got such an audience, millions of kids listening to every word they say," Matt spits. "So what do they say? Girls don’t like boys, girls like cars and money. Thanks for that brainfart. In times like these, there’s a bit more to say."
"We sing about anything that affects us. We’ve got a stage, so we might as well use it," adds Jake.
Speaking of stages, their live shows include saxophone and organ alongside the band. "The last show, Smith the sax player climbed up on the rafters, hung upside down, grabbed the mike and sang Punch Up On Smith St while we played," Matt laughs, "which scared the shit out of me because I had no idea he was getting up there. I went to sing and the mic just disappeared above our heads."
"They’re not in the band." Jake adds, dryly. "They just play our shows."
The Jerks have seen their following develop, along with the local scene. "Because you had 99 Reasons Why and Seraph’s Coal breaking up last year and STR weren’t around, it sort of meant someone had to fill the void," Matt reasons. "So you’ve got all these young bands coming up."
"Bands like Standard Union, Bombscare, Cheapshot, we gig with them all the time, the Travelling Sacks from way back. It’s more friends than ‘hey, you’re in the other band!’" says Alex.
"A lot of them are like brothers," adds Matt. "Owen from Standard Union did the flyers and the CD cover for us. Didn’t ask for any money or anything like that, just did it out of the goodness of his heart. Adelaide punk’s pretty close at the moment."
Blake Lewis
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The Jerks launch ‘Revolution Time’ at Fowlers Live on Fri 6 Feb.
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