the Flat Duo Jets

Sometimes, when my day is going shittily and my mood is that of a constipated Victorian gentleman from an Oscar Wilde play, I have this strange, depressing attack of panic where I feel like I've found all there is to find musically in the world. You ever get that? You're sitting at home, in front of the computer, with all the expanses of the internet and the world at your fingertips, and you can't think of a damned thing to watch, listen to or read.

Then something magical happens. Someone gives that Victorian gentleman a colonic and out comes my new favorite album (try to get that image out of your head, i dare ya).

Ladies and Gentleman, The Flat Duo Jets.



A little background information.

The Flat Duo Jets were a (mostly) two piece rockabilly/cowpunk/blues band who formed in North Carolina in the mid 1980's and broke up in the mid 90's, giving them just enough time to create one of the most unique sounds in the history of modern rock, meanwhile helping to spawn an entire genre of music (neo-garage) and leading to the possibility of such bands as The Strokes, The Black Keys and, especially, The White Stripes. This prototypical Guitar/Drums band is the REASON we're rocking out to such White Stripes cuts as Rag and Bone, one of the best songs on Icky Thump. Jack White regularly cites this band as a major influence, and you can hear it in dozens of other bands that have climbed the charts in recent years.

Now, I understand that this sort of puts more credo to the idea that Jack White steals everything he does but, hell. Everyone does. Zeppelin, the Doors, the Stones, even the Beatles were accused of plagiarism in their days, and they've stood the test of time.

The thing that I find so impressive about the Flat Duo Jets is this. I first heard of them, and heard a little of their music, in the documentary It Might Get Loud, where Jack White, The Edge and Jimmy Page show their musical influences, history and jam a little bit. White was ranting about how big of an influence they were so I figured I should check them out. The internet, being the tidal wave of access that it is, seemed unable to do much in terms of giving me free Duo Jets albums (because everyone knows only chumps pay for music. Kidding). The only one I could find, repeatedly, was a live album called Two Headed Cow , which is actually the soundtrack of sorts to a documentary of the same name based around the band (the documentary hasn't got a wide release yet, but you can find it if you look hard enough). I was hesitant to take a live album as the first impression I have of this band, especially considering what I presumed would be the result of such a live album: the sonic thinness that some White Stripes and Black Keys live cuts yield.

My my my, how I was wrong.

This album blows the hinges off my expectations. It's everything I love in music right now: Rawness, looseness, speed, attitude, and tons of distortion. With the charts, radio waves and clubs dominated by slicked over Kanye or Timbaland or Lady Gaga songs that sound like a computer on a spaceship in a Kubrick film approximating what it THINKS music sounds like, this album sounds like The Black Keys and the White Stripes covering Link Wray in a barroom in Hell. Cuts like Rawhide show how dynamic this band can sound even in an instrumental, while Frog Went a Courtin' proves that even centuries old songs can be shined up and made new by a few kids with electric guitars and grease in their hair.

This album, and this band, are clearly an important piece of musical history, and a good look at where some of the best music of today learned it's chops. And it's also incredible for this reason: although the band only recorded from the mid 80's to the late 90's, every one of their tracks sound timeless, at once raw and polished, like that old guitar in your closet with the bent neck and the broken tuning keys. Sure, it may not look like much, but it can still howl.

-M