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7/4/2006 3:52:24 PM
MESSIANIC: Jonah Jones’s shivering call sent tremors through the embryonic New England metal scene.
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As an artist, Jenkins has rarely allowed anything to settle or crystallize around him; as a rock star, he’s had an anti-career, austere and self-challenging. His first post-OLW project, Miltown, crisp proto-emo, with a fat record deal, should have been a major-label payday. But Jenkins walked off the job, spitting. His second, Milligram, having perfected their roaring, blue-collar stoner power punk over two devastating EPs, recorded their full-length This Is Class War (Small Stone) at such meltdown levels of fuzz and decay that it became, in effect, an art statement. Raw Radar War, his current band, are pure aggro: clenched speed-attacks, gaping time slumps, what Black Flag’s Damaged might have sounded like if it had been written by late-’80s English anarcho-punks. On stage, the Jenkins glare is undimmed. RRW could in fact be Jonah Jenkins at his most real — hoarse, coarse, highly unfashionable, still gripping the jewel of his anger. After all these years, I ask, what’s he got to be so pissed off about? A bleak chuckle. This is the year of his divorce. “Things haven’t exactly worked out as I planned.”
Jenkins describes his vocals on “December,” the eerie ache of melody that he lays over Stevenson’s crushing riff, as a “peripheral translation of Robert Plant.” Stevenson says, “The thing that I always loved about Jonah’s singing was that he was coming from an essentially hardcore background but he could write these really catchy tunes.” Stevenson, who now plays high-quality roots rock with his band Hank Crane, regards his old mate as “the best lyricist/frontman/singer in town.” Jenkins’s creative foil in OLW, he played drums but also wrote much of the band’s music, including the unexpected, spacious Morricone-meets-Jimmy-Page instrumental interludes that float through both OLW albums. “Everyone was cool with that stuff. They pretty much let me do it, but I knew it wasn’t where the band’s heart was, we really were a heavy band. I started to drift from what we originally wanted to do. But we were good, if I can say that without sounding conceited. We worked hard. I listened to ‘December’ the other day in my car, and when that end section came up, I almost drove off the road.”
“The theme for ‘December,’ ” Jenkins says, “was ‘I love the roar in my ears, the roar of the music, the roar of creating with all these people, of pushing back mortality.’ ” But at the heart of the roar was December, the death of the year. The song’s last words, cried out amid a merciless breakdown, are “Left — lost — tested — empty . . . ” “That was the punch line, at my own expense, because after all this, when it’s really scrutinized, what is there? What have you done? You’re just a regular person.” Left and lost, perhaps. Tested, for sure. Empty? Never.
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After Only Living Witness, Jonah J. Jenkins went on to found Miltown, who briefly signed to Walter Yetnikoff's Giant Records; Milligram, a Boston indie-metal supergroup; and Raw Radar War, who will release their debut album, Double Equals, this summer. Thanks to bands like Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage, a new generation of metal fans are discovering Witness's music. Jenkins recently contributed vocals to "We Cannot Deny" by 36 Crazyfists, and he's just recorded vocals for "Grim Heart/Black Rose," a song that will appear on Converge's next album. Here's a few of our favorite songs from Jenkins' discography, beginning with OLW's "December" and ending with, as a bonus, a cover of the same song by Shadows Fall.
Only Living Witness, "December" (mp3)
Miltown, "Tales of Never Letting Go" (mp3)
Milligram, "Nipple Mountain Clampdown" (mp3)
Raw Radar War, "Lack of Fire Discipline" (mp3)
Shadows Fall, "December" (mp3)
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| The article was good ....
I remember first hearing OLW acouple hours before going to see them live in the early 90's. My singer Chris tossed in the tape of them and I immediatly took to them. They were different than anything going on in Massachusetts or even the world for that matter. Just after a tune or two I asked who is this!?! Only Living Witness he said .. you know the band we're going to see tonight. Made the show even more worth while seeing. I must have seen them 10 times throughout and they never disapointed. Being new to the scene at the time they were one of the first bands we idolized and were influenced by... even to this day.
Bands like Only Living Witness, 6L6, Sam Black Church .... they just don't make em like they useta!
Jeff
Mad Pedestrian
POSTED BY Jeff-madpedestrian AT 07/04/06 1:32 PM |
| '93, I'm driving to work, listening to the radio. I hear the opening chords of OLW's Prone Mortal Form. I pull over to listen, ultra heavy, great voice. Needless to say, right after work I picked up their cd. They still are my favorite band.
POSTED BY olwfan AT 08/06/06 1:11 PM |
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