Reviews of music and personal experiences by Chris Hearn

24.4.07

Hit the Jackpot "Clowns"
CD 2006 Fucken' Stoner Records


I first saw Hit the Jackpot play at Belladonna DIY Fest 2004 in Wollongong NSW. I didn’t catch much of their set because they were on at 6:00-6:20pm as the doors were opening and I was at the end of the line. I wasn’t that interested at first, but later picked up their self-titled EP and it slowly grew on me. I like that about a band.

Being South Australians, and busy running what might be Australia’s premier (maybe someone can clarify this with me?) CDR label, Fucken’ Stoner Records, HTJ didn’t make it up to NSW much, and whenever I was in Adelaide I missed them. The next time I saw them I was opening for them in December 2005 on a show with Sweet Raxxx and Kiosk. By that time they’d recorded their debut album Clowns, but were screwing around with the art, or on getting it replicated rather than just burning it or something, so they were selling a 3 track CDR with three Clowns tracks: Dead Tree, Daryl Hannah, and Jarrod. I immediately got hooked on that and listened to it frequently for the best part of the next year. I spammed their myspace profile all the time and bugged them to put the album out quicker. I made it to Adelaide at the end of May 2006 on tour and they were still screwing around with the artwork.

Clowns finally came out in the last half of 2006, around September I think. I got a copy just before I left the country but didn’t get to listen to it ‘til I got home. There’s one thing disappointing about it, and that’s that it only has 8 songs, and they are really short songs. In fact it doesn’t clock in much longer than the EP.

It’s easy to compare Hit the Jackpot to Beat Happening. They play loosely, falling in and out of time, but never so much that it’s irritating to listen to. The beats are simple and driving, playing the drums with one stick and one shaker, and minimal kick. The bass glides around the drums and the vocals sit low in the mix. It’s hard to say who in the band is playing guitar in each song - I’m pretty sure it’s shared around - but the guitars might just be their trademark, the parts a bit more complex than the other instruments. Power chords doubled with discordant melodies, like a more aurally distinguishable Wipers, or a more heavily distorted Sonic Youth. Mostly-guitarist Kynan once told me that people always imagine that their guitar parts are really complicated and are surprised when they see how simple they are to play. That’s because they uses some really creative tunings though - he could get away with being much less humble.

Kynan and Jess have a house that they built a recording studio into, and that’s where the album was recorded. They did a fucking tops job. I bothered Kynan about recording my next album for me, and I hope that I will eventually get around to going back to Adelaide and actually do it.