Jaill’s band name conjures something hard and uncompromising, an outfit that might relish the opportunity to cover Nine Inch Nails’ “Happiness in Slavery” or to emit some Lower East Side scuzz. Surprise! This Milwaukee-based quartet is anything but menacing, delivering hook-infused Garage Pop ditties that wouldn’t be out of place at a Beach Boys convention.
Jaill has released three full-length records since 2009, the last two — 2010’s That’s How We Burn and 2012’s Traps — for Seattle’s Sub Pop Records. According to the band’s website, its latest was “recorded throughout 2011 in (frontman Vinnie) Kircher’s crummy, poorly lit basement, with minimal gear and a control room of thrift store afghans.” It’s easy to hear that context on the resulting record —11 happy-go-lucky tunes that recall the ragged glory of classic ’90s Indie Rock.
Traps crests early with “Perfect Ten,” a Psych Pop gem that brings to mind a less ornate version of Beulah, one of the great under-appreciated acts of relatively recent vintage. That’s preceded by “Everyone’s a Bitch,” which opens with this lyrical salvo: “Everyone’s a bitch tonight/I must admit that I feel like I want to die.” Yet when delivered via Kircher’s pinched, laconic vocals and the band’s loosely applied jangle, we don’t believe for a second anyone associated with Jaill would follow through on such a dire threat.
JAILL plays Saturday, Oct. 19 with The Grotesque Blooms at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. Check out performance times and get venue details here .
