#269 - The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy (1985)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
BACKGROUND – THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish Alternative Rock band formed by the two brothers, Jim and William Reid in 1983 with various bandmates joining them throughout the years. The band was influenced by The Stooges and The Velvet Underground, and their sound successfully lands somewhere between the Stooges' noise and Lou Reed’s catchy lyrics. The three following albums after Pyschocandy, Darklands, Automatic, and Honey’s Dead also received highly positive reviews. Rising tension between the members developed in the mid 90s, and split up in 1999 after their sixth (and least commercially successful) album Munki.The band reformed in 2007 playing shows and releasing various box sets and greatest hit albums before recording a new studio album, Damage and Joy n 2017.
Originally called The Poppy Seeds, and then Death of Joey, they initially told journalists that they had taken their eventual name from a line in a Bing Crosby film, although six months later they admitted that this was not true. The name Jesus and Mary Chain had been chosen by William and was intended to be puzzling. “I don’t know where [William] got it from, but he just said ‘The Jesus and Mary Chain.’ And at first it sounded like, ‘Naah, no way,’” Jim Reid said in September 2015. “And then you kind of think about it, you think, ‘Well, fuck, that sounds like no other band.’ So we went with it.
During the 1980s, the idea that you say the word ‘Jesus’ in the context of a pop song, and worse, in the name of a band … it was deliberately courting a controversy. It was the sort of thing that the tabloid newspapers picked up on, the flame was fanned for a little while, and some gigs got banned.While the Mary Chain had by then appeared on Britain’s Top of the Pops, U.S. networks wouldn’t be as keen to run a video by a band bearing this possibly inflammatory name. The network attempted to level with the Mary Chain, and work out a compromise that would announce them as the J and M Chain instead. As Craig Rosen of the Los Angeles Daily News reported at the time, the band refused, complaining that the name “sounded like a discount shoe store.” Bobby Gillespie said “It was good being hated, but also knowing that you were doing that without even trying.”
Brothers Jim and William Reid had been inspired to form a band as far back as 1977, having heard groups of the British punk scene. By the early 1980s they formed their own. William stated, "It was perfect timing because there weren't any guitar bands. Everybody was making this electronic pop music." Before forming the band, the brothers had spent five years on unemployment, during which they wrote and recorded songs at home and worked out the sound and image of the band. As neither brother wanted to be the singer, they decided Jim would be via him losing a coin toss. Along with bass player Douglas Hart, the brothers formed The Jesus and Mary Chain in 1980. Taking inspiration from German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten (Ein-stirz-end-uh New-bow-ten), girl group the Shangri-Las, and The Velvet Underground & Nico, they bought a Portastudio in 1983 when their father lost his job in a local factory and gave the brothers £300 from his redundancy money.
After failing to generate any interest from concert promoters and record labels in Scotland, the band relocated to London in May 1984, and soon afterwards he band recorded a demo tape containing the songs "Upside Down" and "Never Understand" which was heard by musician Bobby Gillespie, who in turn passed it on to his friend Alan McGee of Creation Records. Following more London concerts, "Upside Down" sold out its initial pressing. After recruiting Gillespie as their drummer in late 1984, the Jesus and Mary Chain were signed to a major label, and recorded their second single, "Never Understand". The single was released in February 1985, and in March that year they began recording their debut album in North London. Jim mentioned his liking for Pink Floyd, The Monkees and Muddy Waters. Early demos displayed a similarity to the Ramones, prompting the brothers to add another element to their sound; in William's words: "That's why we started using noise and feedback. We want to make records that sound different."
ALBUM BACKGROUND – SOME GIRLS
Psychocandy is The Jesus and Mary Chain’s debut album. The album was originally released in November 1985. The band fused elements of multiple genres to create loud, chaotic, yet catchy noise pop. Traditional pop structures and melodies are used throughout the album, along with blasts of distorted, buzzsaw guitars and feedback. Psychocandy was recorded in six weeks and totaled £17,000 in recording and production costs.
Arguably Psychocandy is an album with one trick and one trick alone -- Beach Boys melodies meet Velvet Underground feedback and beats, all cranked up to ten and beyond, along with plenty of echo. Following up on the promise of the earliest singles, the Jesus and Mary Chain with Psychocandy arguably created a movement without meaning to, one that itself caused echoes in everything from bliss-out shoegaze to snotty Britpop and back again.
The album went on to receive critical acclaim and is considered a landmark recording. its combination of guitar feedback and noise with traditional pop melody and structure proved influential on the forthcoming shoegazing genre and alternative rock in general. The album reached No. 31 on the UK Albums Chart and was preceded by three charting 1985 singles: "Never Understand", "You Trip Me Up", and "Just Like Honey". The band moved away from its abrasive sound with their follow-up album, 1987's Darklands.
Shoegazing Genre: is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume. It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state. The name comes from the heavy use of effects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during concerts. Some other bands besides JAMC that fall into this genre are the Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, My Bloody Valentine, Silversun Pickups, and The Verve to name a few.
This is the one and only time we'll talk about The Jesus & Mary Chain on T500. This album didn't make the cut on the 2020 rerank.