Can't Maintain - Andrew Jackson Jihad

Andrew Jackson Jihad.

A name with a twist.

A name for a band.

A band.

That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? Bands. And this one is pretty darn good.

Now, the modern ‘folk punk’ scene includes such groups as This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, Ghost Mice, Ramshackle Glory, and Defiance Ohio (among others)- and it’s the unfortunate truth that for many novice listeners of this genre they all sound pretty much the same.

Now, once you delve a little deeper the differences between each group become wildly apparent; Ghost Mice, for example, is entirely acoustic, and is easily the most frantic of the groups that I’ve listed. Defiance Ohio, aversely, uses a much more melodic approach to its songs, bordering the sphere of folk rock at times.

Andrew Jackson Jihad is a different beast. From track to track, they don’t hesitate to vault across the genre; while they typically maintain the quick-strumming and driving vocals inherent in punk music, they’re not afraid to incorporate more unusual elements- bringing me to my review of their fourth studio album Can’t Maintain.

Released in 2009 and boasting thirteen tracks, this album didn’t really garner much public attention. Like many punk bands, it supported a fairly fervent cult following.

Beginning with the stuttering “Heartilation” and the opening lines, “I want to break apart my heart, move the pieces to my car, crash it into a wall, I don’t want to feel it at all”, Can’t Maintain locks into the angsty punk groove right away.

This continues throughout the entirety of the album, with fun side-tracks such as “Kazoo Sonata in Cmaj” and the Southern Blues-esque “Love Will Fuck Us Apart”- not to mention the sixth track, “Olde(y) Tyme(y)”, which stands reminiscent of some pseudo-riverboat romp.

I would say that the highlights of this album can be found in the third track, “Love in the Time of Human Papillomavirus” (which incorporates strings large and small as well as a killer set of lyrics) and “We Didn’t Come Here to Rock” (which directly and ruthlessly calls out their critics while also making good use of percussive bells).

The twelfth track, “Who Are You?” is a fairly personal song concerning the singer’s father who was absent during his life. The lyrics are pretty righteous, and they manage to incorporate saxophone and trumpet on top of their fast-paced structure. In my opinion, this track could have easily served as the end of the album. It serves as a nice little node of emotion and the instrumentation feels tight. That being said, the final track on Can’t Maintain, titled “White Face, Black Eyes”; a sort of punkish ballad that incorporates a string section towards the end. It seems a little out of character at first listen, but, ultimately, I would say that the drawing out of the album for this one, pretty closer was a good choice.

So, at any rate, this reviewer would call Can’t Maintain a shining example of the diversity that Andrew Jackson Jihad brings to the folk-punk genre; and I would highly recommend checking out some of their other albums (People Who Can Eat People are the Luckiest People in the World and the much more briefly-titled Knife Man are great points for further exploration) as well as looking further into the folk punk scene as a whole. A score? I don’t know. If Queen’s Jazz would be a 10/10, this would probably get right at a 7/10. This is an exponential scale, right?

Pretty good score.

All right, I’m out.