JERKS OF ATTENTION

"This time last year if you'd told us that this is where we'd be in a year's time I don't think we would have believed it." While Jebediah vocalist / guitarist Kevin Mitchell may sound a little gobsmacked at the band's 18 month ride and rise from enthusiastic rehearsal room proposition to bona fide national touring act, there's certainly nothing gee whizz about the band's music or their attitude.
You know when you've walked into that indefinable 'it' because you don't walk into it all that often. Well, here it is: Jebediah combine infectiously raw pop with some neat punk rock savvy and literally throw it at you from the stage.
"Even in rehearsal, when we're doing something new and we're all getting into it, we still like to jump around and go nuts," says Kevin. "I remember some rehearsals when we'd never played a gig and we'd be playing and just knocking over these mic stands, jumping around. It was crazy."
Adds guitarist Chris Daymond: "It's that thing where everybody wants to be a rock star or something. You know when you've got the tennis racquet and you're jumping around in the lounge room? This is the same thing except that ... we actually play music and people actually like it."
Actually, they like it a hell of a lot. Jebediah's debut EP Twitch, debuted at #1 at home in Perth, and airplay on Triple J and Recovery not to mention several eastern states tours with bands like Snout, Automatic, Bluebottle Kiss, Something For Kate, Big Heavy Stuff and Ammonia, has seen to it that their national star is shining even brighter.

If Twitch opened the door, the band's new single Jerks of Attention kicks it off its hinges Recorded at Birdland Studios, Melbourne the punk pop drive-by kiss is accompanied by an equally frenetic video that Rage just won't stop playing. Straying a little from the more structured approach of Twitch, the single also features the live faves Denver and Bosco. Revel in 'em.

Jebediah will be touring nationally through February to follow up appearances at Homebake and The Big Day Out. Meanwhile, stay tuned also for the debut album. It just gets better, it just gets bigger.

"The way we've been doing things has worked up until now" Kevin summarises. "Brett once said 'I don't know what it is that we're doing, but let's keep doing it 'cause it's working'. So we'll just keep on doing what we're doing."

SLIGHTLY ODWAY

Kevin Mitchell - vocals, guitar
Chris Daymond - guitar, vocals
Vanessa - bass
Brett Mitchell - drums

Perth, June 1997. The lighting rig is a flying trapeze. The microphone stands are bouncing kingpins and the stage is a communal springboard. Kevin Mitchell lurches back as his mike is kicked over for the tenth time, Chris leaps forward to bark the chorus of "Benedict". Brett keeps his head down with sticks flying while Vanessa remains, as usual, lost in her own spinning world under blue hair and brandishing a dangerously mobile bass guitar.

Pandemonium comes easy to Jebediah. But then, so does everything else. Like their guitarist Chris says, "There was never any trial and error. Just error". Jebediah's first mistakes were in a rehearsal room in Perth, Western Australia, in May 1995. They remember thrashing songs by Archers of Loaf and and The Muppets until Chris Daymond stumbled over the riff to "Superhero 6.5". The floodgates to a repertoire of brash, ridiculously tuneful distorted pop were blown off their hinges.

Kevin, Chris and Vanessa had met in their theater arts classes at Leeming High. "It was the most creative subject we could do", remembers Chris. "It got you out of a lot of classes", says Vanessa. "And it gave us the experience of being on-stage in front of lots of people", Kevin adds significantly.
Kevin's older brother Brett had been drumming in local bands for years when he was called upon to complete Jebediah - a name taken from Jebediah Springfield, the founding father of the Simpsons' hometown. "Chris was saying if he ever had a kid he was gonna call it Jebediah", Vanessa says. "Since he didn't have a kid we decided to steal it".

Young, cocky, cool, magnetic and utterly possessed by their music, Jebediah took to the rock & roll stage like they'd been there all along. And Perth audiences took to them with the same instantaneous rapture. On their seventh gig, Jebediah won the West Australian semi-final of the prestigious national Campus Bands Competition. In October 1995 they flew to Lismore, 4,000 kilometers from their tried-and-true home base, to take out the Australian title. It was their 13th gig.

"The bidding war thing, from what we've heard, can really sting a band", Kevin recalls of the next whirlwind stage in the young (average age 20) groups career. "If we were in Melbourne or Sydney and all the press knew about it, it could have really over-hyped the band".
Several months of discreet free lunches concluded with a signing to Sydney-based label murmur, home to silverchair, and Perth's own dirty pop heroes, Ammonia. What Jebediah were looking for among the fine print was "cool people more than anything, people who understood where we were coming from", says Vanessa.
Kevin: "We never did a demo. We never sent anything. We did squat. It was based purely on the live thing, and that's cool. To me, that's still the most important thing".

You betcha. In January 1996 Jebediah were selected to play the local leg of the all-star Summersault spectacular alongside Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters, Beck, SOnic Youth, Pavement and Rancid. In June 1996 they took on their first grueling tour of Australia with Snout and Automatic. The year progressed with a succession of punishing road trips with Ammonia and Big Heavy Stuff; Blue Bottle Kiss and Something for Kate.

Twitch: Jebediah's first EP, debuted at Western Australia's No 1 chart position in August 1996, knocking the Fugees' smash "Killing Me Softly" off the top after some 11 weeks. Recorded pre-murmur with renowned UK ex-pat Chris Dickie (Morrissey, The Pogues, Header), the astonishingly accomplished five-tracker represented the first songs Jebediah wrote.

But it was their second release, the single "Jerks of Attention", which launched Jebediah from every video channel and car radio in the country the following summer. "Overkill if you ask me", Vanessa mutters of the song's airwave stronghold, "but it's better than not being played at all".

Meanwhile Jebediah's live schedule was coinciding with increasingly distinguished company: silverchair, The Presidents of the USA, Everclear, Weezer, Soundgarden, You Am I, Magic Dirt, Tumbleweed, The Big Day Out in Perth, Rock Above the Falls in Victoria, Homebake in Sydney...

September 1997 sees the launch of Jebediah's stunning debut album "Slightly Odway". The 13 songs chart a fully matured dynamic range from the early punk mayhem of "Blame" to the delicacy of the new "Twilight=Dusk", from the darker brood of the remade "Jerks" to the bright strains of the new single "Leaving Home" - all produced with maximum empathy by Neill King (The Smiths, Rancid, Madness, Elvis Costello).
"Neill seemed really enthusiastic", Kevin explains. "He sent stuff back saying he really loved our music. He's done a nice mix of American punk stuff and British stuff, which suited us really well.

Vanessa: "He's a really cool guy! We got on really well with him." Chris: "And he's funny".

"Half the album is songs that we wrote in the last few months before recording", Kevin says of the LP's obvious progressive streak. "It would have been really boring to just take a live set and put it on an album", his brother explains. "They're two entirely different things. There's stuff there we wouldn't necessarily play live at all".

"I think it's a great album", Chris concludes with characteristic self-belief. "I'm very proud of it". "It sounds like a record!" Vanessa reckons. "It sounds really produced but we still kinda captured the live energy in the studio".

And that title? Vanessa: "I was saying something about how Brett was slightly odd and he was saying yeah, we all are. We were all kind of fond of that description".

"It's not a piss-take", Chris says, "but it's not exactly serious either".

Slightly Odway Track-by-track Chris, Vanessa, Brett and Kevin

Leaving Home
C: It's got a tambourine!
V: We started jamming it in pre-production for "Jerks..."
B: We had this fantastic Weezerish middle bit, but we cut it out.
K: I'd just moved out of home so that's what I wrote it about.

Benedict
C: It all came together in the space of an hour probably and we've never changed the song.
K: I really like that song, it's a good singalong 'cause of the repetitive "Benedict" bit. It's definitely a live favorite.

Harpoon
K: That's my attempt at writing a Something For Kate song.

Jerks of Attention
K: We wanted to record it differently to keep it fresh...
V: It's closer to the original feel of the song. When we wrote it, it was really slow but playing it live, we kinda quickened the pace to get the crowd going.

Invaders
K: Chris' crazy guitar riff!
V: ...and he recorded this one with his pants around his ankles!
C: That's my spaceship at the beginning...

Spoil the Show
K: That was one of those magic moments where the group just got together and played and we seemed to lock into one another's psyches and everything just happened. When we're just jamming along and all the music's happening you just spew forth words out of your head...
B: ...sometimes words just sound good together.
C: Amazing guitar solo!
K: Yeah, that's my favourite part of the song, the middle section.
C: ...and we added a cowbell.

Blame
K: "Blame" is a really old song, an indication of what we were doing when we started. It was sort of punky.
C: It's a debut album so it's good, while we're young, to put the really energetic stuff on there.

Puck Defender
V: That's another one of those group magic moment things...
B: It's an epic!

Lino
V: We chopped a verse out of this one.
B: It's about a compulsive cleaner.

Military Strongmen
C: It's kind of a social commentary...
K: A friend of ours named Dave had this term "Military Strongmen" for people at parties, guys who get drunk and start getting violent...
V: ...and macho...
C: ...beer-swillin' dicks, basically. The kind that laugh at your clothes.

Teflon
C: Slippin' long!
K: It's a party song.

Twilight = Dusk
C: To all the girls I've loved before! I like this one, it's a highlight for me.
V: It wasn't even a song, we were just jamming and it ended up on a demo tape that got sent to Neill and he really liked it and strongly urged us to finish it. We weren't entirely convinced...
C: Our mature side.

La Di Da Da
b: That's it! That sums it up!
C: Blah Di Blah Blah! I think that it was our first attempt at a song with no distortion. No pedal stompin'.
V: ... and we got Fur and Sandpit in to record vocals for the big group singalong at the end.

TEFLON

Jebediah's new single, "Teflon" is a great pop/rock track with instant appeal. "Teflon" is the third single to be lifted from the band's debut gold album Slightly Odway.

After taking a quick breather back in Perth, Jebediah are back on the road with an extensive national tour to launch their new single. The tour commenced in Sydney on Jeb 27th and finishes in Perth on April 4th. Joining the Jebs on tour is Melbourne trio The Living End whose "Prisoner of Society / Second Solution" EP is causing a stir on the ARIA singles charts. The tour entitled "Split Personality" includes club dates and several all-ages shows through regional and metropolitan areas. The tour is co-presented by Triple J and MTV.

"Teflon" features four bonus non-album tracks including a brand new track "You", a wicked re-mix of the title track by The Colling Brothers (Steven Mallinder - ex Cabaret Volataire and Shane Norton), and live and acoustic versions of both "Tracksuit" and "Jerks of Attention".

"Teflon" is available in stores from Monday March 23. The track has already been added on high rotation on Triple J and other major radio stations are sure to follow suit!

A comical video which has been directed by Shannon Ruddock, creator of earlier Jebediah video's, "Jerks of Attention", "Leaving Home", and "Military Strongmen" will be available to media from Monday March 9

HARPOON

The fourth release from Jebediah's platinum debut album Slightly Odway, "Harpoon" is perhaps the band's most accessible song yet and is released here in a unique manner.

Packaged as a full-length EP, "Harpoon", features 5 great bonus tracks - great companions to the powerful and emotive strains of the title track.

In addition to Jebediah's heartfelt reading of "Harpoon", the EP also features Jebediah's label-mates Something for Kate doing their own darker, heavier version of the same song. Jebediah return the compliment on track 3 by covering S.F.K.'s "Clint".

Next are two new Jebediah recordings - "Sorry" and "Ski Trip" - before the EP closes with Jebediah's own interpretation of the Flock of Seagulls' cheesy '80s gem "I Ran". A truly schlocky one-hit wonder, Jebediah give it a touch of Pulp Fiction surf guitar for maximum cool.

In addition the vinyl version comes in it's own individual manner - as a double 7" split with Something for Kate - featuring a "Harpoon" disc (with the A-side performed by Jebediah and the B side by Something for Kate) and a "Clint" (with the A side performed by SFK and the B side by Jebediah).

Jebediah will perform as special guests for the Smashing Pumpkins in Sydney on June 18 and Melbourne June 20. A full national tour is currently being scheduled for August.

ANIMAL

"There were so many things that we learnt during recording and after releasing Slightly Odway," Jebediah vocalist, co-songwriter and guitarist Kevin Mitchell recalls. "We all had grown up so much. We just wanted to make a record that was just better than Odway in every way - sounds, songwriting, structures of songs. A record that's more grown up, without losing the things that are inherently Jebs."

Two years is a while between drinks for a young band on the make. And although Jebediah (completed by Chris Daymond - guitar/vocals; Vanessa Thornton - ass; Brett Mitchell - drums/vocals) let Slightly Odway quietly and consistently sell (it's now just shy of double platinum) while they toured relentlessly, they also had a chance to do some growing of their own.

Don't be alarmed, "Animal", the first single from their second album, Of Someday Shambles, reminds you that there's a thrill here that cannot be repressed. While the band is right that "Animal" is a big leap forward, we can rest assured this song comes inedibly stamped 'Jebs'.

By the time the crazy, layered backing vocals pick the chorus up a notch, you can tell there's a new level of thought and momentum behind this song. A marked differences that this time out Kevin isn't singing about growing pains. Vanessa has her own theories. "It reminds me of a train..." she says. "it's got this rolling chugga chugga chugga sound. It doesn't stop at any stations, it just keeps chugging along."

"I think it's about going out and partying," she adds, "but I couldn't be sure."

Kevin hates giving explanations as to what songs are about. "But since you ask, Vanessa is right," he says, "It's about picking up, basically. It's not so much speaking about myself... it's more of a scene. After we finished Odway I broke up with my girlfriend at the time. So I spent the last two years of touring and then going in to record it basically single. That's had an influence on a lot of the songs."

The pure-pop vocal harmony behind the lines" I know everything I do tonight/Means nothing if I don't succeed" belies the lean, dark energy behind the lyric. "I'm insufferable when I'm in heat," Kevin concludes. "It's my animal instinct."

Not only has the ante been upped in terms of song-writing and honesty, but those who were blown away by the nasty edge of the rough diamond "Trapdoor" (from the "No Boundaries" album) will be pleased to know that the producer behind that tune, Mark Trombino (Knapsack, Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World), has offered Of Someday Shambles a sound to match their new aspirations.

"We chose him because he'd done the last two records by Knapsack..." says Kevin. "They're kinda like a discordant punk band, this weird indie rock pop punk crossover. We mainly made the decision because of the direction we could see the songs going... They were still pop songs like Odway but they were getting more complicated, not as straightforward, they had a bit more depth to them."

Even the b-sides here, "Supposed to Say" and live staple "The Less Trusted Pain Remover", have sound that leaves the debut album sounding dry by comparison. "I didn't wanna put out a record unless it was heaps better," Kevin concludes. "If we couldn't put out a record that's heaps better than Odway I'd just quit."

His job seems safe for the moment.

OF SOMEDAY SHAMBLES

Of Someday Shambles … a Second Album

THE STORY SO FAR…

Friends since their mutual theatre arts training at Perth's Leeming High School, Kevin Mitchell (vocals, guitar), Chris Daymond (guitar, vocals) and Vanessa (bass) hooked up with Kevin's older brother Brett (drums) to play their first show in Fremantle in August 1995. Legend has it the average Western Australian jaw dropped 2cm overnight.

Two months later, on their first gig outside WA and their lucky 13th overall, Jebediah won the annual National Campus Band Competition in Lismore, New South Wales, 4000 km from home. The stun factor went national.

Jebediah signed to murmur (home of silverchair and Something For Kate) in April 96, immediately undertaking the first of many exhaustive national tours. The 'Twitch' EP was released in August. Radio rapture kicked in with their January 97 single, "Jerks of Attention" and escalated in June with "Leaving Home".

In September 97, Jebediah's debut album Slightly Odway entered the national ARIA chart at #7 and the ARIA alternative chart at #2. Within four months it was certified Gold. Today, having spawned five hit singles and one of the most thrilling live sets in Australian rock, it's a double platinum classic.

CHAPTER TWO…

It can take a near death experience to get some bands off the road. In Jebediah's case, late 1998 was a litany of personal disasters from car accidents to glandular fever to busted ribs to appendectomy. Were it not for reflective moments in various emergency rooms across Australia, this eagerly awaited second coming might still be on the "later" list.

"We just love playing," Chris Daymond shrugs. "You're either on the road playing with your band or you're sitting at home doing nothing. Since the very beginning, we've very rarely said no to a gig."

It figures. Any rock fan who hasn't caught Jebediah in the breathtaking act over the past two years just hasn't been trying. From Livid to Homebake to Mudslinger to the Big Day Out, no Oz road fest was complete without the Jebs' hyperactive stage presence and grab bag of sterling radio tunes.

Whether in the company of WA indie buddies like Beaverloop, Mach Pelican or Red Jezebel; national monsters Powderfinger, You Am I or the Living End or global stars of the Soundgarden-cum-Smashing Pumpkins calibre, life since Slightly Odway had been a steadily snowballing road marathon.

The pay-off is all over Of Someday Shambles, the work of a band two years older but with a whole lifetime more experience. "We're obviously a lot better in our playing and a lot more confident about our songs," says Brett Mitchell. "We still really like Odway," his brother adds, "but this one had to be better. That was the only real aim."

for more info contact murmur or your epic records representative

After their berth on the 1999 Big Day Out, the band took a month off to hone an existing array of unrecorded tunes and to coax another half a dozen "from out of the sky". Some of the album's most striking songs - "Did You Really", "Congratulations", "In Orbit", "Run of the Company" - all materialised in this pre-production period.

"No one comes in with written songs," Chris Daymond stresses. "We all have to be there, writing the song together. Everything we write, if it's gonna survive, it needs four people to remember it the next week - which doesn't always happen."

The up side is that if four people remember a new Jebediah song after one rehearsal, there's a good chance thousands more will have it in their head for keeps after one spin. Of Someday Shambles' first single "Animal" is a text book example of the pop immediacy and blistering rock energy which define Jebediah's reputation as singlesmiths par excellance.

But it's the scope of Of Someday Shambles that really impresses. Cracker tunes like "Did you Really",
"Star Machine" and "Skin" follow where Odway left off, but few could have expected the harmonic delicacy of "Love At Last", the pedal steel shading of "Happier Sad" or the hair-raising orchestral finale,
"Run of the Company".

Vanessa: "We contacted (producer) Mark Trombino on the Internet cause we all loved the Knapsack record and (Blink 182's) Dude Ranch. Because of the types of songs we were writing, he seemed to make sense. He emailed us back straight away and said he liked the songs."

"Which was a blessing in itself," says Brett. "He's a very hard man to impress. He's very methodical. A total perfectionist, in short. And he's a drummer, so the drums sound fantastic. We averaged about four days per song. I don't mind saying it was a little gruelling at times but that's the way he works and the results are so good it was well worth it."

"We spent a lot more time on harmonies," says Kevin, "but then we spent a lot more time on everything. We were in the studio twice as long as the last record. I was more particular about the lyrics, for sure. There's a lot of lyrics on the first album that make me wince. I guess I'll probably feel the same way about this record in a year or two, but I thought I'd give myself a better chance."

Since their April residency at Melbourne's Sing Sing studios, Jebediah have taken steps into the international market with a showcase tour of Canada and a second trip to New Zealand. Harder, sweeter, smarter and stronger, Of Someday Shambles is destined to broaden their horizons in more ways than one.

"We're a band that likes a lot of variety," Kevin says. "The best thing about this record compared to Odway is that when a song had a particular kind of vibe or felt like it was going a particular way, we just went with it. If a song wants to take you somewhere, you might as well ride with it."

TRACK BY TRACK

Did You Really
"A good indication of what we sound like live. It's also very indicative of the way we get in and write our tunes: quite literally a question of picking up instruments, someone starts
playing, we all join in and we write a song in three and a half minutes flat. Love those moments."

Star Machine
"Chris came in with that first progression and we worked on it from there. It was a really exciting song to write, it kinda felt good to play. It's about escapism, a relief from over-exposure. There might be a slight reference to the last two years of our lives in there."

Congratulations
"Kevin wrote the lyrics kinda late. He was trying to write a song that told a story. And we namedrop Even. On the first album we namedropped Archers of Loaf and the Stone Roses so the characters in this song are going to an Even show."

Trapdoor
"Written just after we finished the last album; we were playing it live years ago. We tried to make it the most sonically fucked up song we've ever done. Mark said the demo reminded him of the Pixies. It's the only song we've ever written where Kevin doesn't sing a melody."

Please Leave
"The lost song. We played it at Planet (in Perth) before Odway. Kevin had written out the lyrics and gaffa taped them to Vanessa's back. After that we totally forgot about it and Chris found the lyric sheet in a guitar case somewhere."

Love At Last
"Yeah, well, it's a totally unabashed love song isn't it? When we were writing the chorus it came out sounding really beautiful: nice, sincere sounding music. Kevin didn't want to waste that feeling when it came to writing the lyrics."

Animal
"A flat out pop song with all the associated cool energy. What's unusual for us is that it doesn't have a breakdown section, the rhythm is constant from the word go to the end. One of the simplest songs we've ever done as far as arrangements go. It sounds like nasty Ratcat or something."

Happier Sad
"It's an accidental epic. Ed Bates from The Sports played the pedal steel. He was also on Tim Rogers' Twin Set album, that's where we heard him first. He makes the song, really. The pedal steel is awesome. We've never played that one live."

Slot Car Racing
"That started as a joke. Kevin was being stupid in the rehearsal room and came up with this totally nonsensical cord progression. Often we'll start playing heavy metal or something just for a laugh and that's how that one started: full on, loud. The way the rhythm goes is just fucking funny."

Feet Touch The Ground
"That's another epic. Don't really want to say what it's about. The intensity of that song far exceeds anything else we've ever done."

In Orbit
"It's a rock song. What else can you say? It's the most rock song we've ever recorded and Mark's production gives it a big boost: the huge Foo Fighters drum sound and all. It's a hell of a lot of fun to play."

Skin
"That came right after the first album, a pop number kind of in the vein of "Leaving Home" or "Did You Really". There's some funky guitar stuff going on there. It's about a girl."

Run of the Company
"We always wanted to hear strings on it, the big finale arrangement. The original idea was to have a long
guitar solo but never did any of us imagine a full 22-piece orchestra. That was
Trombi's initiative. It sounds nothing like Trapdoor, that's for sure."