Occupying the space between the
punk
movement's departure and the arrival of
grunge
,
Jettison
is a definitive link between the two musical genres and, with its speedy slashing and grinding, is the most jarring and diverse of
Naked Raygun
's albums. Electrocuting guitars, pummeling drum beats, and unmerciful vocals, which combine
the Misfits
' "whoa-oh-oh" vocal with
's own straight-talking dirge, collaborate to make
part
art-rock
dissonance, part down-your-throat
.
Pierre Kezdy
's bass gurgles blood on one track, and is swampy on the next. Vocalist
Jeff Pezzati
's fast-talks like an auctioneer at one point, then sandblasts on the following turn. Throughout,
John Haggerty
's guitar buzzes and hacks, finally reaching its zenith on
"Suspect Device,"
in which you could swear trees are being severed at their roots. Cementing everything together is
Eric Spicer
's drumming, which could easily pass as a battery of guns all firing at once. Moreover, the working-class ethic of
's sound consistently shines, whether its on the anthemic
"Vanilla Blue"
or the
/big-
guitar rock
feel of
"Coldbringer."
Lyrically, while 1985's
Throb Throb
thrives on military politics,
burns on the images and realities of a conservative-led nation, and on the social rules of the city;
"Ghetto Mechanic"
captures the essence of inner-city freelance labor as well as any song before or since.
Quarterstick
's reissue of
adds three live bonus tracks to what is already a phenomenal album, a record that is a harbinger of bands like
Fugazi
and
Shellac
. Recorded at Chicago's
Riviera Theater
in November 1987, the live material has meaty guitars that are sprinkled with metallic flakes; one just has to close their eyes to imagine the mosh pit that formed in front of the stage that fall night. ~ Bob Gendron