By Phillip Smith (Originally published 2008 for FoundryMusic.com )
Ask, and ye shall
receive. Upon stumbling upon this bands’
Myspace page, my interest was piqued enough to add Smothered and Covered to my
Christmas wish list. Christmas morning
arrived and I found myself sitting in front of the tree opening a small package
containing that very same CD by Joecephus and the George Jonestown
Massacre. It made my day. I am definitely a sucker for the
non-mainstream. And also a sucker for a
title that also hints at one of the many ways one can get hash browns at one of
my favorite chain restaurants, Waffle House: smothered with onions and covered
with cheese.
Joecephus is Joe
Killingsworth and is the brains, vocalist, and jack-of-all trades person behind
this hellbilly/cowpunk crew. The songs
are way off-center and mostly about drinking.
The album kicks off with two energetic bluesy tracks, “Jerk You Off My Mind” , about a man in
prison who ended up there because he caught his wife messing around with
another dude, and “Honky Tonk Night Time Man”.
One in particular I really enjoyed was “Bloody Mary Morning”, which
boasted some mighty fine guitar playing.
Some of the other odd-ball,
yet enjoyable songs of Smothered and Covered are “Drink Like a Fish”,
and “Who’s Gonna Get us High?”. The
strangest, however, being a slowed-down version of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells”, which
was recorded as a duet, and made clever use of the violin. The song that almost got away, is an
unlisted track at end of the CD. This
being, a cover of Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses”, the man whose daddy used him for
alligator bait and could eat his weight in groceries.
I really got a kick out of
this CD, and look forward to hearing more music by Joecephus and the George
Jonestown Massacre.
