The Jelly Jam 2

[Bob Lentil]

Around noon today, I decided that I must have The Jelly Jam 2 as soon as possible and simply could not wait two days for it to be shipped to me by an internet music vendor. This is a rare occurrence since I'm usually very stingy and refuse to pay full price for any album, preferring instead to scavenge on eBay for months to years at a time. Having just moved to Akron, OH, I wasn't sure if there were any good places to buy non-mainstream music. After hitting a few stores with no luck, I returned to my apartment to consult the phone book for record store locations. For some reason, actually calling them to see if they had the album did not occur to me. I drove around some more, until I hit the jackpot at record store number 5, an odd establishment staffed by metal-heads selling an eclectic mix of strange trinkets in addition to music. They had a single copy, which I bought for an outrageous price.

Thankfully, the album is extremely good. In fact, if it wasn't for one bad pseudo-punk song, I'd call it a near perfect album. It's filled with great melodies, some excellent off-kilter guitar riffs, and Rod Morgenstein's unique, busy, cymbal-happy drumming. Their first album is one of my favorites, and I don't hesitate to say that this one is even better. Like their first album, we probably won't see it anytime on AM (a couple songs might fit though), but any fans of smart, melodic, hard rock should pick this one up.

(This may be my longest post of all time.)