New New Wave Jay

By weeklyvolcano on November 1, 2009

REV. ADAM MCKINNEY: JEREMY JAY PLAYS NORTHERN TONIGHT >>>

Jeremyjay300-10-29 For me, what’s more distressing than the knowledge that punk is dead is the knowledge that New Wave never really existed. New Wave never had the unifying sound of punk, being that it was not really a genre, but a movement. It was a group of bands that saw rock’s garish bloat and decided it was time to start over. And for however much we might say they sounded alike, the fact is that synthesizers do not make a genre.

Unfortunately, all that bloat still exists today. But the spirit of New Wave lives on in new artists who continue to keep rock in check. Jeremy Jay belongs to this new New Wave: he’s reverent of rock and pop, while simultaneously turning both genres on their ears.

[Northern, with Sea Lions, Sunday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m., $5, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia]