The Nut Jumpers – Boogie In The Shack
www.facebook.com/thenutjumpers
13 songs time-31:04
The Nut Jumpers based in the UK are a primitive Punk-New Wave inspired three piece ensemble. When Jake Calypso handles the “vocals” you’re on your own on trying to make heads or tales of what he is saying. What a mess! From what I gather he is French, so that accounts for his heavy accent. On the other hand Helen Shadow is understandable if manly sounding. The music can be interesting at times and energetic thanks to Helen’s exuberant guitar playing. It’s basically mostly about jumping rhythms. They would of fit easily into the Punk-New Wave scene of years gone by.
“Woah Oh Ho” is pretty indicative of what you are in store for when Jake is singing. Just for fun’s sake, I’ll give a brief sample of what some of the lyrics sound like…On second thought, you’re on your own. To be fair the song does feature nicely distorted rhythm guitar. Aside from the vocal “Set Me Free” sounds a bit like early Kinks, with its’ almost “You Really Got Me” rhythm guitar. The only clue that it’s Helen singing on “Love Truck” is that you can understand the words. She supplies energetic rhythm guitar here as usual.
They attain a Buddy Holly-ish groove on “My Pearly Doll” with Jake’s weird and spooky hard to decipher lyrics. Hey you can get every third word or so. You guessed it, Jake sings the title song. Not too hard to understand as it’s lyrics aren’t too complicated. He also supplies the Bob Dylan-like harmonica. The Middle Eastern sounding instrumental “Pandit” is quite nice with its’ exotic guitar sound. The rhythm of “C’mon, C’mon” is infectious, but the line “C’mon let’s move around” is repeated a bit too much.
Except for Jake yelling “Blow Your Top” and a few other words, the song is an instrumental infused with New Wave energy. Distorted slide guitar is featured on “Catholic Boy”. Both vocalists join in on “Gonna Stand My Ground”, accompanied only by hand claps. Check please! Jake mumbles his way through the rockabilly-ish “No Good, No Good”. Helen is a little bit country on “Keep A Place” and her vocal is actually quite nice thank you. Jake “sings” his way through “Nut Jump” the bands theme song. He throws some vocal noises for good measure.
The jumping rhythms prove to be fun. Don’t expect to find any deep meanings in the lyrics, the ones you can decipher. Fans of Punk, New Wave and alternative rock music should feel right at home here with The Nut Jumpers.
Blues fans may want to look elsewhere.
