Nobody taught us how to make it in America.
Where’s the people stepping up and taking care of ya? […]
We’re all alone together wondering what the fuss is about…
Words by Jason Lee
On their 2022 debut EP …is a Band from New York City, No Jersey celebrated the joys and the agonies of “dull suburban sickness” with five songs about being bored of the U.S.A. and bored of masturbation too plus about being chronically online and fantasizing about seizing the means of production as a means of productive seduction whilst drinking whiskey in the shower and going to going to Wawa after for a Hot Turkey Gobbler (not a sex act) and a side of Cheetos plus a single scratch-off cuz hey you never before passing out in the parking lot of the convenience store chain or better yet on their loading dock…
…with No Jersey’s songs stuffed as full as the hoagie below with a Thanksgiving feast’s worth of hook-laden sing-along choruses and anthemic bursts of garage-y pop-punk energy like on the EP’s closer “Great Shot, Kid!” (not available on the spot-i-fried version!) relentlessly driven forward by its restless rhythms, spritely melodies and emotive harmonies as the opening lyrics lay things bare, “we were good kids / and now we’re shitty adults / we never got in any trouble / so we never learned what trouble was”…
…which is actually quite insightful when it comes to child psychology and the movement to install equipment on kids’ playgrounds designed to kill or at least maim a few of ’em esp. the more clumsy or clueless ones (thinning the herd!) with the band’s cross of hard drivin’ rootsy rock ’n’ roll music with lyrics bemoaning/championing the plight of the common wo/man making the the bands something like (editor’s note: they may not wanna hear this!)…
…Springsteen for the Slacker Set (this despite their apparently negative stance on the state of New Jersey!) except with much more of a sense of humor than The Boss for all those of us who never quite found our way past the darkness at the edge of town and instead settled there permanently while muttering oh well whatever, nevermind and various other dimly remembered witticisms and non-sequiturs to ourselves even as deep down we actually do mind but we’ll never tell…
…but hey we’re not here to talk about a nearly 3-year old record however cool it may be but rather No Jersey’s brand spankin’ new single which manages to combine the previously mentioned musical traits and lyrical themes not only into a single EP but into a single song no less with the song and single in question being “How To Make It In America,” a song that threads the needle between cynicism and sincerity, goofy humor and stalwart hope—and all in the time it takes to hard-boil an egg—or as No Jersey’s drummer Julian aptly puts it:
…take the sugary hooks and harmonies of classic power pop, add the venomous wit and fury of modern punk, stir in some millennial malaise and a splash of vape juice. Bring to a boil and let simmer for a decade in Manhattan rock clubs and Brooklyn DIY spaces, and you get No Jersey. Featuring drummer Julian Ames, vocalist/guitarist Sam Paxton, vocalist/bassist Dylan Roth (all former members of The Hell Yeah Babies) and guitarist Henry Luzatto, No Jersey doesn’t mind if you call them “Weezer 2,” but legally cannot sell you a t-shirt that says that. [Editor’s note: recommend bribing them!] Anyway it’s our first released music since our debut EP No Jersey …Is A Band From New York City from May of 2022. The song was recorded, produced, and mastered by Joe Pomarico of Telegraph Hill Records, and was mixed by Eric Schwartz.
…resulting in a song that’s all about the coming revolution or our current devolution depending on yr perspective on lyrics like “here comes a new beginning / do you know where you fit in / and we’re in the darkness singing” or maybe it’s both at once in a nod to Marx’s oft-cited observation re: how capitalism perpetually destroys and regenerates itself—effectively planting the seeds of its own self-destruction and subsequent reincarnation—until the proletariat rise up and revolt or until we deplete the planet’s remaining resources or fully send the climate into an irreversible tailspin but until then stuck in an infinitely repeating Möbius Strip dialectal loop like Goethe’s Faust on infinite jestful repeat…
…while on the musical side o things “How To Make It In America” opens on a catchy little fist-pumping guitar riff that sounds like it’s lifted from a classic Hüsker Dü record whereas the first verse shifts into more Blink-82ish mode with choppy, staccato rhythms and a ska-ish, skank-ready bounce and doubtless you’ll have your own points of reference and exegetical analyses with the larger point being how the song fires on multiple cylinders at once…
…a song that’s on one hand politically engaged with remarkable precision (thank you, Amazon, for tweeting mental health advice / making bank while employees try to organize) while on the other going hard in the paint on the singalong-ready whoa whoa whoa-ing likely to engage the less sociopolitically engaged, beer-hoisting punters which ditto for the super-catchy, terrace-chant-ready refrain which asks the listener: “why do we always have to fake it / to figure it out” to which Courtney Love says hold my beer, but keep your filthy mitts offa my muffin or I’ll deck ya…
photo by Stephen Perry of The Planes
…and, as if these high relatable lyrics and relatable tunes ain’t enough, No Jersey just dropped a music video for the song that nothing less than a hard sell for overthrowing a shitstem that’s “hollow and crumbling” (probably funded by George Soros hmmph) and regardless we got it right here all exclusive-like for your exclusive delectation just like the cheap-trinket hawking capitalist swine that we are…
…and all you gotta do is hit play above seeing as we embedded it twice for all you lazy, decadent homosexuals but be forewarned it’s chock full of the damaged VHS visual noise aesthetics beloved by the kids today cuz it reminds ’em of our crumbling institutions and social safety net not to mention some vertical hold issues which feels fitting to the tawdriness of the subject matter which is an observation that we intend only as high praise for the fine work done by director & editor Andy Webb who we’d say has a real career ahead of him/them in the field of vintage video-dating-profile production or getting hired by guys with novelty sports jacket fetishes which is a surprisingly lucrative field and btw for all you Succession stans out there I’m told you oughta pay particular attn. to the last scene…
…but most of all you should be attending No Jersey’s official release party tonight at Our Wicked Lady (4.3.25) even if you’re from New Jersey (!) where they’ll be performing alongside other such local luminaries as Lukka (moody yet propulsive keyboard ‘n’ guitar rock), Kissed By An Animal (KBAA if ya nasty, ’nuff said), and “late-stage synthpop project” Sailor Boyfriend so let’s all have a good time alone together and be sure to bring your brother’s girlfriend (you know, the one who’s an influencer) and also that one rich friend you have (you know, the one who lives in the penthouse apartment) cuz this song’s about them but really it’s about all of us too and it’s about time N.J. spilled the beans on how to make it in this god-fearing or is that god-forsaken country and it starts with seizing the means of producing a good time out….
