Jeffrey Lewis, Jack Lewis & David Beauchamp. (other members are or have been: Helen Schreiner, Anders Griffen, Emily Lacey, Jason Rabinowitz, John Kessel, Raphi Gottesman, Herman Dune, Abe Velez, Spencer Chakides, Ben Ayers, The Wave Pictures, Kimya Dawson Brer Brian, Diane Cluck and many more)
Influences
Daniel Johnston,Yo La Tengo, The Fugs, Donovan, Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Can, Violent Femmes, Jonathan Richman, Pavement, Ween, Galaxie 500, Luna, Herman Dune, Beat Happening, The Fall, Olive Juice Music, Louie Louie, Smithsonian Folk Anthology, 60s psych/garage, LES punk, Krautrock, Prewar Yardsale, Dufus, comic books (Eightball, Peepshow, Berlin, Optic Nerve)
OUR DAYTROTTER SESSION IS NOW UP. We recorded these four songs during the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco. Two Crass songs and two brand new ditties.
FROM THE SEATTLE WEEKLY
Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters
Saturday, February 23
By MA'CHELL DUMA LAVASSAR
February 20, 2008
Even though I'm a married baby-mama, I still get rockin' crushes. My love for music has always been primarily libidinous, and these crushes come in two varieties: one immediately packs a powerful punch to my naughty bits (like a Steve Turner guitar solo). The second offers the same POW, but first to my intellect, then slowly trickles down. I'd assumed that feeling was what I'd been experiencing for NYC's Jeffrey Lewis, as I'm currently smitten with his ridiculously sharp folk-rock. But then I realized that this man-boy, with his off-the-meter smarts, self-deprecating wit, feminist ideals, and seemingly endless vault of musical knowledge, possesses all the characteristics that I not only find hot, but are just the kind I'd want my son to grow up with. Now it seems I have a third, all-new kind of crush, this time on Jeffrey Lewis' mom.
From The Stranger:
Fucking in the Street : Antifolk Is Dead
by Eric Grandy
Punk is dead/Punk is dead/It's just another cheap product for the consumer's head. —Crass, Jeffrey Lewis
"Antifolk," the term that some critics have been bandying about to describe Jeffrey Lewis, is a terrible turn of phrase. Lewis isn't against folk music (or folks), and there's nothing self-negating about his music, which—acoustic guitars, rambling story songs—is pretty squarely rooted in a folk tradition.
So why the modifier? On some level, it all comes back to "Punk Is Dead," which Lewis covers, along with 11 other Crass songs, on the aptly titled and totally amazing 12 Crass Songs. Genres and subcultures start as organic movements, but they get co-opted by The System, and then they suck. So after punk starts punking itself on MTV, you get postpunk; after rave becomes an embarrassing marketing gimmick for candy necklaces, you get new rave; after folk has spent 40 years being your dad's music, you get freak folk and now antifolk. And really, antifolk is, if anything, a return to traditionalism after freak folk's fast and loose tripping. Nothing anti about it.
All of which is just a preamble to this: Jeffrey Lewis is fucking awesome. Doesn't matter how you shelve him. His songs are clever and funny and genuinely felt; his voice is ragged, flat, and pinched in all the right places; he and his band are confident and capable enough to ramble and improvise without missing a beat, simultaneously sloppy and sharp. The full review
The Portland Mercury:
HERE'S WHAT PITCHFORK SAYS:
and more reviews:
"The record presents Crass’s lyrics calmly, often demonstrating how sane and practical they are; it proves once again, and kind of thrillingly this time, that no music is immune to interpretation" - The New York Times
“Folk maverick raids anarchist commune and finds catchy tunes… Works wonderfully” - Spin
"Jeffrey Lewis’ talents appear without end… (on 12 Crass Songs he) magically makes the anarcho-rockers’ anti-establishment savagery his own, by wrapping their barbed sentiments in his trademark mottled tea-towel warmth” - NME
"12 Crass Songs succeeds utterly... eerily beautiful and strangely affecting" - Plan B Magazine
"He’s taken hold of any number of my old stormy favorites and breathed fresh life and fire into them. . . Man, I’m in awe of Jeffrey right now. Who’d have thought he could have done that?" - Everett True/ Village Voice
"Quite brilliant" - (4 of 5 stars) MOJO
“What could be sacrilege is actually a small epiphany: the gorgeous instrumentation…proves a deft counterpoint to the lyrical rage. The Man probably said it would never work but The Man was wrong” - (4 of 5 stars) UNCUT
4 of 5 stars – The Sun
9 of 10 stars – Vice
“It's no mean feat to transform such abrasive harangues into lush, tuneful folk… without defusing their righteous anger… but Crass's intelligent and indignant screeds could not hope for a more sympathetic translator.” (4 of 5 stars) - THE GUARDIAN
“His sung and songwritten folk stunts function on more than one level: as neurotic story-telling, hearfelt rap, and footstomping song craftsmanship… his latest album seems to be Mr. Lewis at his most accessible.” (8 stars) LOWDOWN Magazine
“Remarkable” – (“Five Best” pick) Daily Standard
“Lewis has a gift for making classics out of classics, and throughout this smart, inspired album, there’s rarely a wrong note hit.” – Stylus
“It shows that [Lewis] can turn his hand to almost anything, and if anyone wanted to know how to re-adapt someone else's work in order to make it entirely your own, they should listen to this record… Connoisseurs may be aghast, but it's testament to Lewis' talents that, amid punk's sweat and turmoil, he finds so much bruised beauty.” – (9 of 10 stars) – INFOSHOP
“Does it really work, does it really achieve its purpose? Am I enjoying this as a Jeffrey Lewis record? Well, sure I am. His style is stamped all over it. But has the message sat well, has my mind been opened, if only a little? Will I get myself some Crass records? Of course I f**king will.” (4 of 5 stars) – Rock Feedback
“What I saw of [Lewis] live ranked alongside the highlights of the [End of the Road Festival] weekend, and on record the same combination of dry wit and incredible musicianship is evident - even when turning his hand to songs originally recorded by seminal 1980s anarcho-punk band Crass. Lewis makes them his own, and rarely has a covers album been pulled off with such aplomb.” – Thurrock Gazette
New Jeff Lewis and the Jitters Flickr account. Featuring a detailed look behind the scenes of our last tour Sept - Oct 2007. Featuring appearances from Herman Dune, Menomena, Misty's Big Adventure, The Wave Pictures, The Wowz, Lisa Li Lund, Stanely Brinks and lots more.
New Album 12 CRASS SONGS is out now in the UK and Europe! CD with fold out comic strip artwork available in all good record stores, digitally at Bleep.com with individual artwork for each track plus 2 bonus tracks and at iTunes with exclusive digital booklet.
12 CRASS SONGS is now available in Japan!Click Here for more info.
12 Crass Songs made number 39 in NME's 50 best albums of 2007, in addition to year-end best-of lists in Les Inrockuptibles and elsewhere. In December the Jeffrey Lewis Band did a return tour to the UK, Paris and Switzerland, including some radio performances for Marc Riley's Brain Damage on BBC6 and BBC1's Rob Da Bank show. US solo tourdates with Super Furry Animals, US band tourdates with the Mountain Goats, SXSW appearances and more, all coming in Feb and March '08!
A recent Review of Jeff's show in Austin by Bill Baird (of Sound Team)
The Jeff Lewis Bio:
Jeffrey Lewis was raised on New York's Lower East Side by loving beatnik parents. Having no television in the tenement apartment, he became a comic book fanatic before even learning how to read. A life-long love of writing and drawing comic books, both autobiographical and fantastical, found new vent when Lewis began making up songs in the winter of 97-98. Initially inspired by the gentle psychedelic folk of Donovan, the DIY magic of Daniel Johnston, and the fearless early recordings of local folk-punk legends the Fugs, Lewis began recording homemade cassettes in 1998 and selling them, packaged in small comic books, at his soon semi-monthly shows at Sidewalk, home of New York's Antifolk scene. Lewis's younger brother Jack began playing electric bass and contributing to the shows and tapes.
When other Sidewalk performers the Moldy Peaches signed to Rough Trade Records in late 2000, they recommended Jeffrey's cassette recordings to label head Geoff Travis, and Rough Trade has since released three full-length Jeffrey Lewis CDs in America, England and Europe, garnering glowing press and a devoted following for the idiosyncratic illustrator/songwriter. Like his Rough Trade releases, and an art/music/DVD box set project (released on England's Hallso label), Lewis's shows can range between "lo-fi folk and sci-fi punk" as well as occasionally incorporating "low budget videos" (large color illustrations displayed to accompany songs).
It is only since 2002 that Jeffrey and Jack have become an "official" band, with various friends trading time in the drum seat. The Jeffrey Lewis Band has toured the US, UK and Europe sharing bills along the way with Cornershop, the Fall, Beth Orton, Frank Black, Daniel Johnston, Scout Niblett, the Mountain Goats, Radio4, Adam Green, Kimya Dawson, British Sea Power, the Fiery Furnaces, Thurston Moore, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Devendra Banhart, and others.
"The Big Apple's best-kept secret" - NME
"Jeffrey Lewis: 'The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane' - Best Indie Album of 2002; like his drawings, his music is witty, animated and true." - New York Daily News
"Bizarre but brilliant. Jeffrey Lewis could well be [New York's] ace in the hole." - Uncut
and if you know what this is, then click it, don't be scared....
the jackals? you gonna stick with that one? cheers for the amazing night at norwich yesterday, but next time tell the audience to stop being silly and STAND UP! you were gooooooood though man. loven the detective story, and am still curious to the 'sex with a saxophone' image? cheers for the little heart i got on my ticket. it makes my tummy tingle. come back sooooooooon, and good luck wi' the rest of your tour xx
Hey Jeff Great set in leeds fest apart from the whole amp problem. Did you manage to find your guest pass in the end to sell your merch because i was waiting with friends for like half an hour then we gave up
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