Where does the time go? Has it really been seven years since the last album from The Jet Age? The D.C.-area trio were on a roll, but time and circumstance conspired to sort of put a slow-roll on that. Still, Eric Tischler is the kind of guy to never quite stop making music and tinkering with same. So I'm glad to report that Don't Let Me Leave, a new record from The Jet Age, is here, along with a few remastered earlier records re-uploaded to Bandcamp.
The music on Don't Let Me Leave is reliably direct, as most of the best material from this trio is. Still, there are surprises, and new tweaks to the TJA formula this time around. Opener "All I Wanted Was To See Your Face", for example, is a wash of noise, drums, and abrasive guitars. It is borderline exhilirating, and the sort of thing, like "Had a Plan", I love to hear from this lot, where they give over to a sort of -- dare I say it? -- emotive form of punk. (But don't dare call this emo!) Elsehwere, "Unbreak This Heart" and "Day After Day, Night After Night" nimbly add further gems to this band's catalog. Each is familiar, and The Jet Age strengths remain intact, with this group still hitting on all cylinders as they outline emotional highs and lows with vigor and spark.
Where things get interesting is when The Jet Age deviate from expectations, even if just a little. "I Wanna Be Absolved" works well with frontman Eric Tischler's vocals sounding a little bit treated, deeper in the mix, with Pete Nuwayser's Keith Moon-y drums driving this one, while "You've Got A Cross, I've Got A Nail" is all Pete. Crashing on the kit, the percussion is the star here. Elsewhere, "Lead Me to the Blue Sky" might be the catchiest thing here, this one anchored not by Pete's drums but by Greg Bennett's supple bass. As always, Eric Tischler's yearning vocals and expressive guitar add fire to each number.
Don't Let Me Leave is one of the most un-Who-like records in The Jet Age catalog; it's more The Jimi Hendrix Experience-y than that. There's a definite Sixties vibe here to the guitar solos, less shoegaze and more Blue Cheer, you know? And while they have the chops, The Jet Age are never quite as muso as another power trio like Cream. Don't Let Me Leave deftly blends lots of familiar parts of The Jet Age brand, enough to please us long-time fans, but they add in a sense of the unpredictable here. These tracks don't sound like they were overthought or labored over -- though knowing Eric, they very well may have been -- and instead they have a combustibility that is intoxicating. That quality gives Don't Let Me Leave an immediacy we've not heard on the last few TJA releases.
Or maybe the boys are just so fired up to be back? I'm glad they are.
Don't Let Me Leave by The Jet Age is out now. Details via Bandcamp.
[Photo: The Jet Age, 2015, by me]