I found in Jim Robertson’s extensive biography that in 1985 there was a show at North London Polytechnic. A band called Jesus and Mary Chain, which had recently released a single called Never Understand, was headlining. The 300 capacity venue saw almost 1000 show up to see Jesus and Mary Chain a band which plays, on average, a 20 minute set. Needless to say, in March of 1985 there was a massive riot at North London Polytechnic.
JAMC were a Scottish Group who were influenced heavily by the stripped-down sound of punk. Drummer Bobby Gillespie, set free only upon one floor tom and one snare drum, had to make due behind a wall of sound produced by Will and Jim Reid. That sound was deep, vast, and unforgiving feedback of a guitar. In the foreground, JAMC are caustic, but one needs to listen closer.
The opening riff on “Just Like Honey” instantly sets one on a different plane than ever before. It is scary sounding and dark but there is something still pop about it – one is drawn in by the beauty of it. What JAMC was doing was combining a number of influences into something new. The easiest one to spot is the Velvet Underground. One needs look no further than the song Sister Ray, a one-take masterpiece that has Mo Tucker, Lou, Cale, and Sterling driving on and on for 16 minutes. However, in the case of Psychocandy, Lou Reed’s strange bohemian happenstances are replaced by Beach Boys-like melodic vocals. These vocals are weaved around the meditative, intense guitar sound, matched only by bands such as The Stooges, early Pink Floyd, The Ramones, and the Sex Pistols.
Now, almost 25 years later, JAMC’s influence is felt all over music. There is now a huge ‘noise’ audience. Their new, cerebral take on “punk” also pushed it into new directions. Even their attitude toward music is essentially indie. Along with the Smiths, they are considered one of the first indie groups. When the BBC Radio 1 began compiling the Indie chart in 1980, many a punk band flooded the top ten, but by 1983 the Smiths, Aztec Camera, and
The increasing popularity of indie could be talked about forever, but JAMC created a small niche of noise-pop followers which can be traced back to Psychocandy. Artists of the decade tried to follow up Psychocandy, but few could achieve the balance. It wasn’t until the end of the decade when three bands came along and spurred it into the new century. They were My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., and Sonic Youth, from each side of the
Dinosaur Jr.’s powerhouse guitarist J. Mascis loved to play loud. His intense solos, behind Lou Barlow’s angsty voice and Murph’s full, fast drum beats, made the band. ‘87’s You’re Living All Over Me is a perfect example of the bands versatility and jaunts into noise. My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless from 1991 was not a huge commercial success, but critics would begin to notice its importance in years to come. The album blended the beauty and harshness of noise and updated JAMC’s sound like no one else could. Sonic Youth would emerge out of the No Wave scene in
Further on in the decade, as noise became more and more popular, bands like Lightning Bolt, The Jesus Lizard, Unwound, Black Dice, and many others sprang forth from the idea of noise. Now, bands which had been categorized as one thing bled into the noise “genre” once in a while. At the turn of the century, bands began dabbling in noise as an extension of their own genres. Within the last three years, bands like Liars, Animal Collective,
JAMC’s influence stretches far past their debut album, but Psychocandy shaped the entire culture of underground music for years to come. Some do it intentionally and others are secondary followers who draw upon Psychocandy even if they’ve never heard it because it did encompass so much. Will, Jim, and Bobby were just three working class guys from Kilbride with nothing to do, but they started an amazing vein of music.
