If words could speak, they'd mean even less...

(CROSSPOSTED FROM MY WEBSITE)

For some reason, my brain always latches onto bands and musicians to hyperfixate onto. I'm not sure why, but it has been like this pretty much since I can remember. I'm a big fan of the 90s as a decade in general, but especially when it comes to music. There was so much cool stuff happening.

Anyway, I'm here to talk about my newest obsession, a band from the 90s called Jellyfish. It's not surprising at all that I like them, one glimpse at a picture of the members and the way they dressed and if you know me, you immediately go "of course Ale likes them, why wouldn't she?". If anything, the real question is why did it take me so long to discover them? Really! A band from the 90s that dresses like the 70s and has beautiful instrumentation, catchy hooks, a singing standing drummer (seriously how does he do all that) and an androgynous-looking keyboard player? Sign me up!

Jellyfish was the brainchild of Andy Sturmer and Roger Joseph Manning Jr., two high-school friends who bonded over music. In 1989 they left their previous band in favor of writing songs together and starting their own band. They went into the studio alongside guitarist Jason Falkner and they set out to record their first album in 1990. They'd later get Roger's brother Chris to play bass on their tour. This release, called Bellybutton, is a collection of 10 beautiful bubblegum power pop songs that sound straight out of the late 60s with a 90s sense of lyricism and a visual style that is like a whimsical 70s cartoon come to life. Jason quit the band two years later due to Andy and Roger's reluctance to let him write songs for the project. Chris left because he realized he hated being on the road.

After working with Ringo Starr on the songs Weight of the World and I Don't Believe You (and a fruitless session with Brian Wilson) in 1992, Roger and Andy felt inspired to create their masterpiece. So they went back into the studio, and with the help of new band member Tim Smith on bass and a revolving door of session musicians, they released their second album, Spilt Milk, in 1993. This album is like Bellybutton on steroids, with more complex instrumentation, multi-layered vocal harmonies, more genre experimentation and a willingness to take more risks musically. In the fashion sense, well they toned it down a lot. They still looked 70s, and they still looked good, just not like a cartoon anymore. (The fashion aspect is important to me, ok?) Largely ignored by the masses, Spilt Milk sank and drowned in the charts, but they powered ahead and toured in support of it anyway with Eric Dover on guitars.

On April 4, 1994, Roger called Andy on the phone to break up the band. They basically haven't spoken to each other since. Jellyfish as a band was very short lived, with only 5 years of activity and 2 records, but its members have gone on to do many, maaaaany things. Like just to name a few, Andy's been writing music for cartoons for the past twenty years. Teen Titans? Ben 10? Yeah those were written and produced by him. He's still at it, man. He's one of the people behind the childhoods of at least two (three?) generations at this point. I wasn't allowed to watch Cartoon Network as a kid but I did watch My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and he wrote a ton of songs for that too. Fish Hooks as well when that one came out. Roger and Jason have solo careers of their own but they also have a pretty steady gig as part of Beck's backing band. The Spilt Milk lineup except Andy reunited a couple years ago and released some songs as well. Stuff like that. The Jellyfish guys are in more places than you'd expect.

All this to say that I absolutely love them? They're almost tailor-made for me, catchy songs that I can listen to multiple times and discover something new in the mix every time, a good and dynamic vocalist, talented musicians, a delightfully retro image that can be both kitschy and stylish depending on the era (they've inspired me to wear stripes onstripes LOL, for better or worse), and good ol' band drama, lol. And it's the kind of band drama that wasn't super catastrophic or terrible or anything. Like the worst that happened seemed to be broken friendships. And they gave Jason an ulcer apparently but he seems fine now. I'm fascinated by them, seriously, how did I not know about them before??? What have I been doing for the past couple years?? Anyway, for the past two months as of writing this, I've been (very, very slowly) making my way through every post-Jellyfish side project and solo album. I even watched a Batman cartoon for literal babies I didn't even know existed before just because Andy plays a character in an episode.

Seriously check Jellyfish out they're so awesome. I need to eat their music. My favorite songs are New Mistake, Bedspring Kiss, Russian Hill, The Man I Used To Be, He's My Best Friend and Brighter Day, but all of them are good. I also want to give a shoutout to the song Dragonfly from one of Roger's solo albums.

And yes, as I mentioned on the top, I originally posted this to the blog on my personal website a week or so ago, but I'm also posting here so that more people become aware of this band, and so this post (hopefully) reaches other Jellyfish fans and I will be able to talk about them with people who already know them instead of having to beg my friends to listen to them (；´д｀）ゞ