Jonesin review in PERFORMER MAGAZINE

http://performermag.com/pdf/0909%20WCP.pdf

page 49/60

Jonesin’
Hi We’re Jonesin’San Francisco, CA
Recorded by Matt Jones | Mixing by
Matthew Morgan
and Felix Mercer

Jonesin is a duo out of San Francisco that does bounce-on-the-moon synth pop, Old West-style ballads and everything in between. Despite the vastness of their universe, Jonesin’ have found love. Their names are Jenny and Matt, and their album is about how they’re “totally getting married!!!” Hi We’re Jonesin’ sounds like a John Waters movie. Jenny’s voice has a shrill, schmaltzy, super-cutsie schoolgirl tone, while Matt has this Elvis/Cry Baby vibrato. The poppy track, “Ice Cream,” displays Jonesin’ at their campiest extreme: “Prettiest girl I ever saw/sippin’ soda through a straw/is she H-I-J-K-LM-N, oh here she comes.” But is it just nauseatingly cute or is it satirically cute with cynical undertones? It’s hard to tell exactly where on this spectrum Jonesin’ falls. For the jealous type (or anyone who’s not currently on the cutest honeymoon ever), listening to Hi We’re Jonesin’ could leave them feeling depressed and inadequate regarding their capacity for love. Luckily for everyone, Matt and Jenny acknowledge that even ridiculously cute people have doubts (even if those doubts, too, are cute and endearing). On the spacy “Too Stoned to Screw,” Matt says, “I don’t believe you but whatevs/I can always hang with my friends.”

“What If?” is a low-fi song that goes off on spoken tangents regarding the everlurking, inevitable question in any relationship: “what if we never met?” “How
Much You Wanna Bet” is a doo-wopy Western proposal. Jenny says, “It’s a very scary thing to say yes or no.” Matt says, “It’s gonna be a huge party except I promise that we don’t break up.” My favorite song, though, is “Hey Aliens” in which Jenny and Matt plead, “Please come aliens/humans need new friends.” A piano plods along in exasperation as Jenny sings, “I look forward to the day/when we’re not alone in space.” My favorite line comes from the song “Lil Wino.” It describes the lover as partner in crime/circumstance, and makes Jonesin’s cuteness bearable. Jenny sings, “I’m gonna take you home/even if it kills us both.” (self-released)

-Kristen Fox
www.myspace.com/jajonesin