The Jellybricks

The coolest song in the world comes from central Pennsylvania.

At least, the coolest song in the world for this week. And that is according to Steven Van Zandt, at any rate.

The E-street band founding member hosts “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” an FM radio show. On the weekly program he shares his pick for “coolest song in the world this week.”

This week it is “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide,” by local band The Jellybricks.

“We’ve actually been trying to get on Little Steven’s radar for eight years now,” said Larry Kennedy, band member and songwriter. “Needless to say, we would have been happy to get some airplay. We were blown away that he picked us for the ‘Coolest Song in the World This Week.’”

The Jellybricks are midstate music scene veterans and have been performing since 1996. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” is the lead single from its new EP, “Suckers.”

While the song shares a title with a David Bowie tune, Kennedy insists it was pure coincidence. “When I wrote it I wasn’t thinking of David Bowie at all,” he said.

It was only after the song was released that he discovered the Bowie number. “I did have a good listen to the tune and I’m fairly sure it’s a different type of song,” he said.

“Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” was based on people Kennedy knew growing up, in addition to his feelings about famous musicians such as Amy Winehouse and Jimi Hendrix.

“I’ve known some people who played music who have lived the partying lifestyle almost to their peril,” Kennedy said. “[The song is] a little bit of a mixture of that and my own sentimental feelings about how many young, talented people burn out in the business because they get too much attention and they destroy themselves with bad living.”

Kennedy was the first band member to find out the song had been chosen by Van Zandt. The news was delivered by email.

“I forwarded it to everyone with some sort of excited expletive because I couldn’t believe it myself,” he said. “We’re just incredibly stoked about it. It’s almost like a new level of legitimacy.”

“Little Steven’s Underground Garage” has more than 1.2 million listeners and is broadcast on 148 stations all over the world. The show airs from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sundays on 105.7 FM in Harrisburg and from 10 a.m. to noon on 102.9 in Lancaster. A recording of the show can be heard at www.undergroundgarage.com a week after it airs. The song is also being played on Van Zandt’s Sirius XM channel, “Underground Garage.”

Copies of the “Suckers” EP are being sold at Amazon.com, iTunes and CDBaby.
- The Patriot-News

Confronted with the task of thinking up a low-budget video concept for the first single off their new album, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania guitar-pop band the Jellybricks found inspiration in a hobby they shared with tens of millions of music-loving Americans: Rock Band 2. After countless hours of playing, editing and meticulously sculpting their polygonal doppelgangers into the game, the end result for the Jellybricks' "Ruin Us" is the first truly clever viral music video of 2009.

"As a band, after rehearsals, we sometimes get together and play Rock Band, and I was just noticing the camera angles and the shots that are used, that we can make characters that kind of look like us. There's these great sets in the game, it just looked really cool," bassist-singer Garrick Chow tells Rock Daily. "Instead of taking cameras out into the Pennsylvania winter trying to figure out a video, we basically spent a week playing the game, capturing it in my computer and trying to edit it all together to make it look like we're actually playing the song."

The final product is edited so well, you'd never even notice that the band's song is really just playing over Rock Band 2 tracks by Oasis and the Smashing Pumpkins. "It was time-consuming, I spent four of five hours a night for a week combing through about six hours of game play, trying to find vocals that match up. I'd go through the list of songs in the game and try to find tracks that are similar in tempo or have lyrics that kind of match up with ours, especially the long-held-out syllables," Chow says. "It was difficult, but when it matched up it was like 'That's so cool, he's singing it!' " For instance, the snare roll in the Smashing Pumpkins' "Today" matched up similarly to "Ruin Us," but as the Jellybricks' song has a faster tempo, Chow increased the speed of the "Today" clip during editing.

"The response has been overwhelmingly great," Chow says, but adds, "Of course, hard-core gamers who are really into the game criticize that the score keeps going up and down."

Despite the band's "special agreement with the creators of Rock Band 2" — "We agreed to pay money in return for a copy of the game" — the 'Bricks didn't exactly get permission to make the video, but Chow says, "If you do a search for Rock Band or Guitar Hero on YouTube, you're going to find tens of thousands of people who are uploading content from the game. It's just that we have done something different." If the video hits it big, is there a possibility we could be seeing "Ruin Us" on a future RB2 expansion pack? "Almost more than getting a record contract, I'd love to have a song in Rock Band, officially," Chow says. The Jellybricks' new album Goodnight to Everyone is out on digital music services now.

- RollingStone.com

A band on the rockier shores of powerpop, The Jellybricks have been plying their trade for over a decade and it shows. The title track has the sort of harmonies and tightly meshed playing that only comes from a band who are completely in tune with one another. It’s a classic pop tune too – hooks, a killer chorus, superior bounce – with the bonus of unexpectedly dark lyrics about a potential suicide. This is a format that The Jellybricks stick to for much of the album, with much success. Titles like “Ruin Us”, “More To Lose” and “Heartache Begins” tell their own tales and all of them have tunes and licks to die for. Raised above the ephemeral by the sheer class on display, The Jellybricks music has everything that’s great about pop but with enough substance to appeal to those who like their music a bit more deep and meaningful. Fundamentally though the band are about having a good time, and that’s something that any listener to “Goodnight To Everyone” will have. - americana-uk.com

The Jellybricks should need no introduction to any true power pop fan. These guys have been at it for a little over a decade now, and we've spent the last four years eagerly awaiting their fourth album - the follow up to 2004's landmark "Power This". They've taken their time, but now delivered ten new tracks on "Goodnight To Everyone" that prove it was well worth the wait. And this CD has some pretty cool artwork to boot!

The opening riffs of "Eyes Wide" make us fall in love all over again and quickly forgive The Jellybricks for the four year wait. With its sing along chorus and tight harmonies, "Eyes Wide" is sure to dilate some pupils. Next up is the title track, filled with a delectable hook and punchy verse riff - "Goodnight To Everyone" ain't no lullaby. "Ruin Us" is another should-be hit with a great lyric. Power pop rockers "More To Lose" and "Up To You" are additional standouts. It's not easy to do, but if I were forced to pick a favorite track, it would have to be the hugely melodic "Nobody Else". Fans of Cliff Hillis, IKE, Matthew Sweet, The Tories, etc...you need to check out The Jellybricks.

"Goodnight to Everyone" is one of the most hook-filled Jellybricks release yet. I say this with each new CD they release, but this one is my favorite. All there is left to do now is cross our fingers that we'll see another Jellybricks CD before 2013!

iPOD-worthy: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 - billsmusicforum.blogspot.com

It's almost inconceivable that a band could stuff as many hooks into a single song - let alone a single album - as the Jellybricks consistently do, and this has never been more apparent than on the band's third full-length album, Power This, released by Kool Kat Records.

The Jellybricks' two previous albums were so brilliantly written that the production jobs just didn't measure up. Raw energy is a staple in the band's live show, and finally, on Power This, no love is lost from stage to tape.

The album is a flawless machine, fueled by multi-layered vocal melodies wrapped in luminous counter-melodies, harmonies, counter-harmonies and countermeloharmonellies that "ooh"and "aah"through every pitch in the 12-tone system, as well as dynamic guitars and rhythmic turnarounds that sucker-punch you when you're not paying attention.

If you haven't had an opportunity to hear The Jellybricks, you've been severely missing out. If you've heard them and haven't seen their charismatic live show, you should be ashamed. They are one of the most riveting outfits out there, and Power This is so good it will knock you on your derriere. Every song is a potential hit; you'll be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. I couldn't, and still can't. - Fly Magazine | Harrisburg, PA

Proving how loud good pop can be played, The Jellybricks took over a weird little corner/walkway in a busy club and pretty much caused their own downtown rush hour traffic jam. There are basically only two ways to go when a band is given a lot of volume; either folks avoid it as "noise" or they hear it from far away and flock towards it. With The Jellybricks, folks were flocking.

I set up in a near empty room in sight of The Jellybricks during their set. By the end of it the room was akin to an undersized sardine can with folks craning and pushing to see the band. I don't think the band knew the buzz they were getting out on the fringe or the reason folks were pressing in and jamming up traffic in front of them. To all appearances it must have looked like a disinterested clashing mob from the stage because all the listeners were pushing from the rear.

And the more chaotic the audience got, the more interesting The Jellybricks performed. With four vocals, you could hear solid pop harmonies but they still maintained a distinct dynamic of full on rock 'n' roll screamer vocals. Each of the 'bricks had plenty of team-player and virtuoso time. Effortlessly they played off each other as they banged out originals (lots of tunes from their current release, "Power This" making the setlist) that, alternately, would make a professional Nashville songwriter jealous or a clever Fountains of Wayne fan feel duped. The Jellybricks have mastered the art of storytelling and also maintained the ability to inject some unexpected wit. That makes for some fine non-fluffy pop. - PA Musician Magazine

It's almost inconceivable that a band could stuff as many hooks into a single song - let alone a single album - as the Jellybricks consistently do, and this has never been more apparent than on the band's third full-length album, Power This, released by Kool Kat Records.

The Jellybricks' two previous albums were so brilliantly written that the production jobs just didn't measure up. Raw energy is a staple in the band's live show, and finally, on Power This, no love is lost from stage to tape.

The album is a flawless machine, fueled by multi-layered vocal melodies wrapped in luminous counter-melodies, harmonies, counter-harmonies and countermeloharmonellies that "ooh"and "aah"through every pitch in the 12-tone system, as well as dynamic guitars and rhythmic turnarounds that sucker-punch you when you're not paying attention.

If you haven't had an opportunity to hear The Jellybricks, you've been severely missing out. If you've heard them and haven't seen their charismatic live show, you should be ashamed. They are one of the most riveting outfits out there, and Power This is so good it will knock you on your derriere. Every song is a potential hit; you'll be hard-pressed to pick a favorite. I couldn't, and still can't. - Fly Magazine | Harrisburg, PA