The Jimi Austin

All too often, when bands try to splice together musical styles, they forget to develop their own identity within their songwriting. Or, more important, they forget to write music that anyone with anything beyond a rudimentary level of artistic discernment would ever want to listen to. With that in mind,...

By Tom Murphy

January 24, 2008

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All too often, when bands try to splice together musical styles, they forget to develop their own identity within their songwriting. Or, more important, they forget to write music that anyone with anything beyond a rudimentary level of artistic discernment would ever want to listen to. With that in mind, the Jimi Austin still wears its influences loud and proud, but it's clear that the players get what their music should be about and what they want it to sound like. A lot of bands try on different styles because they think it's cool, and not because they truly understand what they're doing. Yes, you'll hear ghosts of At the Drive-In, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix in the three songs on this EP, especially in "Hairspray" and "Nonsense." But like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's first two albums, the disc is an audacious reminder that it's possible to emulate your heroes and still craft ambitious rock and roll. Rather than worship the past, Draw Your Lines moves boldly forward with aggressive atmospherics and fiery, sharp rhythms.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker