You know when you hear a song for the first time and it hits you right away that you shout, “This Rocks!” You loved it right from the start. Well, when I first heard “Ready To Roll” by JET BLACK STARE, I thought “Now these guys have got it down” and I needed to hear more. So sometime in early July I contacted the band, but got no reply. After doing some research, I found out that JBS is from Canada and who doesn’t like Canadian bands? Then I found out that they were started by 2 songwriters and one wasn’t even in the band. Back in 2007, singer/songwriter Rod Black, hooked up with producer/songwriter Jeff Johnson somewhere in Vancouver. These two guys have done their songwriting homework. They wrote 11 songs that make up the debut from JET BLACK STARE called, ‘In This Life”. Along with Rod Blacks emotional and melodic vocals singing heartfelt lyrics, JBS also includes Shane Hayes (bass), Dave Muselman and Flip (guitars) with Dan Swinimer (drums ) keeping time. Once I opened the cd and heard the blistering opener “Ready To Roll”, with its building chorus, it’s background whoa oh oh’s, it’s great bridge and burning guitar solo, I thought, what do the rest of the songs sound like?
Well, “It’s Over” is another hard driving yet melodic rocker and “Poster Princess” has a nice fat riff. Both songs are like when Mr.Grohl rocks out with his Foo Fighters or like fellow Canadian Chad and his Nickleback. But the rest of the cd brings a nice mellowness to the vibe, which actually accents the tremendous songwriting even more. The songs ‘Every Moment” and “I Won’t Let You Go” could have easily been in the Goo Goo Dolls catalog. Check out the strong chorus on the title track “In This Life”, then soften the vibe up even more with a couple of acoustic tracks and you have yourself one hell of an enjoyable cd. Can’t wait to see them live, I’m sure they’re a lot heavier. Go ahead, I dare you to NOT like JET BLACK STARE.
