The Dead Jettsons

Good things come from Vermont. For one, it serves as a great vacation spot from everyday life and in the winter, you can practically knock on any tree for maple syrup. Also, thanks to Phish, Vermont’s music scene serves up nice slices of buttered up pancakes to go along with the music. Middlebury, Vermont’s own garage/psychedelic trio The Dead Jettsons simply do what they do best: danceable garage rock you can shake a stick at while swimming in a river of syrup.

Clicking alive on their recently self-made EP, What Future?, the band certainly know how to tap into catchy grooves and melodies that can put a smile on any lumberjack’s face. Influences range from the usuals: Nirvana, At The Drive In, Jimi Hendrix and the works. What works for the snowy trio can be found in the opener to their EP, “Sally Looks Like God.” What begins is an echo-laden guitar bellowing a buildup in which drummer Charlie Henschen’s hypnotic trance beat and Daniel Sheron’s ferocius guitar clash together like two titans sharing a six-pack. The tones and drums remind me of an early Nirvana/Silverchair combination meeting The Faint. The dance grooves are there, courtesy of bass player Charlie Freundlich’s contrapuntal basslines. Garage rock and dance rock meet in the middle and The Dead Jettsons craft both genres flawlessly.

Other influences that come through the speakers include The White Stripes and early Soundgarden. This is the type of music that makes people feel proud to wear flannel and grow a beard. The Dead Jettsons currently seem to know where to drive along on the musical highway, especially with a pretty well-crafted EP made entirely on their own. The band couldn’t be more honest with their declaration posted on their myspace:

We are not self indulgent, we are loud as fuck! Over the past years we have tempered our sound into a synthesis of 60’s rock sensibility with a modern edge (owing to Charlie H’s love of Grunge and Dan not knowing what he likes). That said, our interests leads to a very diverse sound that has at once matched disco with reggaeton (though that song is in the graveyard). We hope you like what you hear.

Currently, the Middlebury trio are busy working on other material as promoting the release of their EP. Take a visit to their myspace and drop them a note. Enjoy those pancakes!

-Jay Ziegler - Consequence of Sound (May 19, 2008)

What do you get when you combine three rockers from New Jersey, California and Tennessee? You get a band that creates a sound all its own, a sound that combines a bit of 1960's psychedelic and rock and energetic as hell, and calls themselves the Dead Jettsons. Based in Middlebury, Vermont, the band sounds as if they aren't afraid of trying something new; they even once tried combining reggae and disco. Listen to the first 20 seconds of I Can't Help Myself; you'll quickly realize the band's unique sound. The Dead Jettsons are Charlie Henschen (drums, vocals), Charlie Freundlich (bass guitar) and Daniel Sheron (guitars, vocals). Their self-engineered, mixed and mastered debut EP, What Future?, will be released on May 2nd. I'm hoping it's a bright future....highly recommended. - Local Vertical (April 30, 2008)