Jamaica at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (04/22/11)

Tour Dates 04/23/11 Los Angeles. Calif. Echoplex 04/26/11 San Francisco, Calif. The Independent 04/28/11 Portland, Ore. Mississippi Studios 04/29/11 Seattle, Wash Neumo's 04/30/11 Vancouver, BC Fortune Sound Club

Jamaica stopped by the 7^th Entry in Minneapolis, on their US tour. Just a little background on the band, they are not from Jamaica, just like Of Montreal is not from Canada. Jamaica are an "electro-pop" (more like French rock?) duo Antoine Hilaire and Flo Lyonnet from Paris, France. Their ties can be traced to Poney Poney, which a certain Xavier from Justice used to be part of the band. I don't really keep up with French bands, but surely I've heard of Justice, they were quite the buzz thing a few years ago.

When doors opened up for this show, I thought it was cool that they had a DJ with his setup. Sadly, most people didn't show up until well after ten, but for those who showed up early, it was Soviet Panda on the DJ. I've previously heard some of his remixes for local bands, but never seen him in person. He looks really young. I didn't know a lot of the songs played, I only picked up the more popular ones, there were five or six songs I knew, but what I could remember were "Summertime" and "Stylo". They were all mixed differently though.

Anyway, the first band on stage were Via Audio, their last tour date with Jamaica was last night in Minneapolis*. I actually thought they were pretty good, despite being one of those Pitchforky bands. Their songs are basically pop songs, but they won't embarrass you when you find yourself singing along to their catchy songs.... well maybe not for the "Babies" song, which contains the line "I wanna make babies with you".

VIA AUDIO

They started off with "Tiger", and ended with a cover of Queen's "I Want to Break Free". Most of their song from their set were from their album, Animalore, including "Digital" ("a million tiny pixels") and "Lizard" (about Godzilla?). For "Babies", there was a stage invasion by Jamaica to help play the song. I don't know if this was a normal thing that they do on tour, but it was fun to watch. Via Audio will later return the favor for Jamaica when they play later.

Before Jamaica came on stage, their theme song played over the speakers. It was Jackson Browne's "Jamaica, Say You Will". I thought that was funny in some ways, considering that Browne doesn't have any electropop in his body. They pretty much stuck to their setlist (see picture), but instead of the typical walking off stage and returning for the encore - they just played it straight through. The last number, "When Do You Wanna Stop Working" features the entire Via Audio band on stage. Including improvised guitar battle, which is pretty fun to watch. This wasn't their first stage invasion, they were also on for "Gentleman", which features two audience members joining in on the fun.

I didn't really see too much electro, they were a full band (including drummer, bassist) and sounded more pop rock than the impression I get when I hear "electropop". What I can say is that they are pretty accessible to Americans because their music is mostly in English.

Their album is called No Problem (this is actually pretty funny because when you think of Jamaica, you think "no problem, mon") and it was just released on V2 on April 12^th, and available as a download. I tried to get a hard copy of No Problem at the the merch desk, but they didn't have any, so I picked up Via Audio's album on vinyl instead (it comes with an MP3 download).

JAMAICA performing "GENTLEMEN" with guests

* I think that was mostly for logistical reasons because tomorrow's show is in Los Angeles, and I got the impression that Via Audio was traveling by car (which is impossible to drive to California in one day).

vu () ♥ jamaicanoproblem.fm ♥ www.viaaudio.net ♥ sovietpanda.com