Medicine

Recorded at Inner Ear Studio, Washington, DC.
On the few tunes here which have some interesting melodic ideas, Andrew Low's vocals are either too deep in the mix, just plain dull or too much like other alt rockers to make much impact. Most of the tunes follow the pattern of the title track, which begin with a cool, guitar-driven melodic chord progression, then go supercharged and wild to no real emotional payoff. The opening track "Viva La Speed Metal" seems designed specifically to show us how much like Nirvana the Jazz June can be, but without anything memorable to say. The playing is awesome, however, with Low and Bryan Gassler's guitars quite overwhelming, and Justin Max's drums driving everything along powerfully. "At The Artist's Leisure 2" actually invokes a cool, distorted guitar hypnovibe, and would probably be more interesting without the droning vocal line. But just as they get kind of playful and almost interesting on a track like "Motorcycle Roadie," they ruin it with an obnoxious screamer like "Death From Above." The icy cover art has you half expecting something cool and unique. Instead, it's all just a wild party that goes on too long. ~ Jonathan Widran