Jeffrey Lewis
A couple of beatnik parents gave birth to Jeffrey Lewis on New York’s Lower East Side in 1975. They didn’t have a television – instead, the young Jeff got a far healthier cultural education from becoming fascinated by comic books before he could even read them. It was an obsession that would only grow – Lewis’ thesis for his degree in Literature at the State University of New York at Purchase was on the cult classic comic Watchmen, a subject he still gives talks on ‘til this day. For it, he won the prize for the third best Liberal Arts thesis paper of his graduation year, 1997. Well done Jeff.
In fact, it wasn’t until the winter of ’97 that Jeffrey Lewis would begin writing songs – at the relatively ripe age of 22. Making up for lost time however, he’s since collaborated with the likes of Kimya Dawson and toured with everyone from Black Dice to Stephen Malkmus, establishing himself as something of a figurehead and reluctant spokesperson for a whole genre. Which genre? Well, though he is lumped in with the whole late 1990s ‘anti-folk’ scene with the likes of the Moldy Peaches and Regina Spektor (thanks to repeat appearances at New York’s Sidewalk Cafe and its biannual anti-folk festivals), the tag isn’t something Lewis minds all that much. “The fact that no one knows what it means, including me, makes it kind of mysterious and more interesting than saying that you’re a singer/songwriter or that you play indie rock”, he said once. He’s also been quoted saying that the sound the Jeff Lewis band goes for, more accurately, is one “like if Woody Guthrie fronted Sonic Youth.”
Though the city still gifted many of his songs their narrative and feel, Lewis left New York in 2000 for the equally bright lights of Austin, Texas, where he spent a couple of years playing open mic nights, working odd jobs and chucking his own comic books, depicting everything from his own experiences on tour to fantastical adventures set all over the solar system, around various cafe tables. His ongoing series of excellent comics, entitled Fuff, is currently at issue seven.
Though he’d self recorded and released a whole host of material just on tapes to friends, it wasn’t until signing to Rough Trade in the UK in 2001 that Lewis would record his first album, entitled The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane, a charmingly ramshackle record bettered a couple of years later with the release of It’s The Ones Who’ve Cracked That The Light Shines Through, the first of his albums to share its billing with his little brother, Jack Lewis. Jack has in fact played on all of Jeffrey’s records to date, including Cracked...’s follow up, City and Eastern Songs, released in 2005. The association with Rough Trade continues healthily to this day, and in fact came about after label-mates the Moldy Peaches personally recommended to label head Geoff Travis that he spend a bit of time with Jeffrey’s self released tapes and comics – typical of the all for one, one for all attitude of the anti-folk scene.
After three albums of original material, Jeffrey indulged in his penchant for cover versions by releasing a whole record of them – 2007’s 12 Crass Songs was, as the title suggests, interpretations of a dozen tracks from anarchist punk band Crass, with whom Jeffrey views his music to share a certain hippy idyll, re-imagined in Jeffrey’s inimitable anti-folk style.
Come 2009 however, come what is undoubtedly Jeffrey Lewis’ best record to date. ’Em Are I is the New Yorker’s strongest collection of songs, wittiest and most heartbreaking way with a turn of phrase, and most realised combination of the whole bunch yet. Its challenge for the ‘record of the year’ accolade is gaining momentum with every new person who hears it.
We’ve a whole host of pretty amazing interview material with Jeffrey coming up, stretching back to an appearance at last year’s SXSW music conference in Austin, Texas for the Rockfeedback cameras, through an intimate-as-they-come one on one chat in the corridors of London’s Scala venue which included a rendition of the then-unreleased ‘Broken Broken Broken Heart’ exclusively for us to film, on to another meeting just last week in which Rockfeedback scribes Hayley Leaver and Izzy James were sent packing with a dictaphone to document for us using old fashioned words exactly what it is that makes J.L. tick. Expect the fruits of the latter discussion to surface imminently, and for the rest to be unveiled along with the looming arrival of the mammoth redesign of Rockfeedback.com (which from the looks of things might be re-launched at some kind of Jeffrey Lewis fansite).
MYSPACE.COM/JEFFLEWISBAND: Yr usual tour date action, befriending opportunities, a couple of Crass covers, and in ‘Roll Buss Roll’ quite possibly the most tear jerking song about public transport imaginable. Check out the ‘quick biography of Barack Obama’ too.
THEJEFFREYLEWISSITE.COM: This official web-portal is great, in that it’s essentially a Jeffrey Lewis comic book that you can click on. With a space invaders game. And it quotes Rockfeedback in a few places!
IT’S THE ONES WHO’VE CRACKED THAT THE LIGHT SHINES THROUGH – ALBUM REVIEW: “So, Toto, the anti-folkers are growing up. Yet, while expanding and experimenting, they haven’t lost the endearing, childlike magic that attracted us in the first place...” – Joshua K
LIVE @ LONDON SCALA ’06 - REVIEW: “Lewis comes across as the most amiable person I’ve never met – his songs are born of a similar mindset to those of a now-solo Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson, except where Kimya revels in the cuteness of it all Lewis seems to be pushing that craft as far as it can go...” – Tom Hannan
LIVE @ NEW YORK BOWERY BALLROOM ’03 - REVIEW: “Jeffrey Lewis comes onstage for one slice of witty alt-folk: ‘The Rough Trade 25th Anniversary Song’. In his sweet, endearing way, Lewis recounts the history of Geoff Travis’ label from the early days to ‘signing The Strokes and making lots of cash’ while illustrating the music with a ‘low budget video’ (a.k.a. oversized comic book) that he made...” – Joshua K
12 CRASS SONGS – ALBUM REVIEW: “The idea is simple. Crass fan records a Crass covers album. The execution of that idea is, however… simple, too. Punk and anti-folk share a love of all things lo-fi, and for that reason, ’12 Crass Songs’ can exist without coming across as too bizarre. It’s a great idea – bring on Thomas Truax’s version of Minor Threat’s complete discography...” – Tom Hannan
THE CREEPING BRAIN:
WILLIAMSBURG WILL OLDHAM HORROR:
TO BE OBJECTIFIED:
