Two 2015 Jesse Malin Albums

Is it 1975 or 2015?

Jesse Malin released two artistic, uncompromising studio albums of new (previously unreleased) songs this year—on analog and digital media. Perhaps it is the best of both worlds.

As what is left of the music industry continues to revert to the worst of both worlds (the singles-without-the-B-sides, small venues, small labels, and local circuits of the 1950s with the aesthetics and auto tune of the dark century), a few artists defy the times and deliver the best of both.

Jesse Malin is not well known, but he is cherished by those who are fortunate to know of him. His winsome, sensitive voice sings thoughtful songs in an era of brash, snarky insensitivity and thoughtlessness. Part punk (he founded the punkish hard rock band D Generation, memorably characterized by Robert Christgau as “the part of Aerosmith that loved the New York Dolls”) and part ministerial, he is a multifaceted phenomenon—like many successes, a hybrid (but a paradox, not a contradiction).

He found time to release two studio albums this year: New York Before the War and Outsiders (both on Velvet Elk Records and One Little Indian). Like the Seventies dyads Led Zeppelin & Led Zeppelin II and Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ & The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle and Destroyer & Rock and Roll Over (all label- and year-mates), Malin’s 2015 releases are very much sister records, related but distinct. And “popular” music fans who recognize that art is a human need and that art in “popular” music continues to ebb should find tremendous value in both of them.

Both albums include road-tested material and incorporate all of Malin’s styles to an extent even as the forty-seven-year-old continues to tone down the punk rock. New York Before the War (released March 31 on CD and April 28 on vinyl) was his first release in five years (he toured extensively in the interim) and, like its sister record, was mostly co-written and co-produced with longtime cohorts and multi-instrumentalists Derek Cruz and Don DiLego. The title itself, just like a stellar Jesse Malin song, repines for that other century while acknowledging that it is gone forever. It starts and ends with contemplative, quiescent bookends: “Dreamers” (alternately titled “The Dreamers”) and “Bar Life”. The latter may have been inspired by Robin Williams’ suicide: It includes the line “they say the best comedians often battle with depression” and Malin dedicated it to Williams at The Viper Room in West Hollywood on August 14, 2014, three days after the actor/comedian’s death. (Several songs from the forthcoming album were performed that night—see the handwritten setlist below—but, with one exception, I am not aware of any of this disc’s songs existing before that night.) Along the way to “Bar Life”, New York Before the War turns up the volume with “Turn Up the Mains” (also performed at the Viper Room), a Seventies Rolling Stones homage with honking saxophone and four-on-the-floor drums. Every track is a highlight in its own way. Particularly notable tracks include the instantly infectious “Oh Sheena”, the pulsing “Freeway” (which has the rhythm of Interstate 5 at a good and swift hour), the resigned “She Don’t Love Me Now” (also performed at the Viper Room), and the slow but happy “I Would Do It For You” (the mellower flip side to “Oh Sheena”). But the entire album should be absorbed as an integrated whole. (“Freeway is the one song that I can confirm long predates this year; I saw Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social perform a song by that name, likely the same one, at The Bowery Electric in New York, which Malin co-owns, on December 22, 2011.)

Outsiders, released October 9 on CD and November 20 on vinyl, should also be experienced as an integrated whole, like a Seventies album. Outsiders is more concise but is otherwise similar to its immediate predecessor.  It likely has two of the oldest songs on either album (I saw Jesse Malin and the St. Marks Social perform “San Francisco” at The Slidebar in Fullerton, CA on August 5, 2011 and the raucous “Here’s the Situation” not long after that) but the disc’s highlights are apparently new. “Edward Hopper (Somewhere in the Night)” is a sparse but representative work of art, “like an Edward Hopper painting” (to quote from the lyrics) and a tribute to a fellow New Yorker. It is appropriate that Malin would select Hopper as a subject as the artist eschewed modernism and pretension much like Malin’s “indie” music avoids the avant garde exemplified by fellow New Yorkers Suicide, whose “Frankie Teardrop” is ironically name checked in “Edward Hopper”. “In the Summer”, perhaps the best song on either album, is to celluloid what “Edward Hopper” is to canvas, evoking “the Cassavetes bar” and the sweltering Manhattan August much like U2’s “New York”. The Clash’s “Stay Free” shows up in a bare-bones slow piano arrangement, emphasizing the lyrics in an age-appropriate rendition. “In the Summer” (at least the second Malin track to reference the cinema of John Cassavetes) was co-written with D Generation and St. Marks Social guitarist Todd Youth (best known for his work with Danzig and Glen Campbell). Unfortunately, he did not play on the track, but someone (likely Cruz) adequately fills his performing shoes with emotive lead guitar climaxing in a descending, sustained bent note of subtle sorrow that sounds like the most harrowing end of a track since The Beach Boys’ “In the Back of My Mind”. The album ends with the Malin/Cruz composition and production “You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray”, a gentle, jaunty romp and ironically sanguine tune that seems to exhort the listener to revel in being alive even as darkness encroaches.

Discerning, art-savvy “pop” consumers can’t go wrong with either or both of these companion pieces, and this one looks forward to seeing most (or all) of these songs performed live by Malin and company at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia on December 17 and The Bowery Ballroom on December 29. DiLego will perform opening sets at both shows as well as at a gig at Cafe Nine in New Haven, CT on December 18.

New York Before the War

[Track listing, including side designations, from CD back cover—credits from booklet.]

Side A

The Dreamers [listed as “Dreamers” in the booklet]

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Addicted 

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

Turn Up the Mains

Jesse Malin

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Oh Sheena

Jesse Malin

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

She’s So Dangerous 

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz

Produced by Don DiLego

The Year That I Was Born

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

Side B

Boots of Immigration

Jesse Malin/Holly Ramos/Derek Cruz

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Freeway

Jesse Malin

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Bent Up

Jesse Malin

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

She Don’t Love Me Now

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

Death Star

Jesse Malin/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

I Would Do It For You

Jesse Malin

Produced by Don DiLego

Bar Life

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz

Produced by Don DiLego

Outsiders

Outsiders

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

San Francisco

Jesse Malin

Produced by Don DiLego

Here’s the Situation

Jesse Malin

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Society Sally

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

Edward Hopper (Somewhere in the Night)

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

Whitestone City Limits

Jesse Malin/Catherine Popper

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Stay Free

Joe Strummer/Mick Jones

Produced by Jesse Malin

The Hustlers

Jesse Malin/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

All Bets Are Off

Jesse Malin/Don DiLego

Produced by Don DiLego

In the Summer

Jesse Malin/Todd Youth/Johnny Martin

Produced by Jesse Malin, Derek Cruz, and Diane Gentile

You Know It’s Dark When Atheists Start to Pray

Jesse Malin/Derek Cruz

Produced by Jesse Malin and Derek Cruz

Correction (10:05 PM PST): Malin co-owns (and performed at) The Bowery Electric in 2011; he will perform at The Bowery Ballroom on December 29.

One of Malin's handwritten setlists from The Viper Room on August 14, 2014 (I saw another one that didn't exactly match this one). As many as ten songs from this year's albums were performed. The Clash's "Stay Free" was skipped during the show, but it appears on Outsiders.