{"id":7408,"date":"2013-07-30T15:37:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T15:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=7408"},"modified":"2013-07-30T15:37:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T15:37:36","slug":"john-jerome-the-congregation-ask-not-what-i-can-do-for-you-but-what-we-can-do-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2013\/07\/30\/john-jerome-the-congregation-ask-not-what-i-can-do-for-you-but-what-we-can-do-together\/","title":{"rendered":"John Jerome & The Congregation – Ask Not What I Can Do For You, But What We Can Do Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"a1798482847_10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The name of this band smacks of a sequined frontman singing in front of his anonymous players, while the lengthy title of their album underlines the potential of a collaborative approach. At first sniff it may seem a tad disjointed, but a glance at the Moncton-based band\u2019s website reveals that its songwriting process is roughly as follows: Jerome busts out a lick on some instrument or other, the band starts grooving on it, and if everyone is game they work together to convert their spontaneous magic into a memorable, repeatable song.<\/p>\n

Chemistry caught wind of the members\u2019 individual affinities, combined it with their collective approach, and the result is a batch of songs with the feel of immediacy. They tend to be carried by a propulsive property, with the pace generally high. My immediate reaction to this album title was that it seemed rather grandiose, so spotting the title \u201cGreat Claims of Grandeur\u201d<\/a> in the tracklist will always strike me as a wink. That song is also the lead single from this, their debut album, and stands as one of the strongest in the bunch. While there are hooks aplenty throughout, \u201cUnconditional Aid\u201d <\/a>is the song that convinced me it will be worth seeing this band next time they roll through town.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most lyrically telling song is \u201cThe Current,\u201d which loads up on fish and swimming references and builds up to a warm idea that, gazed upon from some angles, can make nothing seem better than congregating: \u201cYou’re a fish out of water, but we’re all the same.\u201d Comfort. Community. (Superbob, johnjerome.bandcamp.com<\/a>) Daniel Emberg<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The name of this band smacks of a sequined frontman singing in front of his anonymous players, while the lengthy title of their album underlines the potential of a collaborative approach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[488,817],"class_list":["post-7408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-john-jerome","tag-root-cellar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7408\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}