Music City Mayhem Round 11: The Cultivation vs Jacob Jones

The Contestants

In the left: brand-spankin'-new indie/roots rockers The Cultivation. Really - these guys just arrived on the scene; they formed last summer and have just four tracks, one upcoming show, and 93 likes on their facebook page (one of them is me). Having consulted my all-seeing crystal eye that every blogger gets when they sign up, though, I predict that it won't be long before these guys start to win some notice. The band describes their brand of music as "fun rock n' roll," and I'd say that's pretty spot on. Imagine taking an equal number of New Wave/pop-rock bands (Talking Heads, Bell X-1) and country/roots-rock bands (Flying Burrito Brothers, The Bodeans), throwing them in a blender, and hitting "puree" for a short enough time to leave some recognizable chunks of each floating in the resulting beverage. That's the basic idea, and if it doesn't sound appetizing, let me assure you: it is. Their song selection, "Drive," is about as bouncy, hooky, and fun as they come, and, as the name suggests, it also makes a top-notch driving song. In fact, if these guys were around in 1995, I'd bet my bananas that it would have made the "Tommy Boy" soundtrack. Their video selection is either broken or non-existent, but that's fine...I'm going to chalk it up to how new they are.

In the right: the thank-God-I-finally-know-who-sings-that-song guy, Jacob Jones. Seriously, I've heard this song, "Play it Loud, Ray," about 20 times on Lightning 100's "the 615" (I think), but somehow never managed to catch the name of the track or artist. This was a shame, because I love the song. Lyrically, the song is a simple tribute to good times in Music City, but as this track's name suggests, it sounds an awful lot like a Ray Charles song. While you have Tommy Boy on the mind, let me say that it reminds me a lot of the uptempo rendition of "What'd I Say" played by the wedding band in that movie. A modern point of reference would be J.D. Mcpherson; both he and Jacob seem to be part of the recent wave of normal-looking white dudes with not-so-normal voices singing their souls out in a crusade to bring back old time rock n' roll. I, for one, am totally cool with this. "Play it Loud Ray," is raucous, fun, and soulful, and the song left me wishing only that it was 20 degrees warmer outside and that I had a beer.

The Verdict

Tough call. As you might have noticed, I'm a huge fan of both of these songs. Jacob Jones's "Play it Loud, Ray" captures the soul and celebration that so many artists are now forgetting to include when they harken back to early rock n' roll, and "Drive" is the kind of song that, for whatever reason, you just want to hear 10 times in a row. Since I can't really find a reason to like one more than the other, I think that I'm going to go with the underdog. The Cultivation are brand new and haven't haven't had the same amount of time as Jacob to raise an army of internet voting-slaves. Since I would genuinely love to hear more of them, I think they could use an extra push. Plus, they're doing something that doesn't sound quite like any one other thing, and that gives them extra points in my book. Vote here.