Album Review: The Jonx - Vocabularian Herds | Houston Music

With their last album, No Turn Jonx Red, The Jonx took their skills as composers and performers and honed it to plastic auditory perfection. It was a leap that took them from being a solid band to being one of Houston’s best bands. Then the band seemed to disappear when drummer (and sometimes 29-95 writer) Danny Mee moved for Austin. Yet, despite the move, the band never broke-up and, this year, the band reappeared - quietly releasing a new album, Vocabularian Herds, and booking a few shows months after the soft January release date.

Herds has a tough act to follow and it succeeds by not trying to out-do No Turn but instead it simply continues with what made that earlier album great. It’s an album from a band that is very confident in who they are, what they do, and how they express themselves. So no, Herds for the most part won’t have the same thrill of the new that No Turn had but it’s still a solid album worth spinning endlessly.

The album brims with the band’s unique mesh of punk, prog, and indie rock – one that can blow the mathrockers’ heads yet still be catchy enough to grab the ears of the less geeky. The opening track, “The Past Is All You Get,” is a perfect example of how the band can pack a whollop. The band plows through verses of barked vocals, neurotic guitar and bass interaction, spastic drums and sharp timing changes, then shifts gears and slides into a slower ballsy rock groove. Yet, for all the acrobatics it all flows beautifully and with a natural energy that isn’t merely a collection of aimless riffs meant to show-off but something with real emotion behind it. “I'm Getting Really Good At Tetris” is easily the high point of the album with its hilarious final stretch about a long-distance relationship with the narrator stating his variation of the Rifleman's creed, “This is my cellphone. There are many like it but this is mine. My cellphone is my best friend; it is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my cellphone is useless. Without my cellphone, I am useless. ” The music is great with its catchy bass hook crawl but it’s this unique crazed character that really stands out. Another stand-out is “Highway At Night” which takes one riff and drives it for as long as possible. That may not sound like much on paper but to take one riff and keep it interesting and engaging for ten minutes is harder than it sounds and the Jonx make it sound easy. That kind of natural grace is what always makes a Jonx album a treat: for all the complexity and dexterous musicianship of the Jonx, at the very center lies a band with a soul.

Final Score:
Dave Thomas (Wendy’s)