BLUE JUNGLE - “Baby Don't Cary” LP (Antifiesta)

Too many things happening at once, too many personal connections feeling like they are deteriorating, too much of an extent of removal feeling eminent, mis-communication or perhaps (just a little) forgetfulness. In this case, if I recall correctly, I was going to be out of town. In any event: I wasn't able to set up a show for this band, and when someone else did at one of the Tempe houses, I wasn't able to play or even attend.

Friends of friends, and apparent do-gooders on their own turf (members coordinate the L'Keg Gallery in LA), BLUE JUNGLE are the one band that I missed coming through this summer / fall that I truly hold that much importance in. Eyehategod? Sure, it would have been nice to see them. Arrington? Absolutely, of course. (I was supposed to play with him). However, this was to be new and exciting to me, something fresh and unfamiliar.

While one might argue that Blue Jungle are not doing anything that is really ground breaking, one should more so argue that it's relevance is huge. In an era where “shoegaze” revival is apparent, there is something that holds as “honest” here. I don't hear a poppy and accessible visitation to the past, like (the honestly enjoyed) Pains of Being Pure At Heart or Vivian Girls, rather: I hear Mazzy Star, as channeled through young contemporaries, a bit more up beat than the standard Hope Sandoval dish in some ways, but holding on to that beautiful eeriness that is synonymous with her work, delivering it in a vehicle that travels somewhere between 60's garage and goth, perfectly.



Moderately campy, but not cheesy. Fairly moody, but not overly-pouty. A bit bluesy and soulful, but not cliché. Blue Jungle navigates an often tainted and embellished territory, without succumbing to the pitfalls of it's domain, and there is something here that makes you desire to be proud of them, more so than usual, for doing so.

This is an excellent little LP, recommended if the idea of Siouxie and the Banshees meeting Mazzy Star on the B-side of a Girls in the Garage comp sounds nice, this is most certainly for you. I just hope that next time they pass through wherever I am, I don't miss out on the opportunity.