ALT-ROCKERS JO PASSED OFF TO A GREAT START WITH SUB POP
Vancouver pop-rock group looking at bright future ahead after release of debut album
JO PASSED THEIR PRIME RELEASE PARTY With Dumb and Little Sprout When: May 25, 9 p.m.
Where: Red Gate Arts Society, 855 E. Hastings Tickets and info:
jopassed.bandcamp.com
Jo Hirabayashi says jazz didn’t play a part in naming his new band Jo Passed. While he is certainly aware of the legendary jazz guitarist Joe Pass, it’s more because of Pass’ drubbing on Jimi Hendrix in a Downbeat blindfold test.
“Honestly, the name comes from some stupid thing me and my friends say, like ‘I’m passed,’ when they are really tired,” said Hirabayashi. “I guess it’s kind of impossible that people will draw that conclusion, but I’m not really that kind of guitarist. Although I did think up the name when I was transcribing a Joe Pass solo for school and thought, ‘someday, I’ll use that.’”
What the Vancouver artist most certainly is, is someone who knows his way around a squall of angular noise and feedback. The art punk SSRI’S was his first group and quickly gained a serious following for its jump-cut staccato assault. Spring, described by Exclaim’s Ian Gormely as “a weirdo Vancouver art band who never really found their stride,” came next. Jo Passed — Hirabayashi, guitarist Bella Bebe, bassist Megan-Magdalena Bourne and drummer Mac Lawrie — seems to bring all the best parts of the previous projects into a new and exciting whole.
The band’s debut album, Their Prime, is out on Sub Pop on May 25. It’s already generating a buzz with its first video, MDM, which was directed by Eleanor Petry. The followup singles, Glass and Millennial Trash Blues, have continued to add more fans to the number who got into the group through its first two EPs, Up and Out.
“I immediately started this project when I stopped Spring with the goal of playing music that was more vibey and far less shred,” he said.
“But I’m really, really stuck between the two and that’s a real problem. I worry that the sum up of my entire career will be ‘here was a guy who couldn’t decide whether he wanted to write a pop tune or a prog tune.’”
Does it matter if the tunes are as good as the dozen found on Their Prime? Probably not.
The guitar interplay between Bebe and Hirabayashi sounds like the Pixies’ Joey Santiago having a battle with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth while some pretty chiming pop grooves bop about underneath. This band can play. But the sound came right out of the gate when Jo Passed was only the duo of Hirabayashi and drummer Lawrie.
“I’d never played with Mac, but I’d already admired his playing with people like Flash Palace and Jay Arner,” he said. “So I kind of pushed some of the completed tracks without drums and him and he did a great job. Then we moved to Montreal and I hit up people there to find a bass player.”
Within four days of arriving in Montreal, the band was gigging. A few tours followed and Hirabayashi doesn’t deny that being located in an affordable place with a vibrant music scene of interest below the border really kick-started the band.
“When we went to Boston, people were there because they like Montreal bands and maybe we got away with being a bit sloppy at that time because of the city ’s cred,” he said. “But Vancouver has its own thing going on, and if you can break through the border, you have this sweet music industry city only 100 miles away and a way more interesting tour circuit with Seattle, Portland, Oakland, San Francisco and so on.”
Seattle does indeed have an active music scene. Even if the grunge heyday is long, long gone, Sub Pop remains an active force. In fact, the label boasts a far more interesting and varied stable of artists now than it ever did back in the day. Jo Passed is certainly one of the most rocking outfits to ink a deal with the label in a number of years.
“I met some guy at our show from the label who liked the record and we sort of danced around before I finally gave him the album,” he said. “They have signed some really cool artists — Downtown Boys, Frankie Cosmos, others — in the past few years, which was stuff I was already getting into independently. It’s still a bit of a trip to meet the people and know who is doing stuff when things update on social media and so forth.”
It seems pretty certain that being on Sub Pop certainly has given Jo Passed the kind of early career profile to be taken seriously. Not that many bands without a few albums to their name get a Live on KEXP appearance or are planning a European tour before they’ve even released the album. The future looks bright.
There is an added bonus to the membership too. The guitarist, bassist and drummer also have a band called Bebe. This means that when the group hits the road, it could have a ready-made opening act to go along with it.
“Yeah, it’s a band in a band kind of thing, sort of Jo Passed and the Bebes,” he said. “And I really hope that this is the lineup that can be steady for as long as possible, because it’s the best one by far. Bebe joined two years ago, almost as soon as I returned to Vancouver, but I’d already done a tour with an entirely different band at that point too.”
Hirabayashi says he initially took the reins because of bad experiences with petty infighting in a previous band. But as he begins writing the followup to Their Prime, he is really excited to have this lineup going into the studio because they are the sum of the parts. This version of Jo Passed rocks.
“Yeah, guitar sales may be declining, but we’re still defending the guitar because we love it,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s not cool anymore.”