Jason & the Scorchers: Too Cool

Joe Sasfy; The Washington Post
October 31, 1986

Copyright 1986-2004 Rolling Stone Magazine

Even really hot rock bands like Jason and the Scorchers sometimes run out of ideas. There’s no other way to explain the fact that the group’s new single is a faithful, but hardly revelatory, remake of the Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown.” The band’s new album, “Still Standing,” includes that cut, as well as a number of others whose dense, turbulent and raunchy sound recalls the Rolling Stones.
Unfortunately, “19th Nervous Breakdown” is also the album’s most memorable cut, meaning that singer-songwriter Jason Ringenberg hasn’t been able to match the superb country-cum-hard-rock originals he penned on the Scorchers’ outstanding last album, “Lost and Found.” At their best, the Scorchers run country and rock into a head-on collision, resulting in exhilarating musical debris. However, only a couple of cuts here, the lyrical “Crashin’ Down” and the rockabillyish “My Heart Still Stands With You,” achieve the fruitful friction of raw hillbilly soul and hard-rock muscle.
If Ringenberg’s compositions aren’t that striking and his apocalyptic religious imagery a little overdrawn, he still delivers his songs in a delightful gulping and yelping drawl. Led by Warner Hodges’ heavy metal guitar antics, the band has no problem sustaining its ferocious rock ‘n’ roll attack. The problem is that this time the Scorchers seem unsure about what they are attacking or why, which means they have moved a step closer to the rock arena and a step farther from the honky-tonks.
JASON AND THE SCORCHERS —
“Still Standing” (EMI ST-17219); appearing at the 9:30 Club Sunday night.

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