JD McPherson | Let the Good Times Roll

You wanna go grab milkshakes down at the Soda Fountain? Of course not! It’s fucking cold outside and your imagination of whatever the hell a Soda Fountain is telling you that you’ll just end up a sticky mess. And not in the good way. But if you are feeling nostalgic for the mid 20^th century like me, it’s time for you to check out JD McPherson. His music will bring you back to the time that you, well, that you never actually lived in. In searching for a word for this sense of nostalgia for a time or place that you’ve never actually experienced I’ve found “sehnsucht” linked to C.S. Lewis who was kind of a nutjob, and a group of psychologists who call it a “cascading reminiscence bump”. So let’s just call it fauxstolgia and move on.

McPherson is my favorite new artist. At least in the way that the Grammy’s define new artist, meaning it doesn’t matter how long he has been making music, I just fucking heard of him. To be fair McPherson’s debut album Signs and Signifiers was only released back in 2012. This man may be new to releasing music but his sound is straight out of the ‘50s. It’s good to see someone with an appreciation of classic music unlike this year’s New Artist of the Year, Sam Smith, who somehow didn’t know he was ripping off Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down”. At least the artists that I love (Gaslight Anthem, Ryan Adams) acknowledge that they are ripping off, ahem, influenced by Petty. Get it together Sam.

There is no denying that McPherson is trying to emulate the sound of rock ‘n’ roll legends, as his spoke about during his interview with NPR he not only listened heavily to Little Richard and Fats Domino but used vintage equipment to create that old school sound. And he succeeded. Listen to Signs and Signifiers and tell me you wouldn’t have believed this wasn’t recorded to be a high school favorite at the Hop. Let the Good Times Roll sounds newer in terms of production but musically it still makes you want to jump out of your seat and shake it with that cute girl in the poodle skirt. At least this is the case on the first song and title track, before “Bossy” adds a touch of the dirty blues while still keeping you moving.

Let the Good Times Roll isn’t as straight rock ‘n’ roll as its predecessor but these songs are still engaging in musical styles of the past like soul on “It’s All Over But the Shouting” or doo wop on “Bridgebuilder”. McPherson really seems to understand how to write songs that seem like the genuine article, not merely tributes to musicians of the past. In 2015, maybe not everyone is going to get into rockabilly tracks like “It Shook Me Up” or “Mother of Lies” but I love them. I’m not going to go out and grease back my hair and wear a leather jacket (and not just because I’m bald), but I am going to try to spread the word on this guy. Although with the increasing buzz that McPherson seems to be building I’m not sure he will need my help.

The Drink: Uh. Can I interest you in a milkshake anyway?

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Bake

I'm nothing. Maybe less than nothing. I also write.

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