Jollyship the Whiz-Bang

Before the World/Inferno destroyed Cha Chas in Coney Island, the opening band managed to play a full set. They were Jollyship the Whiz-Bang, and they’ve recently become pretty tied in with Inferno, being that their keyboardist / accordionist is now taking over a lot of Franz’s duties. That night was my first time seeing them, and as I had heard quite a lot about them, I was quite excited to be there — and I was not let down.

They play a sort of pirate-rock, but of a different sort than, say, Mutiny. Less gravelly voices, and more.. puppetry? Unfortunately, they didn’t have the puppets out that night, but the fun was not diminished. Starting out with Party Island, with its chorus of, ‘We’re at the party island! Yo-ho-ho!’ it was hard not to enjoy myself. Bands should never take themselves too seriously anyway.

The recordings on their first full-length, Songs to Drown By don’t seem to really capture the same energy for the most part, which isn’t to say it’s a bad CD — perhaps if I had heard it before the live versions, I would feel differently. However, their more recent EP is perfect, each song captured as well as I could hope for.

Downloads

From Songs to Drown By
Kill It If It Don’t Got Feet – (MP3, 4.2 MB)
Party Island – (MP3, 4.9 MB)
Walk With You – (MP3, 4.6 MB)

From Curse of the Ancient Legend
Bone of My Brain – (MP3, 6.2 MB)
The Witch Song – (MP3, 6.6 MB)