Jeffery Lewis & The High Voltage: Cult Comic Cassette
Last month I attended a gig that whipped up a specific feeling of nostalgia I’ve not felt in a long time. It was the latest creative vehicle of New York based, cult musician and underground comic artist, Jeffery Lewis, with Jeffery Lewis & The High Voltage.
Now, this sense of nostalgia may be VERY specific to me, a teenager in the 2010s who was obsessed with independent comics (even attempting to write my own), who loved to cry listening to Belle & Sebastian. However, I was happily surprised to see a sizeable crowd upon arriving at the venue (Perhaps Lewis is not so cult afterall). In the early 2000s Lewis put out a series of DIY folk cassettes filled with witty rambling lyrics that cemented him as a figurehead in the Anti Folk scene. Lewis took the ethos of DIY to it’s extremes, recording, producing, distributing and even designing the artwork for his music.
If you have never listened to Jeffery Lewis, you can get a sense of what to expect from the titles of his early songs and albums: The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane, Scowling Crackhead Ian, The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song,The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffery Lewis (featuring a butt naked Lewis on the cover) and lastly, I Wanna Hold Your Foot (a Beatles cover). The list goes on and on and on. Needless to say, Lewis is incredibly prolific. While the large majority of Lewis’s work is tongue in cheek there are beautiful pockets of everyday life that slip through the cracks. A favourite of mine is, To Be Objectified, from the album ‘Em Are I, a self effacing monologue that opens with the line ‘Going bald is the most manly thing I'm ever going to do’. What starts out as a comedy song full of self-deprecating quips, holds a vulnerable confession in the chorus, ‘oh it would be such a relief to be objectified’. It’s songs like this that really solidify Lewis’ song writing talents.
Opening the night was perhaps the most perfect support pairing of all time, Birmingham’s own DIY goblins, Harry Houlton & The Chundersnares. What is there to say about Harry Houlton & The Chundernsares? As a late twenty something (aka YOUNG and YOUTHFUL and YOUNG), hearing new bands harken back to this era of sound is my first real taste of nostalgia. It is fantastic to see a reemerging Anti-Folk scene, particularly here in Birmingham! Much like Jeffery Lewis, Harry Houlton & The Chundersnare’s observational, humor has them singing about awkward sex-capades, bad haircuts and hiding from your ex on New Years Eve. As the only living scholar on the academic study of Twee, I give The Chundersnares my seal of approval.
For fans of: Darwin Deez, The Envelopes, The Moldy Peaches, Adam Green, Jens Lekman, The Teenagers, The Unicorns
Jeffery Lewis & The High Voltage did not disappoint either. Despite recognising a grand total of one from Lewis’ vast discography, my short form content addled brain was totally engaged throughout the set. While the main focus of the night was Lewis’ anxious, frenetic word vomit, The High Voltage greatly enhanced the experience, while retaining the DIY sound. One interesting element of the night were the short interlude breaks between the full band performances. Lewis, alone on stage, introduced a segment he had been working on based on the 50 great American novels. First came The Great Gatsby. After pulling out a projector and a rap beat, Lewis screened a, what I can only describe as, a musical-comicstrip-powerpoint that summarised the plot of The Great Gatsby. Followed by one about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer (reminding the audience of just how racist and odd that plot was).
My highlight of the night was the bag of loot I took away from the show: four hand drawn Jeffery Lewis comics (3 from his cult series FUFF and his latest tour comic) as well as the Harry Houlton & The Chundersnares EP, Four Freaky Songs.
Now, this sense of nostalgia may be VERY specific to me, a teenager in the 2010s who was obsessed with independent comics (even attempting to write my own), who loved to cry listening to Belle & Sebastian. However, I was happily surprised to see a sizeable crowd upon arriving at the venue (Perhaps Lewis is not so cult afterall). In the early 2000s Lewis put out a series of DIY folk cassettes filled with witty rambling lyrics that cemented him as a figurehead in the Anti Folk scene. Lewis took the ethos of DIY to it’s extremes, recording, producing, distributing and even designing the artwork for his music.
If you have never listened to Jeffery Lewis, you can get a sense of what to expect from the titles of his early songs and albums: The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane, Scowling Crackhead Ian, The Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song,The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffery Lewis (featuring a butt naked Lewis on the cover) and lastly, I Wanna Hold Your Foot (a Beatles cover). The list goes on and on and on. Needless to say, Lewis is incredibly prolific. While the large majority of Lewis’s work is tongue in cheek there are beautiful pockets of everyday life that slip through the cracks. A favourite of mine is, To Be Objectified, from the album ‘Em Are I, a self effacing monologue that opens with the line ‘Going bald is the most manly thing I'm ever going to do’. What starts out as a comedy song full of self-deprecating quips, holds a vulnerable confession in the chorus, ‘oh it would be such a relief to be objectified’. It’s songs like this that really solidify Lewis’ song writing talents.
Opening the night was perhaps the most perfect support pairing of all time, Birmingham’s own DIY goblins, Harry Houlton & The Chundersnares. What is there to say about Harry Houlton & The Chundernsares? As a late twenty something (aka YOUNG and YOUTHFUL and YOUNG), hearing new bands harken back to this era of sound is my first real taste of nostalgia. It is fantastic to see a reemerging Anti-Folk scene, particularly here in Birmingham! Much like Jeffery Lewis, Harry Houlton & The Chundersnare’s observational, humor has them singing about awkward sex-capades, bad haircuts and hiding from your ex on New Years Eve. As the only living scholar on the academic study of Twee, I give The Chundersnares my seal of approval.
For fans of: Darwin Deez, The Envelopes, The Moldy Peaches, Adam Green, Jens Lekman, The Teenagers, The Unicorns
Jeffery Lewis & The High Voltage did not disappoint either. Despite recognising a grand total of one from Lewis’ vast discography, my short form content addled brain was totally engaged throughout the set. While the main focus of the night was Lewis’ anxious, frenetic word vomit, The High Voltage greatly enhanced the experience, while retaining the DIY sound. One interesting element of the night were the short interlude breaks between the full band performances. Lewis, alone on stage, introduced a segment he had been working on based on the 50 great American novels. First came The Great Gatsby. After pulling out a projector and a rap beat, Lewis screened a, what I can only describe as, a musical-comicstrip-powerpoint that summarised the plot of The Great Gatsby. Followed by one about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer (reminding the audience of just how racist and odd that plot was).
My highlight of the night was the bag of loot I took away from the show: four hand drawn Jeffery Lewis comics (3 from his cult series FUFF and his latest tour comic) as well as the Harry Houlton & The Chundersnares EP, Four Freaky Songs.
Footnotes
If this article was of interest to you why not have a listen to our latest playlist, an introduction to Jeffery Lewis
For more of Lewis’ music and art click here
For more of Harry Houlton & The Chundersnare click here