This Funky Little Band has Lived in My Mind Rent Free for the better part of seven months and now you all have to hear about it. Keep reading below the cut to justify the afternoon I spent writing all this up.
Formed in 2006, Three friends at George Washington University form a Band:
Ben Thornewill (Piano/synth/vocals)
Jesse Kristin (drums/vocals)
Tommy Siegel (guitar/bass/vocals)
Do they seriously all do vocals?
Yes, and it is glorious
To Date: Six studio albums, one live album, over 1,000 performances including Lollapalooza, Conan, and Letterman
Speaking of those Six Studio Albums, let's take a look:
Let Live and Let Ghosts
The Most 2006 Record You Will Ever Listen To
Achingly Sincere Tracks About Love and Companionship paired with dark-humor apocalyptic numbers inspired in large part by the Bush administration and then-popular End-of-Days theorizing.
My Favorites: Good Day, Hold it In, Where Are All The Scientists Now
Everything Under the Sun
Just Plain Old Fun
A refined take on the formula set by Let Live and Let Ghosts, with the majority of songs running the gamut between peppy (or, in Siegel’s words, caffeinated) and sweet, with an apocalypse suite containing one of the Band’s all-time best numbers)
My Favorites: Empire, Summer Sun, Mistletoe, The Sun (Interlude), The Stars
A Personal Favorite
Apocalyptic Songs Traded for a mix of topics ranging from anxiety and trueness to oneself to aging and mortality, with even the love songs (mostly) erring on the more serious sides of things. The album is Bittersweet, if more Sweet than Bitter.
My Favorites: Ghosts in Empty Houses, Man in the Moon, Say When, Adulthood, Somebody, Everybody Knows, At Last
Jukebox the Ghost Does Heartbreak
Seriously, almost every single one of these tracks has to do with romance and most of them aren’t the happiest about it
Arguably One of their more Boring/mainstream albums, and I can definitely see why some people aren’t the biggest fan, but it's just so much fun.
My Favorites: Hollywood, Made for Ending, Sound of a Broken Heart, Girl, Postcard, The Great Unknown
Jukebox the Ghost Gets Weird (and does a Little Queen in the process)
This album is All Over The Place, and while it doesn’t always work for me, it’s some of JtG’s best work when it does. This album has some of the band’s most well-known songs, and Alt-Indie contrarian though I am, even I have to admit that they’re pretty Fantastic.
My Favorites: Fred Astaire, Everybody’s Lonely, Diane, Simple as 1-2-3
The Essential JtG Album
The Apocalypse is back and better than ever! Apropos of Nothing, this album was released earlier last year (but is surprisingly Covid-free!).
Some of the Band’s best instrumentation and vocals to date; this album is full to bursting with classics.
My Favorites: Ramona, Million Dollar Bills, The Apocalypse Suite (The Machine, Everybody Panic, Raise a Glass, How the World Began), Cheers
idk what kind of audience there is on tumblr for this besides my dear friends but here are all my Jukebox the Ghost inspired artworks 💖💖 stream I Got a Girl 💖💖
