royal:
The Chubbies
I know about Chubbies for 2 or three years now and I still wonder who they really are. When I heard for them, Chubbies was just one person, Jeanette. So, my guess is that we are dealing here basically with the one-woman band, even though we sometimes see more than one person on their pictures.
Story begins in 1995. when Jeanette picked up her guitar entered in studio somewhere in Canada comepletly decieded that she wants to record her catchy punk songs. She carfully programed her synth and that replaced live bass and drums. The result was great, a pretty little 30 minutes long record "I'm The King". She showed an amazing talent in making great songs and arangements for them.
"I'm The King" is simply full of good songs, full of nice humor. Jeanette rocks and kicks in every song and gets a little slower on the last one Just Like A Man. Strikes of humor come in waves. Humor is definetly strongest weapon against any evol and it seems to me that Jeanette knows that. In her song "Punk Boys Don't Rape" she sings about the girl who is blindly in love with a tough punk rock boy, and "admires" "his voice is deep as a midwest cellar, he's so secure he'd lay Paul Weller". I found it really funny.Record is full of moments like this one.
Two songs stand out, I think. One is Boys Don't Matter, and the other one is Matty Loyal. First one is a little feminist scream and severs as a manifesto to the record and possibly the whole philosophy behind The Chubbies. The other one shows Jeannetes abilitty to write perfect pop songs with wonderful arrangements and ideas. She also has something of sixties vocal groups like Ronettes.
The only bad thing about this record is clear that the drum and bass are a rythm machine. Looking for a band, Jeanette met bass player Kelly and included her in her one woman band. The result was an ep called Play Me, that had a wonderful design, but it wasn't so good as I'm The King, unfortunatelly. Same goes for the follow up entitled Tres Flores, where the Chubbies became a trio. Arangements became more plane, although albums kept nice songwriting. Maybe that's why Jeanette changed her band again.
The Chubbies are now duet again, there are Jeanette and Christine now. New ep Your Favorite Everything is a return to qualities of I'm The King. Wonderful songs, great arangements. This time bass and drums are much better solved, ecpecially because Christine is tremendous drummer. Good heating up for a new album which is expected this year.
No Ego (from I'm The King)
Living In Hell (from Your Favorite...)
All Chubbies records are published by Sympathy For The Record Industry.
Picutres: above, Chubbies as trio, Tres Flores period. Down Christine and Jeanette.
