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SKIP JENSEN w/ SEB NORMAL, Canadian Tour 2007 (Advance Copy of Upcoming LP) Recorded
in Strasbourg, these 18 songs comprise a cycle that tells the tale of
a tormented soul searching for meaning in an otherwise meaningless life.
This music is that of all-night juke-joints - bare bones, often just
Jensen strumming on a distorted and raw guitar with tambourine played
by foot. At times Jensen recalls Hasil Adkins with a demented back country
groove that chugs along your hips like a horny teenager. Other times
Jensen is layin? down some thick garage shimmy that recalls the best
of his Montreal forerunners the Gruesomes or, maybe even the first Love
album. It?s hard to explain the feel of this record without thinking
of deals with the devil, speed, moonshine, lofts of hay and dirty, messy
and verrry matter-of-fact up against the wall motherfucker boning. Skip
and Seb recently passed through our sleepy city?if you weren?t hep enough
to check em out, it?s your loss. Boy Howdy (Nerve
Magazine) SKIP JENSEN & HIS SHAKIN' FEET/JOHNNY CANCER ONE MAN BAND, Split 7" Single (Solid Sex Lovie Doll Records) Splitted one man band fight between ex-Blacks drummer named after King Louie and Scat Rag Boosters' frontman. Both try to do their best to bash out a big mess sound. Totally stripped down and desperately gone blues defiled by primitive rock 'n' roll and loud punk nature. This guys know exactly the meaning of the modern one man band concept! 2 editions: Skip Jensen / Johnny Cancer edition (150 copies) and Johnny Cancer / Skip Jensen edition (150 copies), 300 in total. Each hand numbered. (Alphamonic) SKIP JENSEN & HIS SHAKIN' FEET, On the Right Side 7" (Yakisakana Records) More one man bands, is this a new trend or what? Well I'm not complaining as long as it's this good. Even though I'd enjoy a full band even more, the stuff that Serge (Scat rag Boosters, Stack O'lees) is cranking out here is really good. Full of homages to the blues and just plain great songs. Much like the Scat Rag Boosters. This is packed with emotion. Love, hate, anger.. Just enjoy it! (Thomas) SKIP
JENSEN & HIS SHAKIN' FEET, On
the Right Side 7" (Yakisakana Records)
“On the Right Side” is the first single by Skip Jensen and his Shakin’ Feet. It’s put out by France’s Yakisakana Records. Skip Jensen and his Shakin’ Feet is a one-man band. The sleeve says “Skip Jensen sings, plays guitar, harmonica and his feet do the rest.” Mr. Jensen (aka Serge Gendron) is in the Scat Rag Bosters so you know this is some choice rock n’ roll. Side A kicks off with “On the Right Side”. It’s a jangley ditty that reminds me of a DM and the Deficits’ song. The other song on Side A is “Gone Wrong Again.” It’s a song about a sad sack with a great groove and cool little guitar solo. Side B contains “Promised Land.” It’s a great bluesy number about a road trip to the “Promised Land”, Los Angeles, California. I just love the story and harp work. I don’t know what the deal with all the one-man bands is lately, but Skip Jensen and his Shakin’ Feet is another good one to add to the list. (Cyclops Zine) SKIP JENSEN, Abscond LP (Delta Pop) For an idea what this Scat Rag Booster and now one-man band sounds like, imagine blues-punk sung by Pere Ubu’s Dave Thomas with his foot caught in a bear trap. That, of course, is a very good thing. All songs were recorded in Jensen’s bathroom with a four-track on the crapper, capturing every howl, tiled reverb, foot stomp and out-of-tune twang in glorious lo-fi. Jensen’s songs are best bare, and on songs like “High Horses,” he proves to be well versed in the blues. His great take on garage folk on “Promised Land” shows the homework has paid off well. Fans of Hasil Adkins and Bloodshot Bill should take note. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins Montreal Mirror) SKIP JENSEN & HIS SHAKIN' FEET, 7" (Delta Pop) Four solo tunes from Serge of the Scat Rag Boosters. Probably the most minimal of the one man bands going (it's just guitar and a tambourine strapped to his foot, no drums to speak of), and it's probably the most traditional of his three and a half records. Two songs are just brief interludes, and the other two are minimal blues done quite convincingly. Great for slow Sunday mornings, and SKip is working on a full-length as we speak. Scum stats= 500 pressed, 300 on color vinyl (clear, and ?), the other 200 on hockey puck thick black, with cardboard sleeve, 25 have alternate sleeves. Damn. (RK Terminal Boredom) SKIP JENSEN & HIS SHAKIN' FEET, On the Right Side 7" (Yakisakana Records) The Scat Rag Boosters are an inexcusably underrated band. They bash out a scree similar to the Gories, but it's more base, more puerile, more disgruntled. And damn good. Even better after four whiskey 'n' cokes and a vicodin. In fact, after some cocktails, "I'm Coming On" sounds just as authentic and appealing as, say, the Gories' "Nitroglycerine," and I've been known to spin both tunes back-to-back just before "painting the town red," as it were. Why? 'Cuz both bands - and both tunes - were/are great at creating that ultimate illusion, the central mythos perpetuated by the rock 'n' roll beast: the idea that something's actually happening. In your pants, outside, in the bottom of a bottle, wherever. Aside from the (excellent) 'Boosters single that Kryptonite just pressed, they haven't released much lately. But Skip, who's one-third of the band, has - this-here single. And it's similarly good-to-great, if not similarly sounding to the 'Boosters. The obvious difference, of course, is that Skip's all by his lonesome this time around, which leaves the eager listener with vox, guitar, and by way of percussion, a tambourine on one foot and a paintstick taped to the bottom of the other. Y'know: A one-man band. 'Cept this one doesn't ape Haze so much as he lightly touches on Adkins' stylings and mixes 'em with heavy doses o' B. Childish. The end result's pretty unique sounding, too. Not whap-bang-via-backwoods fun, but rather somber and lonely garage/R&B numbers that perfectly accompany those rather somber and lonely evenings in which you'd rather remain a one-man band yourself. And with another forthcoming single on the same Yakisakana imprint, as well as a proposed split with BBQ, you can bet I'm looking forward to more solitude in my future. (Blank Generation) SKIP JENSEN, Abscond LP (Delta Pop) “Abscond” is the strange album title of a full vinyl issue by SKIP JENSEN and HIS SHAKIN’ FEET. Jensen should be known to any of you from both Demon Claws and Scat Rag Boosters fame. On this European vinyl release taken care of by Demolition Derby Records S. Jensen does all the guitars, basic snare and cymbals and occasional mouth harp by himself. But instead of just another one-man band stereotype you get an impression these tracks sound like something in between Gibson Bros and The Bassholes, with a slightly more rockin’ drive. There’s a well dosed mix here of real rocking bashers varying with desolated howls on a country-blues edge and inducted by a primal stomp. “Ghost Love”, “Loving Daddy”, “Promised Land” are typical fitting examples here as you can imagine the enlightened spirits of both J.L. Pierce and Skip James treading along the paths of desperation. Jensen’s voice is a major important factor in the total musical outcome, but even in instrumentals like “Azira” or “Malawi” Jensen maintains an serene atmosphere picturing fluently the portrayals of hobos and dwellers throughout the huge land and the lonely search of luck, easy money or their escape from evil and temptation. Just try wondering off along “On My Trail”, “Promised land”, “Death Dealers” or Eerie Lake” : Skip Jensen provides the most needed sidetrack music for this. This album was previously released as a cd version by Delta Pop Records over in the States and Canada. “Abscond” doesn’t only fit splendid painted artwork on its sleeve it also provides great music for early morning activities (whether it’ll be by waking up or by already chilling out after a night of full action ?) (Bowy, Up Yours! Zine) SKIP JENSEN & HIS SHAKIN' FEET, On the Right Side 7" & Evil Wierdos 7" (Yakisakana Records) Sleeping at a Greyhound Bus station is not the most restful slumber a person can have. The benches aren't very comfortable, the noises of people mumbling & shuffling in and out and buses releasing their air brakes would crack any spell of silence more often than not. Plenty of the types who ride the bus aren't the kind one would want to close their eyes around. Hustlers, losers, dishonorable dischargers, those who are close to hitting the bottom (if they haven't yet already) and on the lam. Those who might think they've gained your trust will yak your ear off about their misfortunes. It's not a luxury ride and no matter where a person is heading it's gonna feel like a longer trip than it is. Skip Jensen's (aka Serge of the Scat Rag Boosters) music is a soundtrack for such experiences. Stripped away of everything but valid I.D., a trusty old guitar and a roll of duct tape used to secure a splintered-n-rusted tambourine around his foot to accentuate a floorboard boot taping it's like he rode the giant sardine cans from a tundra of sweet green weed, beautiful women and poutine that is known as French Canada through every dustbowl stop of the US gathering stories of lives full of bad luck, heartbreak and deception and, like any good storyteller, has twisted them back into his own muddy and nicotine stained tales of woe. (DM Smashing Transistors) SKIP
JENSEN, Abscond LP (Delta Pop) SKIP JENSEN, Abscond LP (Delta Pop) Debut solo album from former Scat Rag Booster wild man Skip Jensen – and it’s a fucking blast! Wailin’ folk blues stomp with some seriously cool hill as well as rock-a-billy touches here and there. That delta blues based one man music can be cranked out like this in the year 2006 is amazing and fantastic! Fucking fantastic even! Better produced than most other records like this and even though I’m a sucker for fucked-up sounds, this works really well. The guitar has a lot more punch and bass and the relatively slow songs sounds even heavier and bluesier and better that way. Excellent! There have been as series of really great solo records by hipsters (Hooooo!) like BBQ, Harlan T. Bobo, and John Schooley and this is yet another one. How the fuck do they do it? Which one is the best? I dunno. I think that’s very much up to personal taste. All I know is that this is about as good as it gets and it’s probably my personal fave. I’m half drunk on Evan Williams Bourbon right now so maybe that does the trick. Not only is this great music, it’s great music to drink to! Doesn’t get much better than that! (Simon Nielson Lowcut) SKIP JENSEN, Abscond LP (Delta Pop) C'est sale, visqueux, pas fréquentable et ça ne sent pas toujours bon. À un tel point que toutes les pièces honorant ce premier album solo de Skip Jensen semblent tout droit sorties d'un ruisseau boueux et malsain d'un recoin sudiste. Ou encore que ledit Jensen est un vieux sorcier du blues atteint d'une fièvre sans nom, de celles qui ne sont pas loin d'une bonne vieille possession par les démons du Mississippi! Mais trêve de plaisanterie, Abscond se révèle être en fait le parfait amalgame d'un blues primitif et d'un rockabilly hanté et habité par le Montréalais Serge Gendron, auparavant aperçu chez les Demon's Claws et Scat Rag Boosters. Peu importe que le bonhomme s'impose ici dans une imposture de haute voltige, c'est étonnamment vif, cru, organique et vivant. (Jean-François Dupont Voir) SKIP JENSEN, Abscond LP (Delta Pop) For
an idea what this Scat Rag Booster and now one-man band sounds like,
imagine blues-punk sung by Pere Ubu’s Dave Thomas with his foot
caught in a bear trap. That, of course, is a very good thing. All songs
were recorded in Jensen’s bathroom with a four-track on the crapper,
capturing every howl, tiled reverb, foot stomp and out-of-tune twang
in glorious lo-fi. Jensen’s songs are best bare, and on songs like
“High Horses,” he proves to be well versed in the blues. His
great take on garage folk on “Promised Land” shows the homework
has paid off well. Fans of Hasil Adkins and Bloodshot Bill should take
note. 8.5/10 (Johnson Cummins Montreal
Mirror)
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