Jake King has been operating under the T.T.T.T. banner for a few years now, while also releasing music as J. KING, JACOB KING, and now… JAKE KING. From release to release I find myself having no idea what to expect, since the stylistic lines between these aliases tend to blur. My gut feeling has been to associate T.T.T.T. with a kind of garage-y, modern pop-psych, while JACOB KING is more the acoustic, folk singer/songwriter stuff that I have seen him perform while billed by that name. What adds to the perplexity is that, as far as I can tell, all of the recordings are just Jake by himself. This cassette completely shatters any expectations tied to those names. Rock & Roll is five tracks of blown-out, feedback-drenched garage-rock, with vocals swimming in reverb. “2026” is the clear standout, driven by a full-on RAMONES-style guitar riff. This is going to sound a bit confusing, but “2026” is awesome! 

If you’re familiar with T.T.T.T., you already know the guitar solos are going to be unhinged. On a recording this raw and nasty, that pants-on-fire style fits these songs perfectly. Still, I have to ask, where does someone get off having such reverb-soaked, sand-in-your-face guitar solos like this while being from Buffalo, NY? After listening to this tape, I think I’m finally starting to understand this whole Rock & Roll thing I’ve heard people talk about. 

It seems to me that this recording is close enough in nature to T.T.T.T. that it could still be listed under that umbrella, but as someone with many monikers for my various projects I can’t necessarily blame Jake for adding another name to his Discogs. I often wonder if we all should have been smarter with our musical endeavors and taken the Mark E. Smith stance of “if it’s me and your granny on bongos, it’s THE FALL” keeping all our output under single project names. 

Label: The New Disposable