Jet Trash

San Francisco’s Jet Trash know what it means to be a quintessential West Coast band. They proudly carry the torch of their predecessors The Sonics and The Ventures, joining the ranks of Bay Area contemporaries Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees in cranking out modern indie-rock updates on classic ’60s garage-surf. Armed with vintage Fenders and reverb-soaked tube amps, the band’s energetic lo-fi anthems have a youthful immediacy, their massive hooks curling like breaking waves. It’s a sound that has already won the hearts of Jet Trash’s hometown, The Deli SF voting them one of the best up-and-coming bands of 2014 and The Bay Bridged dubbing them “the cream of the crop” of San Francisco locals. Now, with their self-titled debut EP, they’re ready to take the national stage. The Jet Trash EP (out July 14) is an unabashedly earnest look at the band’s home state of California as a blessed Neverland that incubates true freedom and individuality. The record brims with DIY surf culture. It prefers analog in a digital world. It’s what the band calls “anti-Bed Bath & Beyond music.” Comprised of Paul Kemp (rhythm guitar, vocals), Keith Shughrou (lead guitar, backing vocals) Marshall Fassino (bass, vocals) and Robby Justesen (drums), Jet Trash radiates an atmosphere of unchecked fun and reckless adventure—a rallying cry to participate in the abandon of youth. The new EP was recorded at legendary Bill Putnam-designed studio Coast Recorders in San Francisco by veteran producer/engineer Andy Freeman (Manchester Orchestra, Eisley, City Tribe, Say Anything’s Max Bemis). Freeman added a modern sheen and a conscious accessibility to Jet Trash’s punk-rock spirit, balancing out the trademark gritty impetuousness of the band’s live performances. The tracks are peppered with unique experiments in gang vocals, wild howling, maxi-pad drum muting and wall-of-sound echoplex guitars. Together, Freeman and the band utilized modern recording techniques with vintage gear, creating the classic yet fresh sound captured on the Jet Trash EP. “There's something about pushing a tube amp too hard,” Kemp says. “It's the lifeblood of this genre. Our whole aesthetic is simple on purpose. Nothing is convoluted. On stage, everyone wears black, no logos. We keep it minimalist. At the end of the day, it's more honest that way. We're four friends playing music—this is who we are. We write our music to be urgent and memorable. Andy was really able to run with our vision.” Kemp grew up on the beaches of Southern California, eventually moving to San Francisco under the pretense of attending grad school. Really, he just wanted to play music. In 2013, he met Fassino at the organic grocery store where they both worked, stumbled on Shughrou at a backyard barbecue, and ended up borrowing Justesen from a different band they played in together. The four became fast friends and soon started making music together as Jet Trash. “For me, it started as a side project but quickly turned into my main band,” Fassino says. “It felt right from pretty early on. Being in Jet Trash has helped me open up. I'd never been in a group that starts with a riff and builds it together from there. I'm bringing a much more vibrant energy to the music than ever before. We're not here to lament the past—we're here to have a good time. Hopefully the people will have as much fun listening as we do playing.” With the release of the Jet Trash EP now on the horizon, the band is currently writing for their follow-up full-length. “There's a lot of nuance in writing a two-minute pop song,” Kemp says. “I let the talents of the other guys make up for what I lack. Keith is an incredible guitar player, I bring a little grittiness, Marshall's vocal layering brings out his own character, and Robby’s drumming really adds an intensity. Our individual contributions shine by the end of each song. It's a group. That's the secret formula.” Garage Rock from Los Angeles, CA.