Jetenderpaul Presents The Modal Lines *

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Total Tracks: 13   Total Length: 34:06

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J. Edward Keyes

Editor-in-Chief

J. Edward Keyes has been writing about music for nearly 15 years, a fact he occasionally finds terrifying. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Village V...more »

04.22.11
Jetenderpaul, Jetenderpaul Presents The Modal Lines *
2004 | Label: Burnt Toast Vinyl / Redeye

Kansas City micropop band Jetenderpaul formed too soon to benefit from the format for which their songs are best suited: the MP3 blog. Too brief to stand alone as pop singles but too tuneful to be mistaken for anything else, Jetenderpaul's two-minute masterpieces required web-savvy saviors to prop them up and provide them context. That messiah never came, though, because it was the late '90s and everyone was too busy spending Flooz at Pets.com to kill time profiling niche bands. Though their second record is not without its charms, it's their swan song, Jetenderpaul Presents the Modal Lines that's more consistently rewarding. JTP boil the fat out of their songs, leaving only tinny guitars and tiny drums. Somehow, though, that's enough — gaining momentum with the surefire summertime single "Hudson Bay Drive" and cresting with the beat-band bang-up "George Gabelson," Modal Lines is perfect pop, writ small.

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Production Editor's Dozen

By J. Edward Keyes, Editor-in-Chief

My interest in music has never been especially casual. By age six I'd already worked my way through my parents 'towering boxes of classic rock LPs, and by high school I was more interested in dubbing my friend's Nitzer Ebb singles than I was in, say, Appetite for Destruction (though in retrospect, I realize this was probably poor judgment). The one consistent thing was that no matter what I was listening to at any given… more »

They Say All Music Guide

With referents that include Kramer, the Beach Boys, and Flaming Lips, Jetenderpaul has a sound somewhere between lo-fi and hi-fi, poppier than most alt-rock but more ragged than most power pop. Much of Presents the Modal Lines seems to be recorded in mono, with the balance leaning slightly to the left, and the overall production quality feels a bit cramped, as if the sound were coming out of a transistor radio about five feet from your head. But the songs are genuinely charming; “An Old Pamphlet Quote” asks the musical question “Did you ever think that there’s anything wrong with love?,” while “All I wanted to remember” commits the cardinal sin of starting with the word “And,” then redeems itself with cheesy Beatlesque synthetic horns. “Bonaventure (A Prototype)” floats along on sci-fi keyboards, tambourine, and jangly guitar. The vocals are never expert but always pleasant, which is basically a good way of summing up the appeal of this whole album. – Rick Anderson

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