By Aaron Calvin, Special to The Chronicle
The Voodoo Jets. The name says it all. It doesn’t make sense really, nor does it sound especially poignant and ear catching. It does, however, perfectly describe their brand of music: good, old fashioned, tired out, self-conscious rock n’ roll.
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone these days who doesn’t like rock n’ roll: you know, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Springsteen. But almost no one likes rock n’ roll throwback bands. Everyone knows about them, the bands that sound like a bad cover band, but don’t really play any songs that you’ve heard before or could sing along with. For every great rock band, there are quite possibly hundreds of bad ones.
What makes The Voodoo Jets’ “From Green To Eternity”sound so lackluster though? They are technically talented musicians, certainly, whipping out standard riffs and quintessential guitar solos to an excessive degree. Lead singer/ songwriter Micah Sheveloff sounds like he has everything Axl Rose has ever made (including Chinese Democracy) playing on an infinite loop in his car. Using the same vocal style as a fairly defunct and fairly crazy man who was pretty popular in the late ’80’s doesn’t seem like a great choice, but he is certainly talented at it. The production is a-okay and the drumming keeps everything together.
The real problem that The Voodoo Jets, among with many other bands of their ilk, suffer from the dreaded disease of the cliche. Everything about this band is everything people hate about ’80’s rock and nothing that people remember it fondly for. The lyrics seem to be written not by Sheveloff, but by the three year old that lives next door to him (this three year old listens to a lot of Cheap Trick). The lyrical gems on this record are endless. They range from the rock n’ roll trope (“seems we’re going nowhere fast”) to ridiculously nonsensical (“I will be your hotel baby/ livin’ inside your hotel mind”).
So here’s the bottom line: if you want to here middle aged men bangin’ out cartoonish pseudo-pop rock songs with lyrics that will make you gag on air, by all means buy this album. However, most music fans would probably enjoy remaining blissfully ignorant to this The Voodoo Jet’s existence. When it comes to “From Green To Eternity,” I could hardly stand a minute of it.

The Voodoo Jets middle aged members fail to produce a fresh sound. (Photo Courtesy of Skye Media)