CMJ Sub Pop / Hardly Art Showcase: Pissed Jeans, Mercury Lounge, NY

Anyone who didn’t know better might think that the members of Pissed Jeans were having a bad night. Lead singer Matt Korvette is unabashedly insulting, commenting that the “mainly unattractive dudes” up front are less than desired; meanwhile, during songs, Korvette, along with bassist Randy Huth and Bradley Fry, dodge any number of drinks thrown at them throughout the set.

Still, these moves only provoke a packed crowd that react more to this band than any other at the Sub Pop / Hardly Art showcase. The crowd are absolutely whipped into frenzy by the band’s diving, slamming and battling as they perform hits off of their latest album.

Pissed Jeans, who on stage nicely match up with an Iggy Pop & The Stooges cover band, replete with the shirtless Korvette parading around the stage, push the boundaries between pop and screaming metal, with a fair amount of punk to even out their sound. Songs use screams as hooks rather than specific lyrics, which verge on the wonderfully silly, like “I’ve still got you ice cream ‘cause sometimes life is less than a dream.” The bravado and confidence that come from such lyrics, along with the screaming crowd, is only accentuated by their antics, which mostly revolve around the spitting of water by Fry and a bit of pushing and shoving by instrumentalists and singer during songs.

The band seem to capitalize on their popularity when they say, just before their last song, that,”not even God could make this song fail”. They’re absolutely right.