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At this stage in the game it is safe to say J Church is the most prolific band to spawn from the late `80s East Bay / Lookout! Records scene *cough* MTX release something new *cough*, but being prolific only gets you so far. Lance Hahn and Co. don’t just rest on their laurels putting out a bunch of identical records one after the other though, as with The Horror of Life they prove that on their seventh full-length release they are still able to challenge contemporary notions about what it is to make a punk a record.

The album opens up with the squealing guitar line of “Vampire Girl Prefers Me Alive,” and I must say it reminds me a lot of how the Draft opened up their recent full-length with “New Eyes Open.” From what I gather it is a song about an intimate female relation to one of the band members. I know what you're thinking (because I’m Patrick Stuart), “Wow, a pop-punk band writes a song about a girl” and yes, the album does open and close on mid-tempo rockers about relationships but there is more to it. Now a majority of bands under the umbrella tree that is punk tend to paint females in rather static views of “You broke my heart, die you Benedict Arnold!” or “When you rub it there that feels good, bebe,” but for J Church this is not the case. The roles of females in these songs are very much fluid and complex. Take for example the adventures of the quirky bloodthirsty protagonist Sarah over the groovy bassline (Ben Snakepit anyone?) in “Vampire Girl Prefers Me Alive” or the characters coming to grips with a loveless relationship in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.”

Being a fiercely independent band they still wear their politics on their sleeve just as proudly as they do their hearts. “If I Have to Dance Then I Don’t Want Your Revolution” is a perfect example of this. If one wanted to write a song about sellouts all you’d have to do is find the latest article on Against Me! and paste together strings of message board dialogue. Instead, J Church write a personal and passionate song about the commodification and co-opting of the ideals they cherish by corrupt individuals, with lines like, "What I thought was sad confusion was just counter-revolution. Buy the shirt. Buy the fad. Buy the full-page glossy ad. Selling out, buying in. Dance, you fool. Stupid grin. The revolutionary ideals, they’re happy to steal and turn into gimmicks for post-modern cynics." Dance, dance indeed.

Equally impressive to what the band has to say is how they go about saying it. The band provides a veritable cornucopia of styles such as: down-home acoustics (“The World's Tiniest Violin”); classic hardcore punk (“New Ho Chi Minh City”); noisy post-hardcore (“Unrequited”); and riff-centric pop (“Cosmonaut”). For a band that releases so many splits and singles there is an uncanny cohesiveness to all that is going on in the record. This is in part, I believe, to Lance Hahn being an astute observer of history, pop culture and music he just knows will work. Take for instance “Eric Dolphy,” about the jazz musician of the same name who died in Germany of complications with diabetes because doctors assumed that since he was a jazz musician he was overdosing on drugs; how many punk bands would write songs about that? Shades of the nerdy attention to detail show up in other aspects of the album as well, such as the nod to the Pixies in the back-up wails of “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love."

The album’s catchiness gives it an immediacy, its little idiosyncrasies encouraging closer examination and its variety giving it longevity. Few bands ever labeled pop-punk are worthy of the moniker but J Church has been able to do so much within the sub-genre while maintaining the likeability of pop and the respectability of punk to truly require being labeled as such. Front-person (person-holes?), Lance Hahn has always proved to be a man with a lot of ideas but with The Horror of Life, just maybe he has finally been able to fully articulate them.

Stream The horror of Life at J Church's Punknews Profile Page



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    Posted by SloaneDaley on 2007-10-22 23:32:29
    My Score:

    score is for Lance

    Posted by Anonymous on Monday, May 14, 2007 at 2:17 PM (EDT)

    hahn is a vagina

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 5:31 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    This album is a 6 at best. It's alright, but it's nothing special. A lot of the backing whoas are pretty bad.

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 3:10 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Horrible!

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 7:50 AM (EDT)

    I'll never forget when J Church tried to start on the members of Chopper (UK). Lance and co shit their load when the Chopper fellas refused to back and threatened them in return. Ignore what Wat Tyler said about the incident as he ass kisses J Church. The bully boys cacked their pants

    Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 13, 2007 at 7:45 AM (EDT)

    awful band

    Lom is soft as shit too

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 12, 2007 at 9:20 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    This album is super good. Ooh, and the other day found the Precision of Simulcra/The Map Preceeds the territory 10". That's a good record. But it doesn't have a few of the songs that the cd does. Oh well.
    Oh, and I hope lance is doing alright with his kidneys and stuff.

    Posted by SloaneDaley on 2007-05-12 12:09:51

    Ah dang, I was gonna review this. Glad to see someone did it.
    This album is good, far better than their last one, and J Church is an amazing band, but I don't see them ever topping One Mississippi. That album is a masterpiece.

    I have to agreeably disagree with you Scruffs, well I found Societ... to be better than One Mississippi

    Posted by ozmanx on 2007-05-12 03:48:31

    Where have I been? After reading the review I headed to the stream section and found this band to be awesome. I need to do some catchup.

    Posted by Scruffy on 2007-05-11 19:03:54

    Also, I can't read the phrase "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" as a song title without thinking of the Old 97s, who referenced the same short story years ago in "What We Talk About".

    Posted by Scruffy on 2007-05-11 19:02:28

    Ah dang, I was gonna review this. Glad to see someone did it.
    This album is good, far better than their last one, and J Church is an amazing band, but I don't see them ever topping One Mississippi. That album is a masterpiece.

    Also, to anyone who is familiar with the band and is wondering which part of J Church's sound this album is most similar to, it sounds a TON like The Drama Of Alienation.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 5:01 PM (EDT)

    Hey Feeding5000, it is alright to like more than one style of punk rock... just don't let your friends find out! And yes, this is the same Lance that does the UK peace punk band histories in MRR. Lance knows a lot about the anarchism, he just usually choses to sing about girls instead. I recommend that you check out the title track from Society Is A Carnivorous Flower. One day me and you can do a piece on J Church for MRR.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 4:56 PM (EDT)

    lance a dick? i knew him back in the cringer days and he was always nice as hell. did something happen?

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 2:17 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    the only negative thing about J Church I can see is Lance's voice isn't that strong but in terms of music and lyrics few touch them. the last full length was an 8. Most of their other full lengths around 7's I'd say. This in my opinion is by far their best album.

    Also Feeding that was likely him, I know he has written for several zines.

    - JD

    Posted by baseball on 2007-05-11 10:53:01
    My Score:

    J Church has definitely been one of the most interesting bands in the punk/pop genre over the years

    but there's always been something that hasn't grabbed me about the music, i like it but if i'm not in the right mood i can't get into it

    i'd say this album is about as consistent as their other stuff...solid 7's

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 10:20 AM (EDT)

    Wait...isn't this Lance Hahn, the guy who wrote all the anarcho-punk stuff in MRR? If so, then I'll probably have to at least check this out. I mean, those two-part articles about Lost Cherees really made my month.
    -feeeding5000

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 8:55 AM (EDT)

    This is really good. Anybody that focuses on spreading rumours about Lance, IS A DICK. Lets focus on the music shall we?

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 8:18 AM (EDT)

    go away , lance.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 8:16 AM (EDT)

    too bad lance is a dick

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 8:15 AM (EDT)

    if you have heard other j church stuff you would know that lance keeps doing the same song w/ different vocals. same beat ....same riff. his ideas are all used up.

    Posted by brown on 2007-05-11 06:43:55
    My Score:

    Score is for Snakepit

    Posted by Enemy_Will on 2007-05-11 06:38:50

    The hidden track is great as well. It's called "too bad lance is a dick."

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 4:39 AM (EDT)

    These guys should be up their with TLA, Jawbreaker, Lifetime and D4 on terms of popularity. Seriously.

    Posted by SloaneDaley on 2007-05-11 00:23:56
    My Score:

    make a punk a record......?

    score is for me.

    Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 11, 2007 at 12:07 AM (EDT)

    i don't own any of their records, but every time i see the J church train pass by, i think of them.

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