January

Keep Me From Sleeping
by Leggs Marbison

Gee, I never knew that PJ had a little sister. Her name’s Christine, and it seems she’s been hanging out in cocktail lounges when not in a band called January with a bunch of rock and rollers. What that means is Keep Me from Sleeping has a sound that’s vocally rich, but not afraid to go for one-upping contests with her band. All too often when you get a strong singer, the idea seems to be “let’s showcase that voice by having it be the most interesting, and loudest, thing in the band.” Only when they can’t sing will bands turn it up (hello, Hole). But January has decided they want to rock out, beautiful voice be damned. And you know what? It works. The guitars push Christine, and she pushes the band, and the band pushes the guitar, and… you get the picture. Big pushing contest. But in this case, they’re pushing each other up. Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that what January are doing isn’t exactly new, but when you can make this kind of music, when you can do so much in this genre, does it really matter? They rise to the top. But I’m not sure about the last song, “Dinosaurs.” I mean, “You’re my triceratops/Fierce lookin’ vegetarian”? Are they kidding? Well, this is the band that included the Oompa Loompa song on their last album, so you never know…