Hungarian journalist/novelist Arthur Koestler once said that the real moment of truth or “the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes, or short-circuits of reasoning.” Such an impartial explanation of moments and events which prove to have remarkable significance is wildly romantic and attractive and, now in 2011, Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes has reached his moment of truth with the release of Honkey Kong – the singer's first solo record without assistance from friend and artistic patron Joshua Homme and without the Eagles Of Death Metal. Almost two years in the making, the album is truly Hughes' moment of truth to the letter of Koestler's explanation; it does indeed offer fans and listeners new insight into Hughes' character and, according to the singer, could not have been created if he hadn't listened to his intuition. “I've been fulfilled in so many ways before the album has even come out and now I'm going to be able to share it with other people,” enthuses Hughes from his home in southern California. “I'm excited about the quality of it; I got to take everything I've been learning from some of the greatest and the best in this fucking business and apply it directly to some new music, and I'm happy with what came out; it's me unfiltered in a way.
"There was so much pressure on me with this album – some of it probably wasn't real and some of it was probably self-imposed, “ continues the singer. “Coming from the family of musicians that I do and from my association with Josh Homme, there were a lot of expectations and I wanted to meet those, but I also really wanted this album to be weird and different while still being able to see some similarities with Eagles Of Death Metal. All that, and the real issue is it being a solo record – which basically means being all by yourself and alone most of the time. I discovered that, if I needed something done, I had to figure out how to do it myself literally. I played every instrument on the album. I did have a couple of parts here and there that were filled in by my friends, but not many – and trying to do it all yourself can be very time consuming. When you're just one person in there, you have no one to fall back or rely on or get loaded with so it's easy enough to stay focused but, because you're doing everything yourself, it can take a while to get everything done. I didn't really take my time, I just took as much time as was required – that's how I look at it.”
In listening to the album, it quickly becomes apparent that, no matter what your philosophy on the amount of time it took to finish Honkey Kong, it was well worth it. From the moment “Complexity” opens the proceedings, the elements of Eagles Of Death Metal which won fans over on albums like Death By Sexy and Heart On are manifest in the lyrical wordplay (check out lines like “You didn't wanna scratch but then you got the itch”), but the music which accompanies it is thicker, tighter and mimics the sound of a sure Top Forty anthem; in effect, the song illustrates how the entire album ends up straddling the generic lines between pop and rock in a whole new and exciting way. The trend of intertwining both old and new elements of pop and rock with a sexually implicit, attractive undertone continues as “Love You All The Thyme” and “Boots Electric Theme” both sneak into the pants of listeners and get hips swinging involuntarily, but the real money shot comes in “Oh Girl” where, with a well-placed sample of the opening beat from The Ronettes' “Be My Baby,” Hughes shows the testosterone-fueled hard rock boys how to really get a girl: by being a little bit sweet and a little bit candid, and having that laced with a bit of T. Rex rhythm which just wants pelvises to grind. After that, Boots does lighten up again to tease the girls and make them cry through “You'll Be Sorry,” “Trippy Blob” and “Swallowed By The Night” before getting outright sweet and lovable in the comparably stripped down “Speed Demon,” which perfectly blurs the lines between beautiful love and amphetamine addiction to close out the record and leave listeners to digest what they've just taken in – a fantastic kind of contemporary classic which utilizes time-honored songwriting devices, but makes something brand new. “I know I don't say things like this very often, but I really took making Honkey Kong very seriously,” confesses Hughes, in a rare moment of candor. “I had a vision and I had an idea of what I wanted the album to be and it was very specific and defined to start. I knew even early on before anything even got done that it had to be Money Mark who would produce it and I'd known that for a long time, if for no other reason than because I love the production work he did on Check Your Head [by The Beastie Boys –ed]; that album is six separate styles of music which are cohesively put into a record, and I knew going in that I was really going to start reflecting the music I grew up with going in. I grew up in the South – I grew up around about five different kinds of music – between the hillbilly and The Cramps and rock n' roll and all – and then with everything that struck me later, I knew it was going to be an enormous palette and that Money Mark would be the only guy to handle it. That came together better than I could have hoped, but I'm so happy with the finished album and so excited that it has really lived up to the big plan Josh Homme and I have had for years; Josh and I always envisioned Eagles Of Death Metal as a supergroup, I just needed to go ahead and get the part where I got to belong to it out of the way. That's kind of what Honkey Kong does too – you know? [chuckling].”
With the album now finally complete and seeing release on Dangerbird Records on September 20, all that remains is to get the word out and get the new Boots Electric project on stage but, rather than figuratively slapping a new coat of paint on an old fence and simply taking Eagles Of Death Metal out on the road to play Honkey Kong, Hughes has assembled an all-new band to back him up. “I've always been sort of like the spiritual leader of Eagles Of Death Metal, but just taking them out on the road for this didn't seem right,” says Hughes as he explains the guiding principles he used to assemble his new band of solo project performers. “I write all the music, but it's like a clubhouse, if you will, and I'm a Parliament Funkadelic fanatic. One of the first things that truly affected me as a kid was just how fucking weird Parliament looked. Not that they were trying to look weird, they were just freaks and I really like that aesthetic, but it has to be bad-ass.
"What I've learned is that the guild I'm part of is that you're only as good as the people you surround yourself with and I'm fortunate to have one of the weirdest and coolest bands I've ever been a part of,” continues the singer. “So I worked on it and put a band together that is just fucking awesome! I've got Tuesday Cross on bass – who's this smoking hot tiny little Latina chick who plays a Dan Armstrong – and is just crazy, Eden Galindo – who is of questionable middle eastern heritage – on guitar, and I've got Pauly Castillo – who is [Eagles Of Death Metal drummer] Joey Castillo's little brother but is about twice his size, about one-fourth sexier and can pound skins like you can't believe! It's perfect – the band is a powerhouse of young guns, sex maniacs and rock n' roll maniacs that I'm going to set loose on the world, starting in Europe on September 11.
"I'm really excited to show the world what I've done and what we've got on Honkey Kong, and how fucking solid this new band is; there's some really rich talent in this group which pretty much just tells me that I've got a really good deal with the devil.”
Artist:
www.boots-electric.com/
www.myspace.com/bootselectric
www.facebook.com/bootselectric
www.twitter.com/jesseeodm
Download:
Boots Electric – "Boots Electric Theme" – Honkey Kong
Album:
Honkey Kong comes out on September 20, 2011 via Dangerbird Records. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
