Drive Like Jehu is a rock ‘n’ roll band from San Diego, California consisting of guitarist and vocalist John Reis, drummer Mark Trombino, bassist Mike Kennedy, and vocalist and guitarist Rick Froberg. On August 31, 2014, they played a free show in San Diego’s Balboa Park, which was their first public performance in 19 years and has led them to play select festivals and club shows ever since.
They were originally only around for five years and that run, between 1990 and 1995, yielded two classic albums: 1991’s self-titled masterpiece and its stellar 1994 follow-up, Yank Crime. Merge Records also released a two-song single in 1992. Other than a compilation appearance, that was pretty much it.
But something about their sound—post-hardcore maybe, but definitely loud, fierce, emotive rock ‘n’ roll—and mysterious legacy has taken on mythological proportions among underground music aficionados. Where did they come from? How did they end up on a major label? What role did Reis’ band Rocket From the Crypt play in the fate of Drive Like Jehu? Why did they disappear in 1995 and why did it take them almost 20 years to contemplate a reunion? Now that they’re touring again, what does the future of the band look like?
Some of these questions will be answered here, right now. Featuring interviews with all four band members, as well as collaborators like Rob Crow, producer Donnell Cameron, and former Interscope A&R woman Anna Statman, this is the story of one of the greatest rock and roll bands that very few people seem to know anything about.
This is the story of Drive Like Jehu.
Related playlist: “Do You Compute” Drive Like Jehu | “Happy Days” Jim Haas & Co. | “Police Truck” Dead Kennedys | “Johnny’s Theme” NBC Orchestra | “Act Naturally” The Beatles | “Brother James” Sonic Youth | “After the Massacre” Iconoclast | “Burn Pigs Burn” Pitchfork | “Sick Animal” Night Soil Man | “Foxy Lady” The Jimi Hendrix Experience | “I Don’t Care About You” Fear | “What For” Night Soil Man | “Drop Dead” Pitchfork | “French Guy” Rocket From the Crypt | “Lives of the Saints #135 (Naked Wife)” Honor Role | “Anonymous Cave (7” version)” Honor Role | “Atom Jack” Drive Like Jehu | “Step On Chameleon” Drive Like Jehu | “Caress” Drive Like Jehu | “Spikes to You” Drive Like Jehu | “Hand Over Fist” Drive Like Jehu | “Bullet Train to Vegas” Drive Like Jehu | “Hippy Dippy Do” Rocket From the Crypt | “O Pencil Sharp” Drive Like Jehu | “Nosferatu Man” Slint | “Sinews” Drive Like Jehu | “Negativland” NEU! | “Luau” Drive Like Jehu | “Super Unison” Drive Like Jehu | “I Hate the Kids” Hot Snakes | “Gar Forgets His Insulin” Hot Snakes | “New Intro” Drive Like Jehu | “Here Come the Rome Plows” Drive Like Jehu
Related links: drive-like-jehu.com vishkhanna.com
Listen, subscribe, rate/review on iTunes.