Movie Jail

MOVIE JAIL | SELF-TITLED EP | DESPERATE SPIRITS RECORDS | MARCH 3, 2023

 

Bio:

“Movie Jail stretches beyond the borders of its Kentucky home, instantly connecting to the ethos of the Midwest sound: melding electronic and dreamy rock elements seamlessly, with an insatiable curiosity to expand beyond defined geography into a larger and complicated unknown.” — Rob Theakson, RiFLe / WRFL, Lexington

“Movie Jail” is a phrase referring to unspoken sanctions imposed on a director after a career failure or refusal to join a lucrative project. One might assume a band bearing this name has rejected entertainment for its own sake, but the truth is a bit more complicated. Despite a noisy veneer, Movie Jail finds its center in an unabashed love of hooks, melodies, and solid grooves.

From the weird musical hinterlands that gave the world Slint, Hair Police, and Cage The Elephant, the Lexington, Kentucky-based five-piece Movie Jail offers further proof that college towns can provide fertile creative ground.

The group will release its self-titled debut EP on March 3, 2023 via Desperate Spirits Records. Mixed by John McEntire of Tortoise and featuring McEntire’s own vibraphone as accompaniment, the record brings to mind a post-rock band hired to play an airport lounge, trying to reconstruct decades of pop music based on memory alone.

Movie Jail is just as likely to cycle through secondhand jazz chords as to careen headlong into jittery new wave territory. The band's first single, “Call The Neighbors,” captures all these contradictions, opening with a volley of strident guitar and lyrical jabs at the bootstrap generation but secretly hoping to retreat to a hotel room for drinks and an afternoon nap.

According to the members of Movie Jail, “Call The Neighbors” is about “the tension between a generation that views work as inherently valuable and those who see it as a means to an end. It's a song about the joy of making questionable decisions i.e. 'making snow angels in the middle of the road,' as the song's opening line suggests.”

NEWS:

IN THE PRESS:

“Hypnotic, airy indie rock.”
— Brooklyn Vegan
“Juxtaposing new wave guitar scratch against lush and shimmering Stereolab-style loungey electronic elements and intricate rhythmic shifts and time signature changes.”
— Treble
“Hooky sonic barrage.”
— MAGNET
“Knitting together traces of intricate indie rock guitars, silken new wave synths, jazzy chord changes, and a love for irresistible pop melody.”
— Under The Radar
“​We love angular indie pop and rock and this lot are exactly that. There is a vibe of Talking Heads in the feel, inventive and yet compelling, I just wish there was more.”
— I Don't Hear A Single
“Melding electronic and dreamy rock elements seamlessly, with an insatiable curiosity to expand beyond defined geography into a larger and complicated unknown.”
— RiFLe / WRFL (Lexington)

Movie Jail (L-R) Austin Wilkerson, Dave Cobb, Nick Coleman, Kim Conlee, Thomas Sinclair as photographed by Nick Jackson. Click for hi-res.

Movie Jail (L-R) Kim Conlee, Thomas Sinclair, Austin Wilkerson, Dave Cobb, and Nick Coleman as photographed by John Ferguson. Click for hi-res.

Movie Jail (L-R) Thomas Sinclair, Dave Cobb, Nick Coleman, Kim Conlee, and Austin Wilkerson as photographed by Nick Jackson. Click for hi-res.

Movie Jail (L-R) Kim Conlee, Nick Coleman, Dave Cobb, Austin Wilkerson, and Thomas Sinclair as photographed by Nick Thelen.

Movie Jail (L-R) Kim Conlee, Austin Wilkerson, Nick Coleman, Dave Cobb, and Thomas Sinclair as photographed by Nick Thelen. Click for hi-res.

Movie Jail EP cover art. Illustration by Simone Thornton. Design by Robert Beatty. Click for hi-res.

“Call The Neighbors” single cover art. Illustration by Simone Thornton. Design by Robert Beatty. Click for hi-res.