The Jackoffs

==Formation==
The Jackoffs started off as a solo avant-guard project of H.J.P. He would play outdoor gigs at parks and playgrounds with a guitar and a looping tracks played off his tape recorder. Eventually his school friends Cortez Grungeo, Jacob Rattcliff and James Robertson would occasionally appear with him playing broken ukuleles, pump organs and sometimes violins. After becoming sick of school they decided to tour New Zealand with an experimental film they made and play music along with it. The film showed scenes of boys from their school masturbating over each other so they titled it The Jackoffs. During the tour they would often get into fights with the audience as many of the gigs were at small town bars and many found it to be offensive. They were taken to court over the 'pornography' elements in the film but were left with only a warning after it turned out all the actors were James Robertson and Jacob Rattcliff. This gave them more press and noriaty than they expected. They were quickly signed to an underground punk label with no name. H.J.P and Cortez Grungeo quickly wrote three songs that became their first single 'Blacky Eats Bella'. They did a small tour to promote this at local school halls and then quickly wrote and released a second single 'I Want To Eat Your Baby, Baby'. With a gathering fan-base they continued to tour New Zealand's small towns playing country classics as experimental punk songs while writing their first album. H.J.P came up with ten new songs. The album was a moderate success in New Zealand at the time selling 210,101 copies. They quickly became household names and praised for their fearless experimentation. After a sold out tour they quickly returned to the studio and created a more complex sounding album that relied on strong song structure base. The result was the concept album 'Chip The Automatic Human And His Glorious Downfall'. This was the first time they showed frustration at the recording industries strict rules on number of songs per album. They had created fourteen songs but were only allowed to release ten. The album was more accessible than their first and sold 372,310 in New Zealand. At the conclusion of their New Zealand tour they decided to take their music to Europe.
==The Jackoffs in Europe==
The first release in Europe for The Jackoffs was the first single from their second album, 'Chip Hits Pubity' Its provocative artwork caught the attention of an experimental film-maker in Germany who was looking for an artist to create a soundtrack for his latest feature, a satirical porn. After he had heard their history and had listened to their music he tracked them down at a gig they were playing in his home town. He pitched the idea to them, they agreed. This gave them an opportunity to really experiment with minimal sounds and unusual combinations of instruments. The soundtrack was surprisingly quiet and rich with melodies. Even more so was the number of copies it sold in New Zealand, 402,689 while in Europe it only sold 203,090. When they did a stadium tour of Australia and New Zealand they played the entire album with the scenes playing at the back of the stage. The second R18 tour they performed. They decided to take a modified version of their tour to Asia, mainly relying on the songs from 'Chip...' with excerpt from the soundtrack used as interludes. They relocated to Italy were they recorded an acoustic album. Each song was recorded at night around a fire. After a couple of songs they started to get bored so brought in metallic objects for percussion with old television sets, radios, fridges and broken amps to create an electric soundscape for each song. They named it 'Songs To Sing Around A Petrol Fire'. With a wide range of song choices they expanded their show to the United Kingdom and Canada. 
==Rise to world fame==
After gaining a positive live reputation they focused on creating an album that represented their sound. They started creating psychedelic demos in a studio in London, were they started to become more media friendly and becoming more involved with festivals. The tragic death of H.J.P's father gave the final album a darker lyrical side. 'Journey Through The Cosmic Eye' has since become one of their most celebrated releases. Worldwide it sold 2,298,401 copies. During the tour they created about 20 songs. Enjoying recreating songs on the road they decided their next release should reflect that and set up a surprise small tour of the west coast of the South Island in New Zealand recording each gig which resulted in their next album 'Into The Next Demension'. This was their first full length world wide release. It sold 3,403,515 copies. It was charastic by its high use of distortion and general garage rock production. This followed a taxing world tour that saw them play as the backing band of Buchinski for a while , being the supporting act for a lesser known band Graved in the Stones, playing at the Experimental Festival featuring Prunce on vocals for a cover of Captain Beefheart's song Pena along with a host of other festivals. After this they surprised everyone by releasing an album filled up with piano lead love songs entitled 'Love In A Nutshell'. They didn't take any breaks and toured relentlessly at many more festivals. The most notable was at The Pickers and Packers Ball were they cut their set short due to the festival running late. 
==The Appletree Sessions==
After the continuing stress of relentless touring and recording they decided to take a long break at Apple Trees in Nelson. During their time there they constantly did shows and jammed out songs for the locals. This resulted in what would be a three album release collectively entitled The Appletree Sessions. This featured some of their most diverse materiel yet. While on tour the band started to dabble in side projects. During this time they laid the groundwork for their second concept album and directly after their last show they went to a music hall in Russia with John Mercury and the St. Petersburg choir. They announced the release of the album by means of a large theatrical show at The Fooctory. The result was their darkest release. A mix of Sonic Youth feedback rock and experimental neo-classical song structure. 'Fuzz Nation.' became one of their most critically loved album to date. During the tour to promote this they found the time in between shows to record and release unexpectedly a heavy rock album 'Suck On This Evil Mother Fucker'. After consoling with their fans on their website they followed this up with the first of their B-sides and rarities albums. This gave them a chance to rest for a few months and work on their side projects before releasing a nine song album that took them back to their psychedelic-jam side entitled 'Marching Into The Streaching Void'.
==New work ethic==
After years of constant touring and recording the band slowed down and took extensive breaks between albums. They focused their energies on the multiple other bands they had created, the b-sides and rarities collections, multimedia projects and connecting with their respective families. They played around with recording in an underground bunker, inside a water tank and a country barn for 'If A Headache Could Talk' in a genre they dubbed 'Fuzz Punk'. After a while H.J.P started to play around recording low-fi piano songs that the rest of the band then re-recorded as the album 'My Muse of Madness', adding very little else but having a heavier hand in producing. It has since become one of the most critically acclaimed albums of their carer. With this new found creative they worked on 'Psychedelic Depression' trying to spread out the sound as far as they could to create the sense in the listener that they were inside a tunnel. It was a triumph of production but was criticized for the song-craft taking a back set in one or two of the songs. In an attempt to acknowledge this criticism they made 'Head First Into Obscurity' an album that took basic rock 'n' roll song structures played with eastern instruments and unusual for The Jackoffs recorded with digital gear in a professional studio. With a seminally relaxed attitude to the band and got together once a month to write and record an album. Surprisingly it brought out a raw mix of extreme avant-garde music and traditional rock 'n' roll with 'The Sound Of A Dripping Mind'. The premise attached to the album was to try and imprint in the listener the feeling of being a composer stuck inside a comatose person. This period was topped off with an album many feel is encompass the sound of their entire career. 'Poodle' is the highest regarded album by The Jackoffs along with 'Hello Mr. Soul'
==Attempt at reinvention and bankruptcy==
After a long break and increasing success with their other projects The Jackoffs returned to make an album that would reignite the band. They attempted to downplay any media attention that their next offering 'Hello Mr. Soul' got. It sticks out as it draws heavily from dance music from the eighties as well as garage rock from the sixties. This was quickly followed up the accessible breezy album 'Baby Rats'. It has been praised for its crafted production and movable tunes. Around this time they played many gorilla gigs as The Juicepops, playing only toy instruments. However due to new finance rules The Jackoffs were forced into bankruptcy for making too much money. They attempted to reverse this by going on tour constantly in a constantly changing live show, this almost proved impossible and with so much material they couldn't release they soon became fustrated with the project and decided to just let it go. Last heard they will be releasing this material over the internet.
Category:Artists Category:Australasian artists Category:Experimental Category:Alternative Rock