By Anthony Carew
"I kind of wish we had a different name, honestly," says Matt Korvette. It's understandable, given Korvette – an insurance adjuster by day – fronts a band named Pissed Jeans.
"It's a little too vulgar, or not exactly what we're all about. At this point, when I hear the name Pissed Jeans, it's just two syllables. I've heard it so much it doesn't have any meaning to it. But other people still react to it, think it's a little off the wall."
Pissed Jeans are heading to Australia.Credit: Ebru Yildiz
It's not like their handle is mismatched to their music: Pissed Jeans playing sludgy, scuzzy rock. On Why Love Now, their most recent and fifth album, the four-piece from Pennsylvania capture their thick riffs in the highest-fidelity yet. Otherwise, it was business as usual.
"We're not a band that's out to show musical progress," Korvette says. "That's not our goal. We're only ever out to refine what we've done before. To make a song heavier, or more memorable, or more enjoyable. Just make what we do more potent. Have as few moments of averageness as possible."
Korvette grew up in nearby Nazareth, near Pennsylvania's Allentown, playing bass guitar from the age of 13. He and future Pissed Jeans members Bradley Fry and Randy Huth played in a bunch of teenage hardcore bands, throwing their energy into DIY shows in basements, firehalls and community centres but got tired of genre dogma.
"We'd been into the idea of authentic hardcore, staying true to the initial spirit of hardcore," Korvette says. "We got burnt out on that, because it's like you're re-enacting, in a way. Pissed Jeans was like: 'we're not going to worry about precision, or writing super-fast songs'. We're going to be more about our personality than technicality and it was instantly more fun. There was no rulebook we had to follow. We weren't beholden to anyone."
They released first album Shallow in 2005, but it was their signing to Sub Pop for their second album, 2007's Hope For Men, that really opened doors for the band; allowing them to travel the world. "I think there are a lot of people in bands who never would've left their hometown if they didn't have the opportunity to go on tour," Korvette says.
Last year, that led Pissed Jeans to play a pair of shows in China at the Strawberry Festival. "It was eye-opening, fully a different culture," Korvette says. "Most of the time we just didn't understand what was happening. It was thrilling, being a total outsider. When we finished no one clapped. They all just shuffled off in silence while armed guards stood around."
Leaving unsuspecting crowds a little puzzled isn't unheard of for Pissed Jeans. "Any shows in front of an audience that's not really there to see or hear Pissed Jeans are often kind of strange."
Pissed Jeans play the Oxford Art Factory in Sydney on December 6; the Corner Hotel in Melbourne on December 7; and at the Meredith Music Festival.