Jobber To The Stars

Description

In professional wrestling, larger-than-life characters play out stories of good versus evil in an over-the-top atmosphere. For Kate Meizner, singer, guitarist and primary songwriter for Brooklyn sludge-pop band Jobber, the spectacle of the squared circle is also a way for her to process what she calls "banal and very serious struggles under capitalism." "It doesn't let you wallow, but it still captures a raw version of reality," she continues. "It's a way of laughing so you don't scream." Jobber's debut album, Jobber to the Stars, captures that moment between a horrified shriek and a breathless chuckle across 11 winding songs that coat their hooks in sweat, blood and mud, like the live opener "Raw Is War" and the distortion-wrapped postcard from the edge "Pillman's Got A Gun." It's power pop that opens up to reveal gnarly, messy bits hiding inside. The album title plays on the band's name — a wrestling term for a person who "does the job" or loses a match — and on Meizner's own journey over the two-plus years of the album's genesis. "In pro wrestling, a 'jobber to the stars' is a performer who always loses to big names, but not to complete unknowns," she says. "They're good enough to make the stars look great, but never the ones pushed to the top themselves." Meizner and her bandmates — drummer-vocalist Michael Falcone, guitarist-keyboardist Michael Julius and bassist Miles Toth — recorded Jobber to the Stars with Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr, Body/Head, Editrix) at Sonelab in Easthampton, Massachusetts and with Aron Kobayashi Ritch (Momma, Hotline TNT, Squirrel Flower) at Studio G in Brooklyn.