Mean Jeans – Nite Vision EP

Portland Trio Mean Jeans were an unknown quantity to me prior to giving their Fat Wreck Chords debut, the Nite Vision EP. It took just a spin, and I must say I’m impressed.

Great melodic guitar hooks underpinned by solid driving bass and topped with great vocals. There is a hefty nod to the Ramones in their music, but they are far more than just another band who have taken and run with da brudders template for no frills full tilt rock n’ roll.

 The title track is taken from their third album Tight New Dimension, their first for Fat Wreck Chords, and it sits happily alongside two stunning b-sides that won’t be appearing on the aforementioned album. It’s a credit to their song writing that if you play this on shuffle you’d be hard pressed to identify the A Sides from the B sides and this single has seriously whetted my appetite for the new album and their back catalog. The Nite Vision EP passes by in a frenetic blur, the three tracks are done in less than six minutes, and I’m left wanting to hear more, much more. Fortunately by the time you read this the album should be available from those fine folk at Fat Wreck Chords.

This is the soundtrack to the best party you haven’t had yet and I can’t praise this EP highly enough, if you aren’t familiar with Mean Jeans then this is something you need to rectify. The three songs on the Nite Vision EP will be on repeat in my car for the foreseeable future and I can only hope I don’t encounter any red lights. My only complaint is that no one introduced me to Mean Jeans before now.