The Jon Johns: “Road Trip Mixtape” – a swashbuckling assault of the senses!
The Jon Johns are a duo of musicians and producers who have been making music together since 2018. Their music blends varying musical influences from the 60’s to now into a groove driven and harmonious sound. Totally, and truly independent, the Jon Johns do everything from writing, playing, recording, producing, mixing and releasing their own music. They currently have their single “I Know” and the 9 track “Road Trip Mixtape” out now. This mixtape sounds like an attempt to fill in the spaces that stick around when you’ve been raised on rock, grooved to funk, hummed to pop, and danced to disco. And it succeeds brilliantly, because what is delivered is an original hybrid sonic blend that mixes all the spaces in between the aforementioned genres. You can hum along, you can chill, you can groove, you can dance, and you can rock out to the various tracks on the “Road Trip Mixtape”.
And the fun thing is, after listening to all 9 tracks on this mixtape, you still wouldn’t be able to put your finger on the exact genre of music you would fit The Jon Johns in. So you’ll eventually fall into the usual habit of cataloging “Road Trip Mixtape” under ‘Alternative’, which is exactly what I did…and exactly where they belong.
As an ‘Alternative’ to all the repetitive and clichéd crap mainstream music we usually have to put up with! Does it honestly get any better than putting on “Road Trip Mixtape” on a Friday night, having a beer, and spending time with your friends? It doesn’t. For me that’s the ultimate test.
From the minute you press play on the opening ominous track, “Make My Day”, The Jon Johns deliver monstrous melodic hooks up front, backed by beautiful instrumentation of destruction in the background, sending your eardrums to euphoria, and a shiver down your spine that ends up in the most unspeakable places.
They’re sweet, coy and harmonically retro on “Smile”, charmingly resonant on “Stories”, and expansively chill on “Fleetwood”. Hardly before has a new band so exuded the sweet juices of so many different musical styles while managing to retain its own distinct flavor.
The Jon Johns are a multifaceted duo. Their music refuses to be caged by genre or label. It is not so much that they fall into multiple genres, but rather, they so seamlessly combine so many diverse stylings that they transcend genre itself.
There is no way to describe The Jon Johns music without referring to The Jon Johns themselves, and in this we find a duo that is truly original. And the deeper we go into the “Road Trip Mixtape”, the more these convictions hold true.
The Jon Johns completes what it sets out to do brilliantly on the dancefloor rhythms of “Teenage Love”, the spoken-word infused single “I Know”, the synth-infested dubstep style of “Stallion”, the disco-funk of “Na Na Song”, and finally the anthemic alt-rock groove of “Play The Game”.
These songs present a swashbuckling assault of the senses, and a channel for the band’s fractious spirit, bound together by tight instrumentation, even tighter vocals, and unforgettable choruses. At the end of the day, if they continue to improve their momentum, and maintain their collective attitude, then The Jon Johns will achieve amazing things.
