For The Good Of The Cause: The Music Of Jim Shelley, Part II
by Jordan Williams

Since 1998's delightful If I Should Fall, Jim Shelley's musical career has been more than a little inconsistent.  We've been presented with such underwhelming fare as the Welcome To Concrete and E.P. cd's as well as a stirring comeback of sorts with the double triumphs of 2003's All About You and 2004's sprawling Wasp 51.  In between, Jim formed a couple of bands that seemed to concentrate more on live performances than recording albums featuring fresh, interesting material. Jim's most prolific (and arguably, most fruitful) period--roughly from 1992-1997--during which time he issued an astounding fourteen albums featuring at least some new material on each, stand in rather stark contrast to the spotty releases of the seven years since we were graced with So Far In Every Direction.  Still, Jim produced sturdy, often inspired, work from 2002-2004 in the form of a so-called trilogy:  2002's All About You, 2003's Wasp 51! and 2004's I Can't Give You Anything But Love all of which serve notice that Mr. Shelley is far from finished as a musician and songwriter.

NEVER BE LIKE YOU .: By the summer of 1998, it was apparent that Jim was struggling to find a new direction or, even more troubling, just the energy and inspiration to create new material. In July, he released a second "greatest hits" album (this time two discs comprising thirty-seven songs) with one new song (a rough demo actually) on it. Artists usually release best-of’s for one of two reasons: to make some easy money off recycled work or to buy some time before having to issue fresh material. Since Mr. Shelley, like most home musicians, sells only a handful of albums with each new release and makes little if any money from them, we could easily assume he was purchasing time, perhaps in the middle of a burgeoning case of writer’s block. This compilation is certainly extensive, but little thought seems to have been given to sequencing and somehow I find it difficult to listen to. Besides, I have never been one for best of albums. One misses so much by focusing only on an artist’s so-called "greatest hits".

WELCOME TO CONCRETE .: This ep from August ’99 confirmed that indeed problems existed in BOK-land. Though it’s a fun little disc, it seems to signal that Jim is struggling to come up with any substantial new material. An interesting and revealing "Banquet", a rousing cover of Tobin Sprout’s "Little Whirl", and a sloppy but energetic "The Danger That Can Drive You Home" stand out (though "Danger" had already appeared on Never Be Like You.) Also of interest is a short, bare-bones version of "See You Again", a song that would resurface in fuller glory on 2002’s All About You. But truthfully this felt more like something Jim released because he thought it was expected of him.

WRITING ON THE WALL .: Jim’s third release in just four months was simply further proof that he was struggling, though of the three ’99 records this one is the best. It’s a strangely disjointed affair: half the record features new material apparently recorded in a rush immediately after Welcome to Concrete but the other half consists of eight songs from the June ’96 release, also called Writing On The Wall. Nothing that you’d write home about but more than a few interesting compositions and lots of (as per usual) excellent lyrics make this an album you ought to get if you’re a fan. And it showcases Jim’s first experiments in constructing entire songs from samples.

SONGS (1983-2000) .: THE BEST OF BOOK OF KILLS .: Released just 19 months after Never Be Like You, this two cd set was at least a more coherent survey of Jim’s better work and came in a far better designed package with extensive notes on each song by Jim. Best of all, it included a new song called "Truth Is A Scar", the finest sample-driven song Jim had issued to this point.

E.P. .: Perhaps sensing that he needed the company of strangers to kick start his muse again, Jim began looking for musicians to form his first new band since March of 1997, Sometime in early 2000, he found Casey and Jane Firkin (drums and guitar respectively), a brother and sister duo from Luray, Virginia. Eventually honey-voiced Lisa Van Fossen joined up on bass and backing vocals and the foursome produced this six-song cd with two songs from Ms. Firkin and four ‘old’ ones from Jim. The performances are a little clumsy at times and the recording itself is definitely quirky, but it was good to hear Jim making music with other humans again and the band never embarrasses itself. This was the first truly interesting cd from Jim in almost two years, even if he didn’t offer up any new material.

COLLECTION .: And then, after a year’s wait, we got…yet another "Best Of" album, this one the first in a supposed three part series. Interesting only for the fact that the first 25 copies of the record came with a four song ep of new material, which was actually okay, if not superlative. The problem with all of these compilations is that they are each largely direction-less hodgepodges of songs. What we still need is a definitive collection that moves the listener from the first BOK album to the last in chronological order so that we can truly see how Jim has grown as a writer and musician over the years.

HOGGETT HEADS .: It turns out that Jim and Casey and Jane Firkin had moved through any number of bass players in the sixteen months since E.P. saw release, playing an occasional live show but mainly doing lots of drinking before finally latching onto bassist Bill Bird from Jim’s hometown of Harrisonburg, Virginia and a few months later guitarist Randy Simpson, also from Harrisonburg. It had been four long years since Jim’s last really good album, If I Should Fall, so it wasn’t hoping for too much that after all this time he had been able to come up with some solid new songs. Unfortunately, he’d written the achingly beautiful "To Dream A New Dream" but apparently not much else. While Hoggett Heads (don’t ask me what it means) is a balls out rock and roll fun fest with an occasional slower introspective tune from Jane, it features just that one new song from Jim, not counting an excellent reinterpretation of Lou Reed’s ‘Can’t Stand It’. But there are credible re-workings of some classic BOK stuff ("Abandoned", "Accidentally Naked", "Bad Person", etc), and several excellent tunes from Jane ("Cave In", "Sweet", Running" and "Gemini".) Better recording facilities and a real producer would’ve probably yielded a more focused album, but it’s always a treat to hear Jim interacting with real musicians, even if all involved never rise above inspired amateurism.

ALL ABOUT YOU .: Less than four months later, Jim released another cd, his first full album since 1997’s So Far In Every Direction and what turned out to be the harbinger of a late career renaissance. In fact, I would argue that All About You heralds a period of musical industry and inventiveness second only to Jim’s first great run from 1992-1998. And am I the only one to notice that Jim’s greatest work tends to come in the periods immediately after a band he has been in disintegrates? Cases in point: Jim writes a fat fistful of good new songs for Book of Kills in late 1994, which the rest of the band by and large rejects. The band breaks up in early 1995 and that summer Jim records what many (I’m not one of them) still believe to be his greatest album, Saint Judas. Next summer he produces the double disc rock opera, Splendid Trigger. The second (Or third? Who can keep up?) version of BOK comes together in late 1996 and falls apart in the spring of 1997. That summer Jim releases another favorite, So Far In Every Direction. There follows a relatively long, fallow period until yet another BOK line-up comes together in early 2000. Two years later, as (predictably) this group also falls by the wayside, we get All About You. This album reminds me greatly of So Far In Every Direction. Both records wear their broken hearts on their sleeve, both feature songs with a distinct electronic flavor, and both tend to be top heavy with Jim’s best songs of the moment, get a little flaccid in the middle and recover with a couple of strong performances at the end. "What Never Was", "This Sacrifice", a delightful techno version of the ‘50s chestnut, "Then I Kissed Her", and the majestic re-working of "See You Again" (originally found in a lesser version on Welcome To Concrete) are the highlights of a strong set. And Jim turns in some of the most literate, heart-felt lyrics of his career. Does anyone know how seriously great a lyricist this guy is? Oh…and the drum machine doesn’t seem to grate as much this time as it has on occasion in the BOK back catalog simply because most of the songs beg for the artificiality of a beat box.

COLLECTION 2 .: Released April of 2003. Featuring 21 songs. Ahem.

WASP 51! .: Twelve months later, fifteen years into his "career" as a prominent homemade musician, and way past the age when most musicians are still producing relevant—let alone good—rock and roll, Jim delivered what is arguably his greatest record. Yet another all-Jim-all-the-time opus, with Wasp 51 we get a consistently solid, perfectly paced and sequenced, twenty-one (if ya got the special edition) track, forty-five minute disc. New Shelley classics include the scathing putdowns of the so-called Baby Boomer generation, "Not Like A Mirror Image" and "You Go To You And I By Me"; the equally acerbic Lennon-esque attack on nihilism and hopelessness, "Things You Can’t Be"; the introspective faux ‘80s new wave anthem, "Ah! Ahh! Ahhh!"; and the absurdist electro jungle romp as filtered through Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band rock, "Scrapezoid" where Jim chants "We’re just two rock and roll fuck up’s/That’s all we’ll ever be" over and again while knocking off some of the better lead licks of his career. Wasp 51!is also notable in that it marks a turn in Jim’s lyrical focus towards more of a politicized, though never didactic, world view where even falling in love is an act fraught with political complications. And never has melancholy and a sense of loss been more pronounced (and so elegantly addressed) than on this album. The arrangements are generally stripped down to a couple electric guitars, perhaps an acoustic or keyboard for texture, and drums and bass. In fact, the sound harkens back to mid-nineties albums such as Saint Judas and Splendid Trigger. Surely one of the better rock and roll records of 2003, even with the occasionally over-loud drum machine. Jim, you’re good on that thing, but how hard would it be to enlist the help of a real drummer or to at least turn the goddamn thing down? (Still, it’s not the instruments one uses, but rather the way one uses the instruments at one’s disposal to craft quality performances of good songs that counts.)

I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE .: Jim took the summer of ’04 off to paint his house. Really. However, he had made contact during the previous winter with his talented old band mates, drummer Dustin Bugg and bassist Brian Temples, along with an exceptional lead guitarist with metal leanings by the name of Mike Chiarello, and reformed Book of Kills. The band only played one poorly promoted (as usual) show as well as a live radio broadcast at a local college, after which they splintered almost before they had properly begun. Unfortunately no studio recordings of this line-up were made. Predictably, this seems to have yet again spurred Jim to begin writing material for a new album (see above) which would prove to be the third in a trilogy of excellent records. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love is a deceptive little piece of work. At first Jim’s lyrics seem to be more basic than recent previous efforts, but the more you study them the more they disclose layers of meaning not readily discernable. Many of the songs ("A Space Where You Can’t Go" being the best example) deal with Jim’s disenchantment with life in a material world (‘Everything you think that you own owns you/Filling up a space where you can’t go’—"A Space Where You Can’t Go".) Others ("The Long One", "Somebody Told Me") clearly reveal his growing bewilderment and cynicism over his music’s lack of an appreciative audience and what he apparently perceives to be the inability of those who still do listen to him to accept his growth as a writer and performer. (‘They told me I better hold on to yesterday/I said no thanks I’d rather just go away’—"One True Passion Died".) Compared to recent previous albums, the arrangements and playing this time also seem almost elementary, though a deeper listen reveals a consistent, elegant complexity throughout. These songs have a thickness about them that I don’t think I’ve heard before in Jim Shelley/Book of Kills music. And yet they’re never muddy. Just listen to everything going on in the excellent A Space Where You Can’t Go to see what I mean. The album ending "The Long One", which rockets Abbey Road-like through six song fragments, bodes well for future experimentation that stays within the bounds of listenability (unlike, say, much of Songs For A Gone World.) All in all, it’s good to see our hero still slogging away. That he continues to quality material is just delightful icing on an already scrumptious cake. As some of you know, there was a time not too long ago when my faith in Jim Shelley and Book of Kills faltered when it seemed that Jim was no longer willing to challenge himself or even care enough to produce music at a level he was capable of maintaining. My faith, however, has been restored in the last four or five years by the sound of a man finding the courage to evolve, and perhaps more importantly, to simply continue in the face of stifling indifference and ignorance just because he loves music. Because he must make music. And because he knows he’ll never be like me…or you.