The Jetsons - Suicidal Tendencies // Genetically Stupid, Killing (Gulcher Records) 1981. Back to the smaller reviews, here’s a great little obscurity from the midwest. Indiana namely. On Gulcher Records, the same label that The Gizmos, Dow Jones and the Industrials, Amoebas In Chaos and Dancing Cigarettes were on. This maybe isn’t as good as Amoebas In Chaos and Dow Jones and the Industrials but I like it more than The Gizmos who always seemed gimmicky to me. I don’t know why, but I think that if you played me a track by The Jetsons I would know right away that they were from Indiana. They just have that perfect combination of punk-pop with a slight hint of artsyness. There are other moments on this 45 that really impress me, like the guitar solo in Suicidal Tendencies which for a moment makes them sound like a So-Cal Band. The chorus of Genetically Stupid is instantly catchy in an oi-sing-along sort of way. Killing reminds me for some reason of the Embarrassment with a much more angry vocalist. A great example of the midwestern sound circa 1981. Nothing earth-shattering, but how the fuck was I supposed to follow the NOVAK interview!?!?!?
I’m kinda liking that “Genetically Stupid” song. Yeah, musically it’s very similar to one of those early Cockney Rejects singles (for instance), but a different vocal style, of course.
Are you 100% sure the Jetsons are from Indiana?
I had a girlfriend once who was from Arizona and she claims the Jetsons were the most popular punk/new wave band in the entire state of Arizona and even had a Jetsons button that she wore.
Or did this band perhaps later move to Arizona?
If anyone has more details on this, please post…
My guess, Alarm Clock guy, is that there were multiple Jetsons. In fact, there was a local band called The Jetsons in Saint Louis during the 1980s as well. I wonder why the name “The Flintstones” wasn’t as popular?
I’m pretty certain these Jetsons were from Indianapolis. The back sleeve was done by the singer and he wrote “Indianapolis Is Silly” on the bottom. Great single, and hooray for me that one of my favorite old singles made it to the intertubes.
In the late 80s there was a Jetsons form STL as well. They were fairly popular. Tragically, their bass player was stabbed and killed on a Greyhound bus on the way home from a trip to Chicago. Totally random: Some chemically unbalanced guy just went berzerk, out of the blue.
Any way, this clearly isn’t *that* Jetsons!
The AZ Jetsons (and there was a band calling itself the Jetzons, too) were not the Indiana Jetsons. There’s a Massachusetts connection, though: when Gulcher left Bloomington, IN for NYC, Jamie from the Jetsons went to Worcester and started the Unattached.
Had this on my blog a while ago: Same reactions, from what I remember. I never understood why the JETSONS still appear to be so under-appreciated. To me this is one of the highpoints in early, or better late kinda traditional u.s. punk.
Jamie Sever A.K.A. Jamie Jetson of the Indiana Jetsons went on to write songs for/with Alice Cooper. The title track of the album Trash, which was sort of a comeback for Alice cooper was a demo by the post-jetsons band The Unattached.