The Jet Black Berries - Sundown On Venus [Definitive Edition]
Rochester, NY’s goth-cowpunk innovators, The Jet Black Berries, have left the crypt with their newest single, Rocketfire Sex66. Out now, the song launches the band into present-day activity as the newly reformed band is currently working on new material and planning to tour on both sides of the Atlantic.
All four original members are now joined by vocalist Derek Sapienza as the band is reanimated, bringing both their history and renewed energy to the stage. The band’s reformation comes as Propeller Sound Recordings preps a ‘definitive edition’ reissue of their critically acclaimed debut album, Sundown On Venus.
The Jet Black Berries made a name for themselves with the 1985 soundtrack to The Return of the Living Dead alongside their contemporaries The Cramps, T.S.O.L., Roky Erickson and The Damned. They’ve played shows with the Ramones, The Damned, The Cramps, The Pretenders, The B-52’s, The Plasmatics, Oingo Boingo, and toured with The Psychedelic Furs.
Their debut album is now back in print! 12 songs newly remastered & re-presented with focus, this “Definitive Edition” brings attention back to the album’s dark narrative arc & unusual genre chemistry. Having slipped through the cracks of underground rock history, it can now stand as a missing link between cowpunk, psych revival, rockabilly, goth, post-punk, Americana, & cinematic sci-fi storytelling.
Recorded in two days in August of 1984, Sundown on Venus was originally released by Enigma/Pink Dust after the newly reconfigured band, formerly known as New Math, signed with Enigma. Often placed near the cowpunk movement and loosely associated with the ‘80s Paisley Underground psych revival, Jet Black Berries were never easy to categorize. They were heavier, darker, and more sonically unsettled than many of their roots-rock peers. Sundown on Venus plays like a space-western fever dream: cinematic, literate, moody, sometimes droning, but never static. The songs create a world of desert noir, dead planets, outlaw romance, and post-punk propulsion.
The original 1985 Sundown on Venus release arrived with complications. Enigma wanted additional material included, so the album was packaged with a bonus 12-inch featuring extra tracks, including songs written for The Return of the Living Dead, ill-selected cover songs, and re-recordings of older New Math material. Unfortunately, those bonus tracks were folded directly into the album sequence, relegating some tracks intended for the original album’s sequence to the bonus disc. The inclusion of these non-album tracks blurred the album’s concept for its space-western saga, opting for a label-driven sales gimmick over an artistic choice at a time when the band was actively trying to move beyond its recent past.
“Here we have The Jet Black Berries’ first fruit, and by Lucifer ’tis a fine harvest indeed; this is their ‘psychedelic musical western about Venus‘ . . the evidence is all here. Don’t wait until their deeds become legend. there’s no need to take my word for it, though. Hear it and thank me later.” – Lindsay Hutton, SOUNDS (UK) *****(5-stars)