Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra is a Canadian alternative rock band whose musical style blends elements of surf music, gospel music, rockabilly, garage, and punk. The band also experimented with jazz on their third album Don't Mind If I Do.
Jerry Jerry and the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra was formed in 1982 by lead singer Jerry Woods in Edmonton, Alberta. Starting out as what Jerry described as a "fuck band," after time they found themselves becoming a serious local act, prompting them to release their first independent EP Fighting Socialism in 1984. The band released their first album Road Gore: The Band That Drank Too Much in 1985 under Og Music. They moved from Edmonton to Montreal in 1986 where they signed with Pipeline Records, along with such acts as the Doughboys and Ray Condo and his Hardrock Goners. In 1987, they released their critically acclaimed follow-up Battle Hymn of the Apartment. Pipeline Records soon fell into bankruptcy, and in 1990 they were signed to Aquarius Records, re-releasing both Road Gore and Battle Hymn of the Apartment on CD. This marked the apex of their commercial success, prompting them to tour North America throughout the early '90s. After the production of two more albums, 1992's Don't Mind If I Do and 1997's The Sound and The Jerry, Jerry Woods moved back to Edmonton in 1999 where he currently resides with his wife and five children. The band continued to play until 2005. As of late 2010, Jerry now plays with a punk rock cover band named "Spartans" including original guitarist Paul Soulodre, as well as Kevin Forbes, Craig Shemely, and former SNFU bassist Dave Bacon.
Battle Hymn of the Apartment was rated No. 74 on Chart's Top 100 Canadian Albums of All Time reader poll in 1996.
Famous quotes containing the words jerry, sons, rhythm and/or orchestra:
“Hell and damnation,
life is such fun
with a ragged greatcoat
and a Jerry gun!”
—Alexander Blok (1880–1921)
“Until you have a son of your own . . . you will never know the joy, the love beyond feeling that resonates in the heart of a father as he looks upon his son. You will never know the sense of honor that makes a man want to be more than he is and to pass something good and hopeful into the hands of his son. And you will never know the heartbreak of the fathers who are haunted by the personal demons that keep them from being the men they want their sons to be.”
—Kent Nerburn (20th century)
“There is a rhythm to the ending of a marriage just like the rhythm of a courtship—only backward. You try to start again but get into blaming over and over. Finally you are both worn out, exhausted, hopeless. Then lawyers are called in to pick clean the corpses. The death has occurred much earlier.”
—Erica Jong (b. 1942)
“As the artist
extends his world with
one gratuitous flourish—a stroke of white or
a run on the clarinet above the
bass tones of the orchestra ...”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)