For those yet to catch up with Canadian rockers Jonesy, here’s a quick recap. The band are loud, brash and often vulgar. When this works for them, it results in superbly trashy sounds that are hugely thrilling, despite their disposable nature. When the band misfires, they could be accused of just trying that bit too hard to shock, or perhaps just relying too much on an easy, crass aesthetic. They’ve released material that would challenge joke glam rockers Steel Panther in the rudeness stakes, and their debut album over-relied on the word fuck to make an impact, and yet, somehow, there also seems to be a reason to come back for more whenever a new recording appears. It could be terrible; it could be great. It’s a lottery – and in its own way, that makes everything seem even more exciting. Actually, exciting is probably the wrong word, but hopefully you get the point.

Their 2023 EP ‘Dopplegangbangers’ is everything you could hope for from a Jonesy studio recording, packed into a loud and tidy twelve minutes. Opener ‘(If It’s Not Rock ‘N’ Roll) Go To Hell’ flaunts a love for early AC/DC via a chunky riff, and drops in a reference to things being “done dirt cheap” just in case the lift gets lost on the less attentive listener, and as the stomping number gains traction, it drops in a reference to the Stones, cheekily drops in the riff from ‘Smoke On The Water’ (almost uninvited) and even manages to couple the vocal hook from AC/DC’s ‘TNT’ with a riff that’s a dead ringer for Quo’s ‘Caroline’, played badly…probably on purpose. In terms of mining the past and coming back with the goods magpie style, this is great – and the fact that it comes with tongue firmly in cheek makes it all the better. Linking the borrowed spoils, a gruff vocal makes the very best of a simple hook and a raucous lead guitar break is on hand to remind everyone of Jonesy’s own rough and ready garage rock credentials. An occasional slide guitar even suggests a love of early Rose Tattoo for good measure, and a couple of plays suggests this is a very much a rough diamond that’s best enjoyed loudly. If there’s a small criticism to be made it’s that, perhaps, the main riff is a little slower than it could’ve been, but what it lacks in tempo, it makes up for with pure attitude, ensuring that most fans won’t feel too short-changed.

With its combo of chugging chords and loud cowbell, ‘Furry White Fury’ at first sounds like a homage to an old Runaways number, but as the melody grows, it starts to sound more like a Dictators cast off, tempered by a chugging bass and some unexpectedly festive bell sounds. The loud, mid tempo approach is perfect for a horribly slurred vocal and better still for a pointed lead guitar break, and it easily ranks among the band’s trashier affairs, especially since the lyric shows a love for a landlady’s pussy – which, in this case, just happens to be a really fluffy white feline, no matter what you previously thought. The riff, again, is one of Jonesy’s slightly slower offerings, but in terms of pure chug, it works well enough. ‘Gudbuy’, meanwhile, shifts the musical attentions to the 70s in a slightly different way, as the band embark on a glam imbibed stomper that really brings out the best in the guitar tones when the hard chords are interlaced with twangy leads, and a stabbed piano lurks beneath the wall of sound. A grizzly lead voice plays up a slightly accented delivery, and an increase in rowdy gang vocals makes the best from a simple hook, but the real magic comes via a semi-sloppy lead guitar break that really gives the grubby melodies a lift. Everything ends up falling somewhere between New York Dolls and Slade, helmed by a man with a slightly stroppy vocal, but it’s definitely one of the best Jonesy tracks to date.

The EP is rounded out by an earlier single release, ‘(I Don’t Do) Blondes (No More)’, a stand-out track which mixes the band’s garage rock guitar sound with a massive attitude to great effect. In fact, their love of garage based sounds never sounded better. Armed with guitar parts worthy of New York Dolls, a swaggering attitude borrowed from The Dictators and a rousing rock ‘n’ roll piano, everything within this three minutes is great. The ragged sounds occasionally veer towards a very Ramones inspired melody; the gang vocals bolster an already great sound, and moments of lead guitar used as a bridge suggest an equally big love of a 60s twang. There’s a whole world of trashy noise to love here, and the injection of speed more than makes up for ‘Furry White Fury’ feeling a little lumpen in places. If you’re already on board with a band whose previous interests included songs about erections, adventurous sexual positions and retro phone sex, it might seem a little watered down lyrically, but the music has just as much power as before – perhaps even more so, since this slightly more mature Jonesy can really rock.

By dialling back some of their offensive elements and a lot of the bad language here, there will be a few people who feel the band have wussed out, or maybe lost their vulgar mojo. The fact is, by toning down their more “divisive” side, they’ve actually made a much better record. At last, the riffs can call out with sharp abandon and not feel as if they’ve been hammered into submission by repetitious f-bombs, and Jonesy still get to be pretty rowdy throughout. It’s more mature, without actually being in any way mature at all, if that makes sense, and is the kind of EP that deserves to take Jonesy a little further in the garage rock stakes. It’s loud, it’s fun, and it’s almost timeless. Make it past the sleazy title, and you’re guaranteed a world of raggedy musical enjoyment.

December 2023