Precious Jules do not belong to Kim Salmon or Mike Stranges. They ‘re all yours? Just wrap your ears around them! If You have ears for Punk, Glam and Rock ‘n’ Roll filtered through the post modern nineties and naughties and brought up to the minute by a couple of masterpop theoreticians then you have ears for Precious Jules.
Having been repeatedly invited by internationaltouring artists to fill their support spot, KimSalmon tired of playing alone. He would askproducer friend Mike Stranges to accompany himon the drums. The pair of them would rock outon punk back catalogue and standards addingtheir own newies with each successive show.Shock founder Andrew McGee caught them onenight and invited them down to his homerecording facility in Nagambie where the duotracked 9 songs.
The pair assessed the ‘diamonds in the rough’that they brought back from Nagambie. Alwaysthe producer Mike suggested that “preciousjewels should be polished” . To this end PreciousJules have carefully cut, added to and indeed‘polished’ their collection of gems.The notion of two-piece garage rock like ‘TheWhite Stripes’ or ‘Black Keyes’ is something of ared herring for Precious Jules. They may look like that but Mike and Kim see themselves more as a partnership like ‘Sparks’, ‘Steeley Dan’,‘Tyranosaurus Rex’, ‘Wham’ or ‘Hall and Oates’.They are really a slick pop duo using a format as a vehicle which they are prepared to ‘thrash the guts out’ of and then abandon by the side of the road. After all, the side of the road is more appropriate for these ‘boys’ than the middle of the road. Pop they may aspire to, but the ‘middleof the road’ they steer away from !
For their debut album Precious Jules have decided to play up to, and scrutinize the notions of Rock ‘n’ Roll that have been distilled since its early days. The idea that its ‘bad ass’, about partying, that it is ‘dark’. Their invention is something that is at once a circus and a comicbook vision. Titles like ‘Pearls Before Swine’,‘You’re a Backlash’, ‘The Urban Swamp’ and‘Cheap N Nasty’ say it all.They may well move onto some other unlikely genre in the future but for this album, P.J.s have got something to prove - that even though there are just two of them, their rock is the hardest. Diamond hard in fact!
Precious Jules support Mudhoney around Australia this December check out the dates below, yer damned if you don't.
