Jet (commonly typeset as
JET) is a rock band from
Melbourne
, Australia composed of
Cameron Muncey, Mark Wilson, and brothers Nic and Chris
Cester. The group has sold 4 million records worldwide;
with their debut album
Get Born,
released in 2003, accounting for about 3.5 million of that
figure.
History
Formation and Dirty Sweet
Brothers
Nic Cester and Chris Cester grew up in Dingley Village
, a suburb just out Melbourne, Victoria
, listening to classic
rock from the 1960s and 1970s such as The
Who, AC/DC, The
Easybeats, Faces, The Loved Ones and particularly The Rolling Stones and The Beatles; these were their father's
records. In an interview for the documentary "Take It Or
Leave It", which was on the band's
Right! Right! Right! live
DVD,
"It's always interpreted that our father had a great
record collection, but that's not true.
It was actually a really shit collection that Nic
managed to find the gems in."
However, according to Nic, it was Australian band
You Am I who had the biggest influence on Jet's
developing musical tastes:
"Hi Fi Way was the most
important album of my generation ...
I think everyone our age, who played guitar,
played You Am I songs for the first time in front of their school
(St
Bede's
) assembly ...
That was the record that made you realise you could be
in an Australian band, you didn't have to be a gay band and you
didn't have to be influenced by American bands.
It changed everything."
They decided to form a band with
Cameron
Muncey, Nic's friend from school and with whom he had been in a
band, and with bassist Doug Armstrong whom Nic and Chris met whilst
working together at their Dad's spice factory.
During 2001 an old high school friend of Chris' joined the band on
keyboard, and it was at this time that the band took their current
name. They wanted a short name so when it shows up on festival
advertisements, it's large and bold in print. "Radio Song", from
their album
Get Born, was written
about the troubles that the band had getting recognition at this
time. Jet got their big break when seminal Melbourne Punk rock band
The Specimens took Jet under their
wing and put them on as an opening act at The Duke of Windsor. This
is where Dave Major first saw the band perform and went on to sign
them to his management firm Majorbox.
The new band met
Mark Wilson
one night in 2002 at a concert and, despite already having a bass
player, asked him to play with them. Wilson was then the bassist in
a band called The Ca$inos, so he initially declined. However, a few
days later he called the band and said he would like to join them
instead.
In 2002 the band, consisting of its current members, released the
Dirty Sweet EP, which drew its
name from the
T.Rex song "Bang a Gong
(
Get It On)". While the band
only pressed 1,000 copies, there was such a demand that they
pressed 1,000 more. The timing of this record coincided with the
breakthrough of
The Vines, meaning that
international interest in Australian rock bands was high.
NME obtained a copy of
the single from
Dirty Sweet, "Take It or Leave It", and
praised it.
Elektra Records offered
the band a contract and re-released
Dirty Sweet in
2003.
Get Born
Jet
entered the Sunset Sound
Studios in Los
Angeles
with Dave Sardy to
produce their debut album Get
Born. Sardy had previously produced records for
Marilyn Manson and
The Dandy Warhols. They also enlisted the
services of keyboard maestro
Billy
Preston for two of the songs. The album derived its name from a
line in the
Bob Dylan song "
Subterranean Homesick Blues"
from
Bringing It All Back
Home. Halfway through recording, the band received a call
from
The Rolling Stones offering
them a support slot on the Australian leg of their 2003 tour. Jet
played more than 200 shows in 2003.
Their singles "
Are You Gonna Be
My Girl" and "
Rollover DJ" were
voted number one and number nineteen respectively on the 2003
Triple J Hottest 100.
"Are You Gonna Be My Girl" appeared on the
soundtracks for the video games
Madden NFL 2004,
Guitar Hero: On
Tour and
Rock
Band, the 2006 animated film
Flushed Away, and the 2008 film
What Happens in
Vegas.
It was also part of two major worldwide
advertising campaigns for Apple's
iPod and Vodafone.
"
Rollover DJ features on the soundtrack
to
Playstation 2 game
Gran Turismo 4.
Get Born also
includes the song "Timothy", dedicated to deceased brother of
vocalist/guitarist Cameron Muncey, who died before Cameron was
born. Due to the sensitive nature of the song, the band rarely
plays "Timothy" live.
[55165]
In early 2004, Jet teamed up with
The
Vines and
The Living End on "the
Aussie invasion" tour of US cities. A new Jet song not included on
Get Born, called "Hold On", was featured on the
Spider-Man 2 soundtrack
that year. TV/film producer
J. J. Abrams - whose
credits include
Lost and
Felicity - contacted Jet to record
a song for the Season 4 premiere to his show
Alias.
"Cold Hard Bitch" from Get Born was
used, and became the soundtrack to a frenetic scene of two CIA agents sprinting down a
Hong
Kong
street, giving Jet further US
exposure.
Later the same year, Jet received nominations for the annual
Radio Music Awards, including
'Artist of the Year: Rock Radio', 'Artist of the Year: Rock
Alternative Radio', and 'Song of the Year: Rock Radio' (for "Cold
Hard Bitch"). Still in the U.S. Jet received the
32nd Annual American Music
Awards nomination as 'Favorite Artist - Alternative Music', as
well as three nominations for the
2004 MTV Video Music Awards,
held in Miami in August. "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" was
nominationed for
Best Rock Video,
Best New Artist and
Best Editing in a video. Jet performed "Are You
Gonna Be My Girl" live at the ceremony and picked up the award for
Best Rock Video, dedicating the
award to Chris and Nic's late father John Cester. Following their
success in Miami, back home in Australia the band was nominated in
seven categories at the
2004 ARIA (Australian
Record Industry Association)
Music
Awards, receiving nominations in a stunning seven categories;
'Album of the Year', 'Single of the Year' (for "Are You Gonna Be My
Girl"), 'Best Group', 'Best Rock Album', 'Breakthrough Artist -
Album', 'Breakthrough Artist - Single' (for "Are You Gonna Be My
Girl"), and 'Highest Selling Album'. At the awards ceremony on the
17 October 2004, Jet dominated the ceremony receiving six awards
out of the seven nominations. Nic Cester also performed as part of
supergroup
The Wrights, featuring
members of other Australian rock bands
Spiderbait (Kram, drums),
The Living End (Chris Cheney, guitar),
Dallas Crane (Pat Bourke, bass) and
You Am I/The Pictures (Davey Lane,
guitar).
Shine On
The debut single from the band's second album
Shine On, titled "
Put Your Money Where Your
Mouth Is", was released to radio on 7 August 2006.
Shine
On was released on 30 September 2006 (2 October in the UK, 3
October in the US) with a final track listing of 15 songs. It
debuted at #3 on the Australian charts but failed to match the
success of
Get Born. Critical reaction to the album was
mixed; British music magazine
NME called the record
"another joyfully old-fashioned rock'n'roll album immersed in the
classics," while the American review site Pitchfork Media posted a
totally anomalous review containing only a video clip of a
chimpanzee urinating in its own mouth. The song also appeared on
NME's compilation CD,
NME: The Essential Bands -
Festival Edition.
Jet played
at the MTV Europe Awards in Copenhagen
. It was their first live performance since
Nic Cester's
laryngitis halted their
World Tour.
In November 2006 they flew back to Australia
to perform at the Make
Poverty History Concert in Melbourne at the Sidney Myer
Music Bowl
; upon their return they also held a secret show on
a barge floating on the Yarra River
. The second singles from the album,
"
Bring It on Back" (in the UK) and
"
Rip It Up" (in Australia) were
released in November 2006. The album also spawned an EP, the
Shine On EP released December
2006.
The title track, "
Shine On", was
released on various dates in March 2007 around the world as the
third single (second single in some countries). The song is a
tribute to Nic and Chris Cester's father, who died from cancer in
2004. It was written by Nic Cester from the perspective of his
father encouraging those who survive him to "shine on" Many songs
on the album ("Come On Come On", "Bring It on Back", "Stand Up",
"Holiday", "All You Have to Do") are primarily about overcoming
adversity and challenge.
Jet headlined a series of shows during the
Big Day Out festival in Australia and New
Zealand, with opening acts
Tool,
Muse,
The
Killers, and
My Chemical
Romance. The band played their Rip It Up Oz tour in late May
and June 2007, which was supported by Channel V. Also in 2007, they
released a new song for the
Spider-Man 3
soundtrack titled "Falling Star". In addition, their song "Rip
It Up" appeared on the
TMNT
soundtrack. In August, the band was again asked to support
The Rolling Stones on the European leg of
their World Tour. Jet played multiple support slots for the Stones
in both Spain and London's O2 Arena.
In October 2007, the band returned to Australia to perform at the
AFL Grand Final and to finish the rest of their world tour. They
announced on their website that they would begin production on
their third studio album, due for a 2008 release. However in
November, the band announced they would take "some time off". They
stated that after touring for
Shine On they needed some
"down time".
On the 24th October Chris and Mark produced a
song, under the name "The Vice Lords" for the Japanese
former duo Superfly titled "I Spy I
Spy".
Shaka Rock
In a new video on their website, the band talks about writing and
recording songs at
Atlantic Sound
Studios in New York City.
Chris
Cester joked: "We've got to stop writing; we got fucking too
many songs." They have also collaborated with
Iggy Pop to release a cover of the
Johnny O'Keefe single "
Wild One". Jet returned to
Australia to play a secret show in Melbourne on 17 December to
debut new material, including new songs titled "Goodbye Hollywood",
"Walk", "Start The Show", "Black Hearts", "She's a Genius",
"Seventeen", and "Beat On Repeat". Guitarist Cameron Muncey has
particularly expressed that he "really, really loves the song
'Seventeen'." Says Cameron of the song, "I think is sort of a step
forward for us songwriting-wise. It's sorta got everything wrapped
into one, a storyline, and sad to say melancholy. It's rock and
roll, it's rocking, it's got all these other albums to it, you
know, so I find it really interesting.
Jet
played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
and the Sydney Cricket Ground
on 14 March 2009 for Sound
Relief, which was a multi-venue rock music concert in support
of relief for the Victorian Bushfire
Crisis. The event was held simultaneously with a
concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground. All the proceeds from the Melbourne Concert
went to the Red
Cross
Victorian Bushfire relief. Artists who
appeared with Jet in Melbourne were,
Augie
March,
Bliss n Eso with Paris Wells,
Gabriella Cilmi,
Hunters & Collectors,
Jack Johnson,
Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson with
Troy Cassar-Daley,
Kings of Leon,
Liam
Finn,
Midnight Oil,
Paul Kelly,
Split
Enz and
Wolfmother.
Half the proceeds
from the Sydney concert went to the Victorian Bushfire relief and
the other half for Queensland
Flood relief.
Appearing
with Jet at the Sydney
concert were Coldplay
(performing an acoustic set),
Eskimo Joe, Hoodoo Gurus, Icehouse, Josh
Pyke, Little Birdy, The Presets, Wolfmother, You Am I and
additional artists. Jet and Wolfmother were the only bands
to perform at both venues.
Jet's song,
She's a Genius from this album,
appeared on a Ncis episode; Season 7 Episde 2 -
Reunion. At the start of the show, the song is
briefly played on the murder victims' tv screen as they are
discovered dead.
In April 2009, a song titled "K.I.A (Killed in Action)" was made
available to listen to on the bands official website. "Killed in
Action" was the 5th most added song to radio in Australia.
"
She's a Genius" was the first single
released from the album on June 19, 2009. The new album is titled
Shaka Rock and was released in
Australia on August 21, 2009.
Black Hearts (On Fire) was released as the second
single from the album on November 2 with a music video filmed for
the single. On November 8, She's a Genius was certified Gold by the
Australian Record Industry Assocation (ARIA) for selling more than
35,000 shipments. Futhermore, Jet has recently announced they will
be supporting Green Day on their 2009 tour of Australia. A remix of
their song
Timothy from their debut album Get Born
will be featured on the album
Shock Value
II by American record producer
Timbaland. The title of the song has been slightly
altered to
Timothy (Where Have You Been).
Band members
Current touring/session musicians
Former members
- Doug Armstrong – bass guitar (2001-2002)
- Jason Doukas – keyboards (2001)
Discography
Studio albums
Compilation albums
Extended plays
| Year |
Album Details |
Peak chart positions |
| AUS |
| 2003 |
Dirty
Sweet
- Released: 6 May 2003
- Label: Elektra
|
— |
| 2006 |
Shine
On
- Released: 12 December 2006
- Label: Atlantic
|
54 |
"—" denotes
releases that did not chart
or were not released in that territory. |
|
Singles
Other appearances
Video albums
Activism
The Fred Hollows Foundation
In May 2008, Jet released a video clip on
YouTube paying tribute to the work of the late
Fred Hollows.Lead singer Nic Cester
says he wanted to highlight that Professor Hollow's work to restore
sight to the cataract blind in developing countries was ongoing 15
years after his death."Fred Hollows was such a big figure in
Australia and he had a huge impact, but he passed away when there
was still work to do," Cester said in a statement. "This clip is a
bit of a reminder, hopefully it encourages people to make a
donation to keep Fred's work going."The video tribute features
Jet's hit song "
Shine On" along
with images compiled by
The
Fred Hollows Foundation.
In 2007, Jet signed a petition which called for an end to Canada's
annual seal hunt.
[55166].
References
-
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/bio/0,,2569684,00.html
-
http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=showDetail¤tMapsRecord=destra%20Media~3AB7F24E-18B3-4FDE-B525-2752EA6596C5&itemSeq=6&total=19&&returnFunction=searchResults&scope=scope&simpleTerm=Arias&sessionId=reuseSearch2722C5455789C6DC54B7B693948993D11231136269860
- Wizards of Oz, The Daily Telegraph
- NME review
- Pitchfork Media review
- Jet dominate the ARIAs (The Age)
- thelondonblog: Jet split... for now (The
London Blog)
- Jet: Shaking Up the Airwaves with Shaka Rock
http://www.mtvasia.com/News/200908/20018356.html
- http://www.themusicnetwork.com.au/20.0.html
- Billboard, Allmusic.com
- Jet releasing Fred Hollows tribute clip
(NINEMSN)
- Jet releasing Fred Hollows tribute clip
(NINEMSN)
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