Jet (band)
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Jet is a rock band from Melbourne, Australia whose debut album Get Born released in 2003 has so far sold a million copies throughout the world.
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History
Brothers Nic and Chris Cester grew up in Melbourne listening to classic rock from the 1960s and 1970s. They decided to form a band with Cameron Muncey and Mark Wilson. The band took their name from a song from Paul McCartney's 1973 Band on the Run album. They started to play gigs around Melbourne. "Radio Song," from their album Get Born, was written about the troubles that the band had getting recognition during this time period.
In 2002, the band pressed the Dirty Sweet EP drawing its name from the T Rex song "Get It On (Bang A Gong)". While the band only pressed 1,000 copies, there was such a demand that they pressed 1,000 more. The timing of this record was good coinciding with the breakthrough of The Vines meaning that international interest in Australian rock bands was high. The NME obtained a copy of the single from the Dirty Sweet EP "Take It Or Leave It" and praised it. Elektra Records offered the band a contract and re-released the Dirty Sweet EP in 2003.
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. The band left the recording studios halfway through recording the album to fly back to support the Rolling Stones on their 2003 Australian tour. The album derived its name from a line in the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" from his 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album.
Get Born was clearly heavily inspired by classic 1960s rock acts including the Stones and Beatles, some have argued that it was overly derivative (it has also been noted that these earlier groups themselves heavily borrowed from earlier blues artists). Examples of such borrowings include "Are You Gonna Be My Girl", which to some ears closely resembles Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life", and "Look What You've Done", an amalgam of Beatles and Lennon ballads borrowing some lyrics and chords from the white album song "Sexy Sadie". In any case, the classic rock sound was highly popular with a new generation of fans.
"Are You Gonna Be My Girl?", from their debut album Get Born, was voted number one in the 2003 Triple J Hottest 100. It was on the soundtrack to Madden NFL 2004. It was also part of 2 major worldwide advertising campaigns for Apple's iPod and Vodafone. The album also has a song Timothy, dedicated to vocalist/guitarist Cameron Muncey's brother, who died when he was a baby.
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 on Get Born, called "Hold On", was featured on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. Later on in the year, they were nominated in seven categories at the ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) music awards. These included single and album of the year. At the awards ceremony on the 17th of October Jet received 6 awards out of the 7 nominations. Nic Cester also performed there as part of the supergroup The Wrights, featuring members of many other Australian rock bands.
Chart success
Get Born debuted at #3 and peaked at #1 on Australia's ARIAnet Albums Chart as of May 2004 (so far being certified 8X Platinum), #17 on the UK Albums Chart (#14 after a re-entry in June 2004), and has peaked at #26 on the USA's Billboard Albums Chart (so far being certified Platinum).
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? also peaked at #20 and certified gold on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, #23 on the UK Singles Chart in September 2003 (#16 after a re-release in May 2004), and #29 on the USA's Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.
The second single, Rollover DJ, was released in Australia and the UK, and peaked at #31 and #34 respectively.
The third single released in Australia and the UK was Look What You've Done, peaking at #14 and #28 respectively. It was also released as the third single in the USA in January 2005, and reached #37 as of March 2005.
In the USA, "Cold Hard Bitch" has been released as the second single reaching number one on the Billboard modern rock and mainstream rock charts and number 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 as of May 2004. In Australia, it was released as the fourth single in July 2004, and has reached #33 as of August 2004, and in the UK, it reached #34 as of September 2004.
A fifth single also charted in the UK, this being "Get Me Outta Here", reaching #37 in December 2004.
Members
As of 2004, Jet consisted of:
- Cameron Muncey (guitar and vocals)
- Nic Cester (guitar and vocals)
- Chris Cester (drums)
- Mark Wilson (bass)
Discography
Studio albums
EPs
Singles
from Get Born:
- "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" (2003) #29 US, #23 UK, #20 Australia
- "Rollover DJ" (2003) #34 UK, #31 Australia (2004 release)
- "Look What You've Done" (2004) #37 US (2005 release), #28 UK, #14 Australia, #22 Canada
- "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" (2004 re-release) #16 UK
- "Cold Hard Bitch" (2004) #55 US, #34 UK, #33 Australia
- "Get Me Outta Here" (2004) #37 UK
External links
- Jet home page (http://www.jettheband.com/)
- All Music Guide Jet article (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70311071654390588&sql=B1dq3g4eptv1z/)
- VH1 Jet band page (http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/jet_rock_/artist.jhtml)de:Jet (Band)