Jerry Joseph has released “Sugar Smacks”, a musical rant on the state of the world, a raw blast of emotion accompanied by a dizzying cinematic video, filled with footage from the global wanderer’s many travels over the years. The montage includes images of Joseph’s tours to Lebanon, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Israel, New Zealand, trips with his non-profit Nomad Music Foundation to Kurdish Iraq and Afghanistan and travels to Mumbai, Brazil and many more. The video was made by Ramble West and Joseph. View it below…
Nine months ago when Joseph and Ramble West started to work on the video, it felt very bold and provocative, and it still is, but with each passing week, images of conflicts happening in the streets all over the world are filling social media feeds and news coverage. With the rise of unrest in this country and all over the world, this song speaks to ugly truths about us, our culture and our values and the battle to hold onto our humanity as we navigate our way through. It is an important song at a crucial time for our country and the world.
Joseph recounts how the video came to be, “In 2010 my friend Justin Benoliel came to the recording of the Jackmormons’ Happy Book record and presented an idea to make a documentary about me. My stipulation was that we travel to film it. So on Justin’s dime, besides filming the Jackmormons’ now-legendary Nicaragua shows, we did tours of Southeast Asia – Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand; and then the Middle East – Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel; and somewhere in there we fit in Europe, Mexico and various USA locales. While playing shows in Tel Aviv, the first Hamas rockets hit the city, but we went ahead with our shows. That decision resulted in my being asked to come to Kabul to teach at a co-ed underground rock school. I raised significant monies for instruments to bring with me for the students and thus that was the beginning of my NOMAD Music Foundation, which has since brought me twice to Kurdish Iraq to teach guitar to kids in the refugee camps of Chamishko and Arbat.
There’s some reason for everyone to hate me in this song…and maybe a line to find vindication, as well. I wish I knew how to reach the Kurdish bead seller in Istanbul who called himself Johnny Thunders to hide from Erdogan’s persecution of Kurds, or how to thank the people who invited me and Charlie to their Holi Fest street party in Mumbai, or how to figure out a way to bring more attention to the Duhok mountain I’m standing on at the end of this video, as it’s currently being attacked by Turkish bombers daily (as are the camps).
Patterson said ‘Sugar Smacks’ is a perfect punk rock song. I don’t know about that. I’m just an aging self-centered punk, handed an extraordinary chance in life to see stuff in person. For which I shall be forever grateful…”
“Sugar Smacks” is an angry magnum opus. A mix tape of addiction and violence in a Gibsonian world where ‘you can’t tell the pigs from the priests.’ It might be the most punk rock song I’ve heard in twenty years (or more) and served as a gravitational pull throughout the making of this album,” adds Patterson.
