The last few years have been rough ones for San Francisco's Weekend. Shortly after releasing their debut album "Sports," the band found themselves locked in a heated rivalry with 80's pop superheroes Huey Lewis & The News over the title of their album. Huey claimed that he alone owned the rights to "Sports," and The Heart Of Rock 'N Roll struck back hard in a court of law. When the suit was dismissed, Huey became embittered and turned to the yakuza, the Japanese mafia, for help. The members of Weekend put up a valiant fight, but were summarily gunned down in the parking lot of a Burlington Coat Factory during a March Madness clearance sale. Only their faithful roadie Todd managed to survive the ordeal. While convalescing in his iron lung and recovering from his numerous throwing-star wounds, Todd managed to cull together the sessions that comprised Weekend's follow-up album, "Jinx." I must say, if the boys in Weekend have truly gone to that big pretzel wagon in the sky, they've left behind an epitaph befitting of their legacy. "Jinx" is excellently sequenced, making the 45-minute listen go by in what seems like half the time. Songs like "Adelaide," "Oubliette" and "Scream Queen" would have no doubt kept bodies moving on the dance floor had Weekend ever found the opportunity to take the album on tour. I'm reminded of several bands as I play through the 10 tracks, but Weekend have a disparate enough end result to keep from coming off as pretenders. As sad as their demise was, I'm excited to report that as soon as Todd gets that pancreas transplant, he plans on assembling a Weekend tribute act and taking them on the road! I hear he plans on adding a "The" to the name and dropping the third "e" from "Weekend." Look for them on tour near you soon!*
* = Some of the events in this review are a dramatization of actual events that may or may or not have occurred in real life. Some names were changed to protect the innocent, except for Huey Lewis who is now suing me for defamation in a court of law.
WEEKEND - "JINX"
Slumberland Records 2013
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