It would be easy to just say that the signing to Rise Records alone will contribute to the rise of Jetty Bones in 2021 and beyond, but to do so would be to dismiss a whole lot of things. The quality, honest songwriting. The hustle of Kelc Galluzzo. A legacy of previous musical outlets noteworthy in their own right (Midnight Nation, Delta Delta).
To me, Kelc is a friendly face in the Columbus music scene that I’ve known I can count on for encouragement in personal conversation and fun in a performance setting. In Year 2 of Tuned Up’s Steadfast Festival, Jetty Bones played a solo set to kick off the day opening for the likes of The Classic Crime and a reunited Kids in the Way. “Coasting Lines,” became a whimsical favorite of mine amongst local artists when I saw Jetty Bones perform as a duo for the first time in Woodlands Tavern. Kelc took bitterness and made it funny. “You never tooooook me! To see the oooocean.”
Personal anecdotes aside, Push Back is an enjoyable record! Kelc is a barista at a local joint that’s a favorite of mine, and she warned me awhile back that the record was “different.” Producer John Fields drew out the best in her and allowed her to dive into a roadmap of genres that are different enough to anger the Rise-core kids that haven’t moved beyond their MySpace days and draw in the Gen Z-ers that are more hip to new-wave pop punk and hyperpop.
Kelc has always struck me as a genuine person, and even so I was surprised to see how real things got on the record. “Bug Life,” the album closer hearkens back to a time period 4 years ago when she was at the end of her rope. Hearing the montage of voicemails left on her phone left after she had written a suicide note was jarring. For this reason, “Bug Life” doesn’t have the replay-factor of other tracks, but Kelc is able to sing about these things in a way that is oddly calming and cathartic at the same time.
The trio of singles released beforehand run the gamut of what one should expect on Push Back. “Taking Up Space,” “That’s All,” and “Nothing” are a trifecta of singles that seem to act as a “new-era Jetty Bones 101” for those mainly familiar with her from the pop punk scene. It’s impressive to me how artists, in this case Jetty Bones, are able to take such difficult topics and have the energy not only sing about them, but explore methods of creative expression on top of that – which can be risky. However, if the album had a mission statement, it is most likely this line from “That’s All”: “I wanna bring it up / Without it bringing you down.”
Another thing I appreciate about this album is how she’s able to take lyrics that might as well be stream-of-consciousness journal entries and make them catchy. These kinds of shorter tunes can at the same time have a heavy replay factor, while at the same time being easier to overlook because of their brevity. It’s a fine line to walk, and Jetty Bones generally succeeds. There’s weightiness in that brevity though, contained in such lines as “I don’t deserve the high appraisals / For pretending that I’m stable / Or crying underneath the tip jar on our merch table” in “Bad Time.” So, it’s best that you pay attention to these songs.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’m in love with each one of these as individual songs, because I’m not. But truthfully I’m hard-pressed to find anything I dislike about the album. The closest thing to a “dislike” would be how I’m not really inclined to replay some of the sadder songs, but that’s an issue I have with sad music in general, and not Jetty Bones – well, unless you’re Death Cab For Cutie and release an album like Plans. That said, even in her darker moments lyrically Kelc is hard-pressed to let the sadness take over entirely – something I like. As I wrap this up, the synth hook of “Nothing” is echoing in my head and I’ll probably return to that song in short order.
-Ryan Getz
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