Under an Ugly Sky

Listening to: The Sky is Ugly by Jim E. Brown

Have you ever felt miserable? Ungrateful? Disgusting? Pathetic? Maybe just confused and insane? Then may I introduce you to the work of the one and only Jim E. Brown: 19 year old obese alcoholic and voice of a generation.

I first heard Jim E.’s beleaguered, droning tones summer of 2023 while working my brewery job (see What’s All the Ruckus?). As I wiped down tables encrusted with dry beer and food detritus the uncanny (yet catchy) lyrics of his song “Human Not Hot Dog” poured out of the garbled outdoor speakers and into my innocent, unsuspecting (and unprepared) ear canals. It was like nothing I’d ever heard before. A peppy, sparse synth beat and then…

“I’m not a hot-dog
I’m not a meaty log
I am a human!”

What?

It only got worse better.

Since my first introduction to his music, I have made continual attempts to forget it. And I always do, for a time. But inevitably the arc of my musical trajectory begins to swing. Right when I think I’ve finally left him behind, I find myself hurtling back towards misery soaked classics like: “I Know I’m Going to Die of a Stroke.”

The arc of this gravity’s rainbow showed me the truth of who I am once again this month as I found myself singing along in the car to the depressive and blatant lyrics of Jim E. Brown’s latest album: The Sky Is Ugly.

This newest album, as with all those before it, is a horrifically beautiful thing. Melodic, catchy, and slightly melancholic compositions buoy you along like a lazy river as you watch the mundanity and insanity of the world slowly drift past: stark, gross, and undeniably hilarious.

When I listen to his latest work, I can’t help but feel that I too am a dirty bitch with hands that I hate that wants desperately to open for Foo Fighters. It’s irrepressibly contagious, like a good bacterial infection, and I hope you come down with it too.

Have a miserable Monday with Jim E. Brown.

-Aaron