Mean Jeans Releasing “Jingles Collection” on February 16th

Music News | Jan 18th, 2018

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Mean Jeans have done a bunch of jingles about various products like Coors, Kinkos, Applebees, Kraft Mac And Cheese and more. Probably mainly to get free shit from these companies. So they are releasing a collection of them via Fat Wreck Chords on February 16th. You can already watch the jingle video for Totino’s pizza below.

In 2018, the most punk rock thing you can do is sell out. At least that’s what Portland punk band Mean Jeans thinks. Over the past few months, they’ve been writing jingles for companies like Mountain Dew, Coors Light. Totino’s, and DiGiorno, but without any of them asking for it. “We uncovered this case of Mountain Dew that we had used as a prop in a music video we made a few years back,” says guitarist Billy Jeans. “They’d been in the basement forever, but we cracked into those Dews, and they were surprisingly fresh. That was a big inspiration for us.” This inevitably led to the band’s very first foray into jingle writing with “Mountain Dew (I Need It).” The band released the song online and encouraged fans to badger Mountain Dew on social media until they paid attention to what, in a just world, should be the brand’s new theme. “Maybe Mountain Dew didn’t make the song their new jingle, but they set us up with a crate of Dew and some stylish gear,” says Jeans. “Honestly we’ve got more Dew than we know what to do with.”

After finding further inspiration in a case of Coors Light silver bullets, Mean Jeans took their love of products a step further, starting a Twitter poll and encouraging people to weigh in on which frozen pizza brand was deserving of the band’s jingle treatment. “Totino’s won, but they weren’t enthusiastic enough about our jingle, so we decided to do a remix and give DiGiorno their rightful honor,” says Jeans. With that, “(Give Me) Totino’s” became “(Give Me) DiGiorno,” showing that, in the world of unsolicited jingles, brands bow to Mean Jeans, not the other way around.

Punk’s history of shilling for companies dates back to the Ramones writing three songs for Steel Reserve, and the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten hamming it up in a butter commercial. But Mean Jeans elevates the form. In a single weekend, the band wrote and recorded Jingles Collection, an album that transforms commercial jingles into high art. And if the subjects of the songs play their cards right, they could very well have just found their brand new jingle. “We’ve abandoned the previous direction of the band. No one needs to hear another three-chord, pop-punk record about partying. What they need are some sick jingles. We are a jingles band now.”

But just as Mean Jeans has amassed a catalog of airtight punk songs, they were similarly focused on selecting which brands were deserving of the jingle treatment. Instead of picking any brand out of thin air, they had to meet Mean Jeans’ standards. “Listen, man, Nature Valley isn’t getting a fucking Mean Jeans jingle, alright? It’s gotta be something that cuts the mustard,” says Jeans, pausing to let the weight of the phrase set in. “We would write a jingle about mustard. Only Grey Poupon though.”

Now, with 23 jingles written for everyone from Sizzler to Skoal to Applebee’s, Jingles Collection shows that Mean Jeans are ready to become the first punk band to reinvent what it means to be a punk band—or perhaps, a punk brand. No longer is Mean Jeans subservient to punk’s rules and regulations; they are forging their own path, one piece of branded content at a time. “These jingles, man? They’re the future.”

MEAN JEANS 2018 Tour Dates:
01/18/18 San Diego, CA at Tower Bar w/ Dirty Fences
01/19/18 Oceanside, CA at Pourhouse w/ Dirty Fences
01/20/18 Los Angeles, CA at Bootleg Theatre w/ Dirty Fences
01/21/18 Garden Grove, CA at Locker Room w/ Dirty Fences
01/22/18 Long Beach, CA at Alex’s Bar w/ Dirty Fences
01/23/18 San Clemente, CA at Knuckleheads w/ Dirty Fences
01/24/18 San Francisco, CA at Bottom Of The Hill w/ Dirty Fences
01/26/18 Portland, OR at The Know w/ Dirty Fences
02/16/18 Vancouver, BC Canada at Rickshaw Theater w/ Black Mountain
02/17/18 Victoria, BC Canada at Lucky Bar 02/18/18 Seattle, WA at Chop Suey

Jingles Collection tracklisting:
1. Coors
2. Wendy’s (Junior Bacon Cheese Cheeseburger)
3. Totinos
4. Sizzler
5. Pop Rocks
6. Camel Lights
7. Kinkos
8. Mountain Dew
9. Applebees
10. Rain-X Wiper Blades
11. Skoal
12. 180069SHRED
13. Polly-O String Cheese
14. Hot Pockets
15. Cheez-Its
16. The Footlong Song
17. Capri Sun
18. Taco Bell
19. Selsun Blue
20. Best Western
21. Dunkaroos
22. Kraft Mac & Cheese
23. (Unknown Product)

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