If there are any other musicians out there earnestly bridging classic rock and rap music, it would be good to know, because the only person I can think of is Juiceboxxx. He’s devoted the past decade to exploring a provocative, punk, but not always popular sound. “I’m melding things that are off-limits,” he told The FADER last summer, describing his most recent album Heartland 99, which was just finally released on vinyl. “[But] I don’t think my influences have to track to people who watch me. I think it’s easily transcended by the physicality of what I’m doing.”
To see Juiceboxxxx perform is to really see him, and he’s hitting the road again in June, with some shows around his old hometown of Milwaukee. But the footage in this video, directed by Joe DeNardo from the band GROWING, of Juiceboxxx smacking his head while leaning out of a beat-up car at sunset will give you a pretty good idea of the man’s nutso aura.
“Sometimes it feels like I'm in the 4th quarter and down by 20 but I'm still playing my heart out because it's the only way I know how,” he said over email. Ultimately, this is motivational music — motivation for you to “Follow Your Fucked Up Dreams,” like the title says, and motivation for Juice himself to stick to his guns. Next year will bring new music of his own, and he’s got a 7-inch coming this fall on his label, Thunder Zone, from the extremely far-out Odwalla88.
