Jet

Members: Nic Cester, Chris Cester, Cameron Muncey, Mark Wilson

Active: 2001-present

HISTORY

Jet is a rock band from Melbourne, Australia, whose debut album Get Born, released in 2003, has so far sold over 2.5 million copies throughout the world. The band draws its influences from groups such as The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, The Kinks, AC/DC, Oasis and The Rolling Stones.

Brothers Nic and Chris Cester grew up in Melbourne listening to classic rock from the 1960s and 1970s such as The Who, The Easybeats, The Faces and notably The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. They decided to form a band with Cameron Muncey and Mark Wilson. The band took their name from a song on Wings's 1973 album Band on the Run. They started to play gigs around Melbourne. "Radio Song", from their album Get Born, was written about the troubles that the band had getting recognition during this time period.

In 2002, the band pressed the Dirty Sweet EP drawing its name from the T.Rex song "Get It On (Bang A Gong)". While the band only pressed 1,000 copies, there was such a demand that they pressed 1,000 more. The timing of this record coincided with the breakthrough of The Vines, meaning that international interest in Australian rock bands was high. NME obtained a copy of the single from the Dirty Sweet EP, "Take It Or Leave It", and praised it. Elektra Records offered the band a contract and re-released the Dirty Sweet EP in 2003.

Jet entered the Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles with Dave Sardy to produce their debut album Get Born. Sardy had previously produced records for Marilyn Manson and The Dandy Warhols. The album derived its name from a line in the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues" from Bringing It All Back Home. Halfway through recording, the band received a call from The Rolling Stones offering them a support slot on the Australian leg of their 2003 tour.

Get Born was heavily influenced by classic 1960s rock acts including the Stones and Beatles; some have argued that it was overly derivative, though it has also been noted that these earlier groups themselves borrowed heavily from previous acts. Examples of such borrowings include "Are You Gonna Be My Girl", which has often been compared to Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" and The White Stripes's "Screwdriver". The drums at the beginning of "Sgt. Major", which was the B-side to "Rollover D.J.", sound extremely similar to the drums of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks". "Look What You've Done", an amalgam of Beatles and Lennon ballads, borrowed some lyrics from the song "Sexy Sadie" from the White Album, and the chords from "Let It Be" on the Let It Be Album. Get Born's album cover is also highly reminiscent of The Beatles' Revolver. Such apparent pastiches of successful musical idioms have led a number of Melbourne radio personalities to begin referring to them as "The Shitty Beatles" (a Wayne's World reference).

Despite the band's lukewarm critical reception and debates about their artistic credibility, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" was voted number one on the 2003 Triple J Hottest 100. It was on the soundtrack to the game Madden NFL 2004. It was also part of two major worldwide advertising campaigns for Apple's iPod and Vodafone. Get Born also includes a song "Timothy", dedicated to vocalist/guitarist Cameron Muncey's brother, who died when he was a baby.

In early 2004, Jet teamed up with The Vines and The Living End on "the Aussie invasion" tour of US cities. A new Jet song not on Get Born, called "Hold On", was featured on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack that year.

In May of 2004, a satirical tribute group called Get Bored: The Australian Jet Experience played gigs alongside Jet's sold-out shows at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne; some Jet fans attended expecting the Get Bored gigs to be Jet playing 'secret' gigs under a false (yet obvious) name, but instead found a group comprised of local music industry identities, playing live "mash-ups" of Jet songs combined with the songs they are widely considered to have been inspired by (for example, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" melded with "Lust For Life") and dancing with fake iPods. The group is mentioned in an interview with Jet from the week of these performances at the Melbourne newspaper The Age.

Nevetheless, in 2004, they were nominated in seven categories at the ARIA (Australian Record Industry Association) music awards. These included single and album of the year. At the awards ceremony on the 17 October 2004 Jet received 6 awards out of the 7 nominations. Nic Cester also performed there as part of supergroup The Wrights, featuring members of other Australian rock bands Spiderbait (Kram, drums), The Living End (Chris Cheney, guitar), Dallas Crane (Pat Bourke, bass) and You Am I/The Pictures (Davey Lane, guitar).

Jet was a supporting act for Oasis during the latter's 2005 tour for Don't Believe the Truth, about which they commented: "Fuck... We still can't believe we're here with Oasis".

The debut single from Shine On, titled "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is", was released to radio on August 7, 2006. The band's upcoming album, Shine On, will be released on October 3, 2006 with a final track listing of 15 songs.

ALBUMS

2003 - Get Born

2006 - Shine On

COMPILATIONS

2004 - Rare Tracks

EP'S

2003 - Dirty Sweet

SINGLES

2003 - "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" - Get Born

2003 - "Rollover DJ" - Get Born

2004 - "Look What You've Done" - Get Born

2004 - "Cold Hard Bitch" - Get Born

2004 - "Get Me Outta Here" - Get Born

2006 - "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is"