J. MARINELLI

 Marinelli is a true talent... a refreshing change of pace from the over-produced, processed, homogenized crap shoved down our throats on a daily basis.
 - Punk Planet
 

…somewhere between Guided by Voices, a lost mountain troubadour and a classic 70’s punk outfit from your dreams.
- Subversive

...joyous anthems of personal resistance.
 - RVA Magazine

(J. Marinelli’s) style on Stray Volts has transcended one-man band songwriting.”
- Razorcake

Hearts raced and his set careened at times to breaking points where you would have no idea if he’d just kick a hole in the bass drum or what. All this by one guy sitting down behind a drum set with a guitar and going full on. This is what rock n’ roll is about!
- Buddyhead

​

...unsophisticated basement brilliance. 
- Jersey Beat
 

Twisted one-man-band mayhem that's part Billy Childish, part Hank Williams, part Daniel Johnston and all fun and weird.

-  The Washington Post
 

...sounds like the funnest maddest person that you know picking you up and swinging you around the room while simultaneously explaining to you the most important secrets of existence and mysteries of life. - Little Gem

 

The grandson of an Italian immigrant coal miner (and proud-and-loud son of the central Appalachian Mountains), Norway-via-West Virginia punk-folk troubadour J. Marinelli has taken the do-it-yourself idea to its furthest extreme.

That is to say, he’s his own band; after cutting his teeth in ‘90s and ‘00s punk notables Samuel and Les Trois Malheures our boy abandoned the notion of a backing band, and decided to do the dirty deed his damn self.
 

Thus: a booted right toe booms the big bass drum while the right heel keeps time on his hi-hat. His left foot snaps a snare, while his veined and gnarled hands grapple and grip the well- worn neck of a sturdy silverflake six-string -- barehandedly smacking a cymbal between syncopated strums.

He tops this well-edited Gotterdammerung with a crackling croon of a voice that recalls the forgotten apex of every aging lo-fi junkie’s vinyl collection (for you trainspotting music nerd-types, imagine the Fall, Billy Childish, the Urinals, and Guided by Voices filtered through the dusty arcana of early 20th century American folk music).

​

After bringing his one-man roots-punk juggernaut to the endless sprawl of his home country, Marinelli has recently completed three tours of Europe -- charming audiences in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway.

​

Laughing All the Way to the Fretex, Marinelli’s nineteenth release since 2006, was recorded via eight-track reel-to-reel at Studio Anatomy in Traverse City, Michigan by T.J. Hall (Tolerater, Parking Lots) and stands as his most mature release to date. While snugly fitting into Marinelli’s ever-expanding catalog, this release points toward a more power pop trajectory, while not sacrificing the sweaty punk attack of his older, lo-fi efforts and high-energy live show.

BIOGRAPHY

DISCOGRAPHY

Pity the Party EP (Little Sailor Records, 2006)

Keep It Fake CD (A New Morning Books & Records, 2006)

Dirty Poncho EP (Squoodge Records, 2007)

Stone Age Kicks Volume I and 2 cassette (Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2009)

Pre-Emptive Skankery Sessions LP (Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2010)

Stone Age Kicks Volume 3 LP (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue 2011)

Young Spillers 7" EP (Stencil Trash Records, 2012)

J. Marinelli/Elsinores split cassette (Space Cadet/Karmic Swamp Records 2012)

J. Marinelli/MA Turner split cassette (Brave Captain Records, 2012)

The Moray Eels Eat the J. Marinelli 7" EP (Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2013)

Sovereign Slates EP (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2013)

The War On Pleasure 10" EP (Stencil Trash Records, 2014)

Stop Paying Attention LP (Twin Cousins Records, 2015)

Stone Age Kicks Volume 4 LP (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2016)

All the Sad Parts cassette (Pop's Analogue Records, 2016)

Triumph of the Shrill EP (digital only), Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2017)

Stray Volts LP (Twin Cousins Records, 2017)

The Big Listen EP (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2018)

Laughing All the Way to the Fretex (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2020)

Post-Fake EP (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2020)

Fjorden & Fjellet EP (digital only, Commodity Fetish Analogue, 2021)

 

 N E W S

Howdy! I hope y'all are maintaining during what is hoped to be the last gasp of the COVID-19 pandemic. As for me, I'm actually playing my first live gig, one year (to the day) after my last live gig. It's at the Trondheim Fringe Festival in Trondheim, Norway on Saturday October 9th. See "Upcoming Shows" for details.

I've kept myself sane by (a) recording the follow-up to Laughing All the Way to the Fretex, and then (b) deciding that I didn't like it, and then (c) writing a few more songs for it, and (d) then recording it again from scratch with the new songs added. What sets this collection of songs apart from the previous records is that I decided to track all the instruments separately, and used a "proper" drum kit, as well as a bass, and the prodigious use of handclaps. You can listen to a few of the songs on this website, in the "music" section, my Bandcamp page, and other, less artist-friendly services.

When I was in the US this past August, I recorded a live version of "Where They'd Have Us" and "Worker & Parasite" with Tucker Riggleman and M. Tivis Clark from Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates. It was a blast rocking out two hot versions of those songs with my homies Tucker and Tivis -- you can watch here!


That's it for now -- thanks for reading and stay safe!

MUSIC

PHOTOS

Booking: Europe

jmarinelli5@gmail.com

Booking: North America
oldmoonagency@gmail.com

​

VIDEOS