From South Africa with love

Some might find the wild guitar antics of BLK JKS surprising when they learn the band is from Johannesburg, South Africa. But no one should be shocked — rock ‘n’ roll knows no boundaries.

And BLK JKS take advantage of this by mixing in all sorts of influences into its progressive rock melting pot. The band’s drummer, Tshepang Ramoba, describes the sound as “simply African jazz music with rock.” But he goes on to mention several other descriptors, including “African art rock.”

“It’s difficult to pick genres,” he said. “For me, it sounds like BLK JKS.”

The band will be bringing its energetic take on modern rock to the Black Cat tomorrow night. And according to Ramoba, the Washington crowd went wild the last time the band was in town — pretty atypical for the stereotypical straight-laced show-goers of Washington.

“The show [in June] was incredible,” Ramoba said. “The crowd seemed to understand the music more than anywhere else in the United States.

“[The Washington audience] play with you. They come off like they’re there with you in the room. Unlike other people — which is cool as well — [who] just stand there and stare, and they don’t like it because they’ve never heard the band. When people are actually happy about it, it’s cool.”

The group’s current lineup started playing together in 2004. But 2009 is the first year of BLK JKS releases. The buzz-generating Mystery EP was released in March, and the band’s debut full-length, After Robots, came out in early September. The small but growing number of releases doesn’t stem from the band being slow with songwriting — in fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“Every time you check your amp or you check your drums, a new song comes up,” Ramoba said. “I was in Africa one day and someone was asking us how many songs did we have. I’m like, ‘My man, the songs that we have would cut, like, at least five albums.’ Over five albums, actually.”

What did seem to affect the group’s delay in releasing a proper record is the band’s heavy touring schedule, as well as the members’ performance-focused vision of the band and their desire to make BLK JKS an inspirational force. The band is on a mission to bring

rock  to the world.
“We’ve been together for five years, but this is our first album,” Ramoba said. “I think we still gonna be performing a lot and we’ll release an album — there’s many more to come.

The band, for me, is very important for Africa, for the kids out there in the ghettos. Nobody don’t believe in themselves. They don’t have high standards. They don’t seem high because they think there’s no point in doing anything — it’s not gonna happen. For me, that kind of thing, I open it for everybody at home, or actually in Africa. Or actually in the whole world.

“People that don’t live in Las Vegas or Washington, D.C., or in New York or in those huge cities, people who stay in small towns as well — they don’t know how to get wherever. We played Morocco before, and nobody knew anything about rock music. Some other guy came to me like, ‘Yo man, your music is so good … Your amps are buzzing.’ I said, ‘No man, the amps are not buzzing. That’s distortion. That’s rock ‘n’ roll.’”

As for the band’s vowel-less name, the final naming decision was the result of the members huddled around a computer screen.

“We decided, ‘Let’s just take out the vowels,’ and it was cool,” Ramoba said. “And at that time, we were trying to design our logo. So, we were all sitting in front of the computer trying to design the logo, and it just looked cool for B-L-K J-K-S because ‘Black Jacks’ was so long, and it was difficult to do anything with that.”

And if you head to the show, expect nothing less than passion. The advice Ramoba has for young musicians is the same credo he lives and plays by each day.

“You must be dedicated to your instrument and have passion for it,” he said. “Be in love with your instruments, and play like you’d love to play. And play your instrument like you’d love to hear it. When you compose music, compose the music you would love to hear. Don’t get in a room and try to find a target market.”

BLK JKS will play at the Black Cat tomorrow. Doors are at 9 p.m. Tickets cost $10.

rhiggins@umdbk.com