How do you describe a band that sounds like John Lennon giving Mos Def a piggy back ride?
In selecting The Energy Commission's "10,000 Hours" for his top 10 albums of 2009 Tom Lounges called it a "Totally refreshing sound and approach, Jay Weinberg sings what average Americans are thinking. He's got brass."
Radio personality Greg Batton said "You are a new generation of protest singer-songwriter." and John Williams of Chicago's WGN 720 "He's become a bit of a national folk hero of sorts.". These comments were sparked by Weinberg taking his socially charged song Price Gouge'n to the roof of an Indiana gas station. His ensuing arrest lead to global press and The Chicago Tribune called him an overnight hero. Jay then rode a bicycle donated by Trek some 675 miles from the gas station where he was arrested to Washington D.C. and front gates of the White House.
Waymon Timbsdayle of Roctober Magazine clarifies " Take Dylan-level complexity lyrics - but never tuneless or humorless like too much protest music. They bounce and jive and groove their messages." That clever sense of humor rings clear in the music video for Modern Warfare, a song that punctuates a video game generation romance. The video has over 100,000 collective views on Youtube in less than 6 months time and put Jay in Xbox 360's Gamer Spotlight.
You have to expect the unexpected from this band. With two art school graduates the live show is as much about visuals as it is sound, with twisted game show elements that reward audiences for participation their aim is to connect and have an experience with the audience. They just know how to have fun.
The elusive sound is being explored by Danielle Cales (songwriter/guitar/vocals) Nicholas Evans (percussion) Bobby Schaefer-Murray (bass) Martin Schaefer-Murray (songwriter/guitar/vocals) Santonio Ussery (songwriter/guitar/vocals) and Jay Weinberg (songwriter/guitar/vocals). Experience dictates the direction of the sound. Life is without genre - so too is The Energy Commission.