To his converts, Juiceboxxx is a DIY legend, celebrated for the intensely physical shows he’s been performing since the early ’00s, when he was a 14-year-old getting dropped off at gigs from the Milwaukee suburbs by his parents. One journalist was so moved by Juice’s devotion to his craft he penned an entire book about him. In other corners of the internet, though, Juiceboxxx is more infamous for a disastrous TV news performance that’s forever branded him in Google searches as “the worst rapper ever.” Bloggers ripped him mercilessly, and within weeks comedians Chelsea Handler and Chris Hardwick were dunking on him, too (“Yo, Pewaukee in the house!” Hardwick quipped on @midnight).
Six years later, that fail footage is no less painful to watch, although in a certain light Juiceboxxx’s performance is also strangely inspiring. After offering the anchors a complimentary can of Thunder Zone, the energy drink he was hocking at the time, he doesn’t just bomb. He bombs with gusto, committing fully to his affable party-starter routine even as he wrestles with a sadistic sound mix and the sinking realization that an act that slays in a basement full of sweaty fans doesn’t translate to an empty stage of a news broadcast.
That down-with-the-ship attitude has defined everything he’s recorded since—if public humiliation on that scale doesn’t shake your dedication, then maybe nothing can. These days Juiceboxxx no longer tours the country on a Greyhound with an iPod as his DJ, though. He’s traded it for a two-piece backing band, which conjured the guitar-drenched rap early Beastie Boys on his 2017 effort Freaked Out American Loser. His new It’s Easy To Feel Like a Nobody When You’re Living in The City goes one step further, ditching hip-hop almost entirely but keeping the guitars.
Recorded with Wavves/Jay Reatard bassist Stephen Pope, it’s a brisk power-pop record about loving what you do but hating the toll it takes. “Have I wasted all my life in the basement?” Juiceboxxx wonders on the lifer’s lament “In The Basement,” a typically revved-up number featuring some unmistakable synths from The Rentals’ Matt Sharp. It’s Juiceboxxx’s catchiest song yet, though the album gives it some competition. Pitched somewhere between Sum 41 and the Ramones, opener “Coinstar Song” is all fist pumps, while “Running So Deep,” with its crunchy riff and giddy cowbell claps, plays like a mall-punk homage to ’80s John Mellencamp.
These songs find Juiceboxxx down and out, surviving on frozen pizzas and the adulation of an audience that isn’t growing any bigger. And while he mostly plays his defeats for entertainment, his lyrics make enough references to mental health to imply that it’s not only his career at stake. It’s Easy to Feel Like a Nobody walks a fine line, taking Juiceboxxx’s quandaries seriously without disrupting the stay-true-to-yourself positivity that’s always been the heart of his act. Even the title track, despite its bummer sentiment, plays out as uplifting Lou Reed-style testimonial about the rejuvenating power of rock ‘n’ roll.
Throughout the album Juiceboxxx ponders trading it all in for something closer resembling a normal life, but always just as quickly rules out the option. “Kids Are Looking” speaks most directly to the heart of his decision to keep at it, an obligation to pay forward the feeling of belonging he found at punk shows as a teenager. “It’s like a call that’s telling us we’re not alone,” he sings. A touring artist’s life might not be glamorous, It’s Easy to Feel Like a Nobody argues, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t noble.
Buy: Rough Trade
