Japanese organizational guru Marie Kondo became famous for asking readers to focus on identifying and keeping only the things that spark joy. This, too, is the motto for one wacky Des Moines band — with an electrical fixation.
Jinnouchi Power Electric Company, often shortened to Jinnouchi Power (sometimes simply JPWR), has been a musical force in the area since 2017. Onstage, the band — which often performs as a foursome dressed as electricians in top-to-bottom matte black jumpsuits — is a jolt of joy.
But on Feb. 21, the day after their third album, Home, becomes available, Jinnouchi Power will give a rare performance without their signature coveralls. In keeping with Home’s very personal nature and stripped-down production, the band is treating their album release show more like a family get-together.
“We’re not on the job for this show,” explains frontman Patrick MacCready. “You know, we are at home. Trying to be more personal."
Founding the company
MacCready is a native of Pella, where, at a young age, he’d perform original songs on the corner outside Smokey Row. One time he was even booked to perform in the café, only to have his opener get them both booted for cussing.
MacCready moved to Des Moines in 2013 and almost immediately began tinkering on his first solo project, McKenna Elise.
“I came to Des Moines to start a band like all people,” admitted MacCready. “Try not to tell people that [I] did.”
In 2017, MacCready, a vocalist and guitarist, joined up with bassist/producer Forest Cochran to form Jinnouchi Power. The pair had been in and out of many of the same, long-lost local bands throughout the 2010s, and shared some hardcore proclivities.
“Lonely Cub became Cold Winds, which Patrick and I were in together,” said Cochran. “And then we swapped guitar players. I took Cold Winds’ guitar player ..."
“And they took me as a lead guitar player,” added MacCready.
“Which was a really excellent, really good deal for everybody involved," said Cochran, "because Sean [Bremhorst] did not like the heavy direction we were going with that band. And Patrick was all about playing loud and weird stuff.”
Now, as Jinnouchi Power, MacCready blasts his deeply personal writing through a megaphone as the band’s primary songwriter. He and Cochran work closely together on the music though, with Cochran often coming in clutch at the end.
“I'll get Patrick's songs the last 5% [of the way],” said Cochran. “I think he's one of the best songwriters in Iowa. And so his songs are like 95% to 99% there whenever he brings a new one to band practice. I'll usually have, like, one chord that I'm like, what if you did something else there.”
The band of four is rounded out by Kale Hawks on keys, trumpet and vocals and Alex Pargulski on drums.
Home
The band’s diversity of sound reflects MacCready and Cochran’s love of indie rock and folk acts — think bands like Neutral Milk Hotel, Bright Eyes and AJJ. While putting a genre to JPWR is difficult, it’s clear that the magic is in the writing, which can switch up drastically from song to song.
Fans of national alternative bands such as Cheekface, They Might Be Giants, Primus and Ween, as well as eccentric Iowa acts like Ramona & The Sometimes and Karen Meat, give their artists a long leash. Experimentation is part of the fun with bands like Jinnouchi Power. And that's true on their new album, where the sound experience ranges, Bright Eyes-style, from morose introspection to joyful celebration, even to a heartbreaking eulogy from the POV of a goldfish (“Tank”).
With this new album, Jinnouchi Power is focused in on the theme of family. And it gets personal.
“Lorelei’s Lullaby,” a song MacCready’s had cooked up for about five years, is a message of uplift to his niece, who received a recorded version on her 15th birthday.
But, MacCready is not afraid to air out dirty laundry. Placed just before the lullaby, “Parents” is a plea to forgive your parents, even if your father “took the last parachute as our plane went down.”
The album’s tenth and final track, “Florida Lights,” was written for the family member MacCready thinks “has it all together” the best: his 98-year-old grandmother.
“My grandpa passed away a couple years ago, and it was very cool to see how strong she became after my grandpa died. She's just a very strong, kick-ass lady,” said MacCready.
“There was a lot of fracturing and hard stuff after he passed, and everyone started to realize, what's gonna happen if Shirley passes away? That would be devastating for the family. And so we all had to kind fight with that ... My grandma's ... just trying to enjoy her life. So this song is all about her — against the wishes of everyone in the family — going to Florida and parasailing and going sailing. She's like 98, so she's very old for this, but she is trying to live her best life.”
Despite being born out of internal family strife and loss, “Florida Lights” is an optimistic, day-seizing album closer. The song luxuriates in its many electric guitar spotlights and boundless drum fills, and brings to mind “Everlong” by The Foo Fighters. It's a great way to end the album.
Feel the electricity LIVE!
The band’s living room-style album release show will take place on Sat., Feb. 21 at xBk Live, the same venue where, four years prior, they released their last album, Kaleidokoi. Production on that record took the band to several studios in and beyond Des Moines.
The opposite approach was taken on Home, which was produced entirely at home, layering in textures as menial as the sound of a broom on the ceiling. Home will be available on Friday, Feb. 20, for purchase on Bandcamp and at the show Saturday.
