Jesus H Christ & The 4 Hornsmen of the Apocaly

Jesus H Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse, or JHC&TFHotA, are a warm-hearted, eight-piece band/failed social experiment making thinking-person’s ear candy. We live communally (all except Chris) and we invite you to our clothing-optional spring clean up. Write us for details at www.jesushchristrocks.com where you can also find album credits, lyrics to all of our songs, photos and so much more. Well...not that much more.We’re shyly tumescent to announce that HAPPIER THAN YOU, our sophomore release is officially "unleashed" and is smelling other releases’ urine on the sidewalk. If you don't trust your own judgment, and subscribe to the 'herd' mentality, we've put some reviews below!HAPPIER THAN YOU (2008)1 Liz The Hot Receptionist 2 Back Burner Guy 3 Jill Used To Be Normal 4 Julie On The Fung Wah Bus 5 You’ve Gotta Have A Dream 6 Vanity Surfin’ 7 I’m Around 8 The Vixen 9 I Miss Your Arm 10 I Hope You’re Happy 11 Alcoholics In My Town 12 Pathetic 13 Dry Spell

Preview and buy HAPPIER THAN YOU on itunes and all of the other usual digital suspects, in stores, or (our preference) get the actual CD or high quality MP3s from independent cute sweet CDBaby.com at www.cdbaby.com/jesushchrist2 click here.

HERE IS THE NEW VIDEO for our new song: LIZ THE HOT RECEPTIONIST. Directors: Felix Andrew and Chris Shipman

NPR: ALL SONGS CONSIDERED "Hilarious and irreverent."THE NEW YORKER “Sharply satirical power pop.”BLURT- Stephen Deusner "JHC&t4HotA are a New York band whose cleverness extends well beyond their name (still funny after two full-lengths) and into their songs, which combine the dead-on working-week details and pop chops of Fountains of Wayne with the inspired silliness of an especially strong SNL skit. Their second album begins with "Liz the Hot Receptionist", who probably goes out for happy-hour margaritas with "Denise" and "Stacy's Mom." Despite documenting the ticky-tacky details of the character's life ("She met a guy in real estate / He put her name on his license plate"), singer Risa Mickenberg only occasionally sounds mean-spirited but never sounds condescending. The song, like the others on the outfit's second self-released album, is half comedy sketch and half anthropological study, as if Mickenberg is trying to figure out what it's like to be a bubble-brained receptionist or a local drunk ("Alcoholics in My Town") or a fall-back boyfriend ("Back Burner Guy") or the woman who recommended an Yma Sumac record ("Julie on the Fung Wah Bus").What she knows is how to be an intelligent, professional woman in New York, good at her job but less so at relationships. Her frazzled demeanor-funniest when she's needlessly self-deprecating-is what makes her attractive and human: She's the Liz Lemon of indie pop. "I hope you're happy, but not happier than me," she sings on "I Hope You're Happy"; it's a funny line, but as Mickenberg rifles through the memories of a long-dead relationship, it becomes deeply sad. But not sadder than "I Miss Your Arm." "I'm Around" degenerates into a spoken-word bit about all the embarrassing answering-machine messages she leaves for a guy who's obviously not interested. It's a tired gag (and who has an answering machine anymore?), but she infuses it with a palpable desperation that's no less affecting for being predictable. Mickenberg's music is shot through with a touch of comedy that is shot through with a touch of tragedy that makes Happier Than Thou sound edgier and more substantial than your average joke-cracking band. And who doesn't love a surf-rock song about Googling yourself?"BLENDER MAGAZINE - Robert Christgau **** "Sexually experienced Manhattan SWF seeks companionship- really wants to talk about it: Backed faithfully by an all-male septet that injects stealth hooks and four horns into its accomplished theater rock, Risa Mickenberg speaks for the neurotic women on whom neurotic men blame their problems. A satirist who aimed for laugh lines on Jesus's 2006 debut, she's both sharper and nicer here. Though "Liz The Hot Receptionist" is incurably dim and anyone willing to stay on ice as Mickenberg's "Back Burner Guy" has only himself to blame, the missed connection of "Julie On The Fung Wah Bus" is a romance disguised as a spoof, and you'd have to be meaner than Mickenberg to mock poor Monica, the character whose answering-machine entreaties provide the entire lyric of "I'm Around." Mickenberg has the kind of cutesy voice that jerks find annoying unless it comes with porn skills. Non-jerks who go for the brains it masks stand a chance of being remembered as fondly as the lost of of "I Hope You're Happy."POP MATTERS JHC&T4HOTC blew onto the scene in 2006 with “Connecticut’s for Fucking,” a sublimely silly/clever joke custom-made almost solely for self-aware tri-state area NPR listeners… that just happened to be one of that year’s best singles. Their eponymous debut was full of sharp, goodnatured gems that held up over repeated listens. Album Number Two, Happier Than You mines the same territory—clever people writing songs about sex and relationships, backed by big guitars and, uh, four hornsmen... Co-writers/singers Risa Mickenberg and Joel Shelton still have a short story writer’s knack for pith and detail, as well as an incisive way with a phrase—to wit, “You can stroke my ego, but that’s all,” Mickenberg teases the titular character of “Back Burner Guy”, and their combination of humor leavened with sadness, when it clicks, rivals that of smart-alecky power pop standard-bearers Fountains of Wayne (see JHC’s “Bright Future in Sales” re-write, “Alcoholics in My Town"). ..Sonically, the band sounds great, with elements of surf, power pop riffs and steel guitar cushioning Mickenberg’s bright, brassy voice...”75 WORDS OR LESS "Imagine that Sarah Silverman never decided that saying "fuck" and shocking people was clever, and it actually made her funnier. And then while working on Mr. Show, Jack Black played her a Tenacious D demo and she decided to steal the idea and rework it as horn-laden power pop. That's basically what we've got here, and it is fantastic."MY CRAZY MUSIC BLOG "Perhaps more intimidating than Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse's portentous name is the collective musical experience represented by the approximately 8+ piece band, and as a reviewer I hesitate to attempt an adequate description of the ribald intelligence clearly manifest when musicians who have played with artists from Prince to Elton John join others who include Broadway performers, a recipient of the Pushcart Prize and the author of the book Taxi Driver Wisdom. The seemingly incongrous list of descriptors that the band offers on their website, featuring more nouns like "compassion fatigue, boobs, Old Lyme, and widower-lust" than typical promotional adjectives, implies both their winking sense of humor and allusive creativity. Happier Than You is accordingly flippant yet shrewd; too burlesque to be severe, yet too smart to be trivial. Much like the similarly theatrical World/Inferno Friendship Society, the acronymically daunting JHC&TFHotA creates a specific band identity and internal culture comprising idiosyncratic narrative vignettes. Songs like album opener "Liz the Hot Receptionist" work in part because listeners recognize the stereotype of the attractive secretary who buys Sudoku on her way to work and eventually marries a real-estate agent. "Alcoholics in my Town" collates various personalities affected by the titular habit before chorusing across brands of liquor and ending in some of the most sardonic "ba-ba-ba's" this side of the But I'm a Cheerleader soundtrack. Most songs present their subjects through this satirical lens, either advocating "a brand new surfing sensation/for the sedentary generation" on "Vanity Surfin'" or celebrating the simple fact that a formerly celibate woman was finally able to "get her rocks off" ..r "Dry Spell." Even the album's most overtly self-loathing track, "Pathetic," lampoons its piteous narrator with mock questions like "Do you hate me for asking if you hate me?Yet, all the derisive witticisms of a late George Carlin act may not always constitute a successful music album, and fortunately JHC&TFHotA supports its lyrical acumen with rousing horns and a powerfully voiced female vocalist who leads the whole procession as if they were in turn helping her lure a cartoon wolf listening with his tongue on the floor. The trumpets and trombones accent rhythmic guitar work that transforms styles between bouncing ska riffs, punk distortion and a little bit of surf, while pedal steels, upright basses, and the sound of tap dancing all add to the carnivalesque atmosphere. At times I was left hoping that some bittersweet moments had been extended further, such as those slightly melancholy details mentioned at the beginning of "Liz the Hot Receptionist," and occasionally the band's irreverent personality seem lacking in sympathy for the characters it creates. The searching specificity of these comments, however, indicates how rapidly this collection of talent has then realized its singular identity."New to JHC&TFHotA? Don't miss the important life experience of hearing our first self-titled CD:JESUS H CHRIST AND THE FOUR HORNSMEN OF THE APOCAPLYSE (2006) 1 Connecticut’s For F*cking 2 Happy Me 3 Obviously 4 Do Me 5 Vicki Is A Pro 6 Crazy Guy 7 Vampire Girls 8 Ellen’s Bicoastal 9 She’s A Six 10 Steve Baylor 11 Nipples 12 It’s OK in the USA 13 Some Days

"This lovable local band transcends the novelty of its name with wry, thundering power-pop songs about such previously underexplored subjects as the boredom of living in the Constitution State (“Connecticut Is for Fucking”), the appeal of the recently widowed (“Do Me”), and how pharmaceuticals can help love (“Happy Me”)."

"JHC&TFHotA are an odd blend of Sixpence None the Richer, Arcade Fire, and New Pornographers if they were all fronted by Amy Sedaris. “Connecticut’s for Fucking” is a hard-the-soft-then-hard power pop tune that talks about the Nutmeg State with sweet, sugary harmonies in the chorus as she simulates what Robin Williams once described as “the bone dance”.. Mickenburg nails the conversational and brassy rocker “Obviously” with a Lou Reed-like charm. A lot of the songs would be great on Desperate Housewives, particularly the opportunistic and cheery “Do Me”. .. The summer-sounding pop of “Vicki Is a Pro” is great, resembling a cross between the Cars and the Go-Gos. Ditto for the fabulous “It’s OK in the USA”. “Vampire Girls” name-drops Syd Barrett, Tiny Tim, Malcolm X, and others while the punk riffs blend with horns. Another highlight is the rather mainstream bubblegum pop of “Ellen’s Bi Coastal”. “Steve Baylor” has to be one of the oddest, Zappa-like tracks of the year, and “Nipples” is a modern day hit the Turtles failed to get around to."TUCSON WEEKLY Top 10 CDs of 2006 "In a perfect world, this would be the Saturday Night Live house band, and reason enough to start watching Saturday Night Live again...If you read and loved A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES or A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS, this record is for you.... A collection of intelligently observant and wryly amusing pop/rock/punk takes on gender politics (read: sex and its complications), the state of the United States (especially Connecticut) and certain everyday characters and their quirks. All are set in fine musicianship, with Brian Wilson-worthy harmonies and imaginative arrangements."IDOALTOR.COM -Brian Block- 3 BEST ALBUM of 2006 "Jesus H. Christ and the Four Horsemen (sic) of the Apocalypse, who make sure to title their first song "Connecticut's for Fucking" lest anyone mistake them for Christian rock, have learned their trade from Revolver, garage-rock, jangle-pop, synth-pop, performance art, and apparently "Girl from Ipanema". Because all of their songs are funny, and because the two funniest have over-the-top spoken-word vocals that I'd feel nervous about putting on a mixtape for frequent replay, it took me awhile to recognize their debut album as truly brilliant. But if suburban ennui can be art in the hands of the Stooges or the Replacements, if relationship dysfunction is a good enough topic for Bob Dylan or Big Star, if Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones are allowed to complain about weird girls and Talking Heads to celebrate the quirks of American culture, I see no reason why JHC&4HotA can't win awe for doing all the above while being just as emotionally on-target _and_, at the same time, as ridiculous as we know (in our wiser moments) the emotions themselves are."NO DEPRESSION (David Menconi)"Picture NRBQ with a metallic pop edge and an expanded horn section, fronted by a singer who looks a bit like Julia Louis Dreyfus, sounds a bit like Sarah Vowell and writes a bit like Amy Rigby only much nastier. There you have this wonderful New York band, who will completely rock your world. Risa Mickenberg and Joel Sheltons songs are side-splittingly funny, starting with Connecticuts For Fucking (because its a place where thats all there is to do) and its turn-on-a-dime shifts between metallic snarl and acoustic jingle-jangle. Happy Me cops the Beatles Nowhere Man guitar riff for a bridge. Vampire Girls rollcalls the slyest geek-culture hall of fame this side of High Fidelity. And weve had great fun in my social circle debating which acquaintance is most like the shrewish hellion in Obviously. Best of all, the music holds up after the laughter subsides."

Risa Mickenberg writes and sings satirical theater songs accompanied by g-b-d-and-sometimes-k, two trumpets, and two trombones. All assume the p.o.v. of a neurotic young professional woman—loan officer, publicist, social planner, perhaps even actress—who may be Risa Mickenberg. Some of these songs are funny, the rest very funny. "Connecticut's for F*cking" seems self-explanatory, "Ellen's Bicoastal" cl*se enough; "Happy Me" is about falling in love on meds, "Vampire Girls" about sucking knowledge from your boyfriends. The jewel is the jealous fit "Obviously"—"I don't care. I mean I think she's a skank, but whatever, I don't care. I just don't see why you're denying it when it's obvious you two slept together . . . "

Delivering uneasy laughs at the expense of strip-mall culture alongside power chords and pop hooks, "Connecticut's for Fucking", by the New York outfit JHC&tFHotA could easily have been a hipster insider's mean-spirited and elitist satire of yokel outsiders. Instead it comes across as something much more complicated than simply making fun of people who aren't from New York. Sounding a little like Amy Sedaris fronting Fountains of Wayne, Risa Mickenberg (who's the Jesus H. Christ part of the name, although there seem to be more than four others in the band, not all on horns) sings from the perspective of one of many teenagers whose only pastime in such a dull state is recreational sex. She delivers lines like "I love to listen to classic rock and have sex with you" with a mix of playfulness and resignation, and introduces a little gravity into the band's humor: all those adolescents, she observes, are "waitin' to turn into the people we are bound to turn into." There's a healthy dose of incisive class commentary as well: "If we can't afford to buy antiques," she sings, "then we just copulate." "Connecticut's for Fucking" sounds more substantial than a novelty track, but with all the catchy fun that label implies.TROUSER PRESS (Ira Robbins): "Sardonic adult humor in music is amply illustrated by this entertaining New York octet (half of it being the Four Hornsmen, who add to, without ever overwhelming, the simple rock music with brass). Delivered in Risa Mickenberg's winning matter-of-fact voice, "Connecticut's for F*cking" is hysterical, a deadly putdown of the Nutmeg State as a nadir of middle-class tedium that proffers copulation as the only entertaining alternative. And "Vampire Girls," which passingly sounds like the Replacements' "I Don't Know," explodes the little-known problem of women "who seem like they're really cool until you realize that everything that's cool about them is something they sucked out of their ex-boyfriends" with a laundry list of modern-trendy Henry Higgins acquisitions, from Balzac to Karen Black, Iggy Pop to Photoshop."THE VILLAGE VOICE- GEORGE SMITH: "An eight-person horn-fired local group making glorious hard pop!" “Hammering punkarama, namechecking Saul Bellow, Philip K. Dick, and Jerry Lewis.” “Horns and guitar drive a tank made of suntanned California riff right out of the speakers.”BOSTON HERALD: "Hilarious!" "Deadpan!" "Love!" "Nervy and mighty amusing!"PHOENIX NEW TIMES- Nikki D'Andrea: "Once you've heard "Connecticut's for Fucking," the leadoff track to JHC&tFHotA's debut album, there's no denying this band's snarky brilliance. The song's ridiculously catchy pop beat; dorky, nasal punk vocals (courtesy of the surprisingly sexy Risa Mickenberg); and lampooning of noodling '80s metal guitar solos is like a bubblegum enema flushing pop punk out of mainstream music's bloated colon."HARTFORD COURANT (COURANT.COM) "The lyrics and subject matter are off-kilter, but they're mostly smart and, to my ears, pretty funny, and the musicians have serious chops. And, as the band's name implies, there's plenty of dizzying horn work on the album, mixed with pounding bass and snarling punk guitar riffs. (The album) also features songs about anti-depressants, seducing the bereaved and psychic vampires: "Girls who seem like they're really cool until you realize everything that's cool about them is something they sucked out of their ex-boyfriends," be it how to fix cars or appreciating the music of Syd Barrett.”THE NEWS OBSERVER (Raleigh, Chapel Hill, NC) “The comedy record of the year, with side-splitting musings on life, love and the pursuit of happiness set to razor-sharp bar-band pop-rock. It's smart, it's catchy, the music is great.”

"Smart, catchy power pop!"F5 WICHITA Tom Hull- "Anyone who fondly remembers the Waitresses will have a leg up on this smart, funny, and exuberantly horny band. Not sure whether the difference is a generation of progress in spite of backlash or just that lead singer Risa Mickenberg writes her own lines. Her critique of "Vampire Girls" is spot on, like she's been one and graduated to being interesting in her own right."

THE BOSTON GLOBE “The most raunchy fun!”THE CAPE CODDER- Don Wilder "Like Zappa, they'll shock a certain percentage of the population - and absolutely delight the rest of it."ELECTRIC TOMATOES.COM This is not your grandma and grandpa's apocalypse. It’s no fire and brimstone, no seventh seal, no swaths of unholy agony punctuated by blessed souls surfing pillars of light "up there." This is pure power-pop apocalypse (say that five times fast, but we’re not accountable if you pull a muscle in your tongue). Jesus H. Christ and the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse write catchy, fun songs with plenty of trumpets. The most obvious comparison they invite is to They Might Be Giants but they also make me think of a Beulah and Nerf Herder hybrid running on unleaded petroleum goofiness. The bands real strength is in their lyrics, which deal with topics you'd never hear on the radio. (Though lets not forget trumpets, who doesn't love trumpets?) “Connecticut Is for Fucking” is an anthem for people in Dullsville, Anywhere and “Nipples,” in addition to being a great summery song, makes me think of the novelty classic “Boobs a Lot.” Check out the band's MySpace, and at your earliest convenience, start loving them.TIMES OF ACADIANA "Admittedly, Risa Mickenberg's and Joel Shelton's funny, sardonic, catchy songs cover a narrow terrain -- call it the romantic complications of the Ritalin generation, a demographic cut loose from traditional moorings and for whom psychotropic opiates are the religion of the people -- but, Jesus H. Christ, do they understand their characters! Whether speaking for or at beer-leech women (Vampire Girls, Crazy Guy, Vicki Is a Pro) or a man who's lowering his standards (She's a Six), Mickenberg/Shelton's lyrics are detailed enough for accuracy while stopping just short of the "compassion fatigue" they sympathize with in It's OK in the USA. Some Days is even sweet, with the songs accompanied by brass suggesting musical affinities from three or four decades before lyrics like these would've ever been imagined let alone tolerated."PAPER THIN WALLS "You’ll be hearing (Connecticut's For F*cking) for the next 50 years on various Demento and Son Of Demento compilations and podcasts; but not only is it funny funny funny, the band takes care of the music, too: a great rattletrap of a guitar doing fast Ramones chords and then laying a big wet tuneful Johnny Thunders solo atop it all. Tracks.. twist the comedy from funniness to genuine emotion and rage. Most moving is "Obviously," Risa bitching out a lover—“You guys obviously slept together, not that I care; I mean, I think she’s a skank; but whatever"—which leads to a general smorgasbord of bitching: "Why do you have to drive like an asshole? You have to drive, like, right up on the person in front of you’s ass; they slam on their brakes, you’re dead!" She lets loose with the disappointment and fury that’s the undertone of this humor, when life doesn't live up to its billing."

LEICESTER BANGS (U.K.) "Like asparagus, olives, Zappa and cum, Jesus H Christ are an acquired taste. "