i had no idea that these guys have been around so long. In fact, I know very little about these uys other than Giant Robot loves them, which is usually a pretty good indicator of either a fantastic band or some california thing i don't get. Can anyone offer me some insight as to what to check out of theirs?

my summary of the band is J Church = the epitome of hit and miss. my suggestion would be to find a big J Church fan and get all ten (twelve? fourteen?) J Church albums and make a mix cd or two.

i can maybe give you s'more specifics after i peruse my cd collection

bort

hit and miss as in people either love them or hate them or hit and miss as in some of their songs rock and some blow?

I've got about half of their second album playing right now and i can see the latter...
"November" is a pretty sweet song.

hit and miss like guided by voices. hit and miss like the guy writes a shitload of songs and not all of them are gems. however, after 300 songs or so, you find 50 of them that are awesome, so awesome that you still like the other hundred or so that only just good or mediocre.

i don't know if j church are a polarizing band, i assumed that if you're a fan of punk rock of the non-mall non-skater rock variety then you'd like them.

I agree - J-church has some killer pop gems, but they also have a discography about a mile long. I don't have the time or bankroll to sample it all. I have an album, 2 or 3 singles, and a bunch of tracks on compilations. the ratio on the stuff I have is about 50 % hit 50 % miss.

songs I recommend:

bomb
good judge of character
hate so real
kathi
kill your boss
november
sacrifice
transvestite show
your shirt
Alone When She Dies