JSBX - Wail

What this video is

Released in the spring of 1997, 'Wail' arrived at a pivotal crossroads: JSBX had been a beloved New York underground act since 1991, and 'Now I Got Worry' (Matador, October 1996) was their most commercially positioned album to date, partly due to Matador's Capitol Records affiliation giving the band unprecedented promotional resources. Hiring Weird Al Yankovic—a figure defined by MTV visibility and pop-culture…

Why it matters

JSBX were central architects of the mid-90s garage-blues revival, fusing punk aggression, blues vocabulary, and hip-hop swagger into a singular sound. 'Wail' as a single demonstrated that this underground idiom could generate chart-eligible product in the UK market. The video's hyperkinetic…

The director

Alfred Matthew Yankovic (born October 23, 1959, Downey, CA) is an American singer-songwriter, comedian, satirist, and music video director. He rose to fame in the 1980s with parody hits and developed a parallel career directing music videos. Beyond his own…