The Price of Sacrifice: The Jet Age

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DESPITE ITS INQUISITIVE, SOMEWHAT ACCUSATORY TITLE, the new album from the Silver Spring-based group The Jet Age is not protest rock.

Instead, the 11 intelligently written, energetically performed songs on "What Did You Do During the War, Daddy?" tell the tragic story of a regular American husband and father who becomes a suicide bomber, along the way posing some difficult questions about political outrage, public indifference and personal sacrifice.

These are heady issues for a power-pop trio, especially one that hasn't been together very long. Following the break-up of local indie heroes the Hurricane Lamps, singer/songwriter/guitarist Eric Tischler and bass player Greg Bennett founded the Jet Age with Pete Nuwayser, a drummer of Herculean force. They released their debut, "Breathless," in 2006, but "What Did You Do During the War, Daddy?" represents a great leap forward for the band: a dynamic combination of Bennett's melodic bass lines, Nuwayser's thunderous drumming and Tischler's own spidery guitar work.

"I felt like I could write whatever I wanted to write and the band could handle it," says Tischler, describing the result as "a rock musical." Still, he notes, "I didn't want to make it heavy-handed. I think the songs, with very few exceptions, stand on their own completely."

The album was inspired by the singer's own frustrations with the current administration. Tischler, a husband and father himself, makes it clear that he does not condone the extreme measures taken by the album's protagonist, a loving family man transformed by his own outrage into a killer. "It's not advocating violence," he says. "That's just what happens in the story."

According to Tischler, the album simply encourages discussion, participation, and, as the title implies, a great deal of questioning.

"Some people do protest, and God bless them for trying. But I have the sense that it doesn't work anymore," he says. "So what do we do next? What do I owe my family to make the world better?"

A spirited album like this one sounds like a good start.

» DC9, 1940 9th St. NW; Sun.,8:30 p.m.; $10; 202-483-5000. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner
Photo courtesy Jet Age