Eben Tobar finds release in the discomforting world of Jackoff Demons

Growing up in Athens, Ohio, Eben Tobar became acclimated to the transient nature of the college town. And yet, the musician was still sent temporarily reeling when his previous band, Toecutter, disbanded following a three-year run that included some short Midwestern tours and an appearance at the Nelsonville Music Festival.

“It was a crew of dudes who had been here for a while, and it was time for them to move on,” Tobar said in mid-January. “I’m rooted in a different way than some other people, but that’s kind of the nature of this town, which can be a complex part about pursuing music here.”

Following the dissolution, a temporary malaise set in, and Tobar paused on writing and recording. A month or so into this hiatus, Tobar said he started to feel restless, describing music as something to which he instinctively gravitates in his free time. Working on his own, Tobar began building a series of art-damaged rock tracks influenced by the likes of Country Teasers, Crass, and Butthole Surfers, adopting a name, Jackoff Demons, that falls well in line with the latter. After the musician had amassed a handful of tracks, he recruited friend and Big Fat Head band member Nate Wilder to assist with the recording, the two emerging with a five-song EP, Electromagnetic Opposition, which released to streaming services earlier this month.

Opener “Illusion of Control” sets the tone, the pair bounding through a scuzzy, jangly cut about “submitting to some kind of toxic love,” Tobar said. Other songs turn a jaundiced eye on the ills of consumerism (“Blind Consumption”) and the depression and isolation that can overtake a person stuck navigating Ohio winters (“Fuck Off Fever”). The buzzing, delirious “Sheila and Johnny,” in turn, unravels the tale of a doomed pair beset by addiction, its dingy narrative shaped in part by various people Tobar met in Athens and meant to illustrate the more damning, damaging impacts of late-stage capitalism. 

“It’s about unlucky figures who I’ve crossed paths with,” said Tobar, who noted that his music tends to dwell on the stresses he experiences “living in the world that we do.” “It’s sort of an unsavory situation, which is sort of how I see the world, I guess. There’s a lot of sickness in the world, and writing these songs is a way of [dealing with] it. It’s cathartic.”

Tobar isn’t afraid to explore life’s more ominous, abandoned corners in his songs – a willingness he traced to an early appreciation for Country Teasers, a band he said has a tendency to role play as some of the worst people imaginable within its music, taking the piss out of assorted misogynists, racists and other similarly toxic figures. “It can get really dark and some of it can be hard to listen to,” he said. “It’s not fun. … But there was also a comfort in finding an outlet for those dark, chaotic thoughts and perspectives, which, if you’re not working with them, you’re just falling into them, and that can be really overwhelming.”

It’s not all doom and gloom in Jackoff Demons, however, with the EP-closing “Walkaway” serving as a more sun-kissed bookend to the toxic entrapment on display in “Illusion of Control.” “Some sweet day, I’ll be on my way,” Tobar sings, delivering his words atop patient acoustic strumming and a shuffling tambourine. “Somewhere better, somewhere free.” 

“I wasn’t even sure if I was going to include that song, because it’s a little bit of a wild card,” said Tobar, who added that Wilder’s championing of the track ultimately tipped the balance. “There was something Nate said while we were recording, where he was like, ‘All the tracks leading up to this are like, “Fuck you, fuck this, fuck the world,” but this one is different,’ and I appreciated that.”

Initiated as a loose recording project, Jackoff Demons has begun to take on more structure in recent times, with Tobar expressing an interest in eventually bringing the project to the stage, ideally by sometime this summer. As with everything else related to the project, however, the musician is certain to put his own twist on things, envisioning the band’s concerts doubling as immersive performance art spectacles. “I want to go down a more bizarre route,” he said. “I want there to be lots of props and unconventional drums. … We’re currently just throwing things up on the wall to see what works.”