Jack Johnson has turned up the volume on his political and social commentary on his second album, On and On, which arrived in stores today from his own label, the Moonshine Conspiracy Records. The surfer-turned-folky tackles issues including war, industrialization, the environment, and the impact and responsibility of the media.

Johnson dabbled with such heady topics on his 2001 debut release, Brushfire Fairytales, but his approach is more pronounced the second time out, especially on On and On's first single, "The Horizon Had Been Defeated," a commentary on the global effects of American consumerism.

"Humans keep inventing things and it always seems like progress," Johnson says, "but you have to really step back and realize the effect that people driving around in Suburbans and guzzling gas is having in other parts of the world."

Not surprisingly, Johnson wrote the song while on a surf outing near the central California city of Santa Barbara, which includes a coastline notoriously dotted with oil rigs. "They're all lit up at night, and I was driving with my friend and I said, 'They looked like alien casinos.'" Johnson says. "And he said, 'No, they look like the pirates of the new age.' And I thought that was a pretty profound statement -- you know, here they come, they're taking over, coming to rape the earth, really."

The offshore eyesores can also be seen in the song's accompanying video, a clip packed with time-lapse photography from Johnson's international travels. Johnson co-directed the piece, the second time he's put his past experience making surf films to use for his music career.

Elsewhere on On and On, Johnson further ponders materialism ("Cars and phones and diamond rings, bling bling, those are only removable things"), violence ("It wasn't me, says the boy with the gun/Sure I pulled the trigger but it needed to be done, because life's been killing me ever since it begun"), and the media's role in fostering them.

The success of Brushfire Fairytales emboldened him to be more vocal about the matters that most concern him. "I guess there's a certain amount of confidence you get from people coming to the shows and telling you how much your music means to them," he says. "You feel a little more comfortable saying something than just singing love songs."

Johnson kicks off a co-headlining tour with Ben Harper in Chicago on June 6th. "We're petty good friends now, but I still step back and have the realization that I'm touring with one of my favorite musicians too," he says. "It's just fun to share the same stage."

NEAL WEISS
(May 6, 2003)