JASON FALKNER Presents Author Unknown 1996

by request

 

Discogs 

Artist Biography by John Bush

A onetime member of the West Coast neo-psychedelic bands the Three O'Clock and Jellyfish, Jason Falkner went out on his own by 1996, playing jagged power pop with impeccable arrangements, a clue to both his classically trained childhood and additional time spent working on the first LP by another classical popster, Eric Matthews. Born in Los Angeles in 1968, Falkner grew up listening to West Coast pop bands like Love and Crosby, Stills & Nash but later began taking piano lessons in preparation for a classical career. Pop music regained control of his life when he discovered his sister's punk/new wave collection, and Falkner began playing the guitar, later appearing in several bands from his high school. Not long after graduation, Falkner joined the Three O'Clock, leaders of the Los Angeles paisley underground scene, for their major-label debut (but sixth LP overall), 1988's Vermillion. Though solid, the album was unfortunately their last, and the band broke up soon after.

Less than a year later, Falkner was convinced by an old friend, Roger Manning, to move up to San Francisco to join his new band, Jellyfish, with brother Chris and Andy Sturmer. Though the group gained recognition in alternative circles and released a pleasing debut album, Falkner was unhappy with his role in the band, that of guitarist (and not much else), so he left the band after the one album. Vowing to never play in another band again, he bent the promise not long after by joining the loose collective known as the Grays, four musicians who hated the confines of most groups and thus decided to do everything in their power to avoid the pitfalls. Being such a laid-back band, however, resulted in the release of just one album, 1994's Ro Sham Bo.

Again on the dole, Falkner worked with Eric Matthews on the 1996 LP It's Heavy in Here, and finally got what he had been looking for all the time: a solo deal. Through Elektra Records, he released his acclaimed debut, Presents Author Unknown, also in 1996. He played on Matthews' second album, The Lateness of the Hour, in 1997, and in early 1999 issued his own sophomore effort, Can You Still Feel? It was followed in 2001 by Necessity: The 4-Track Years, a collection of home recordings, and Bedtime with the Beatles, a covers album featuring instrumental lullabies of Fab Four favorites. A second installment of instrumental Beatles covers, Bedtime with the Beatles, Pt. 2, arrived in 2008, followed by the Japanese release of All Quiet on the Noise Floor the following year. 

Tracklist  

1	I Live	3:11
2	Miracle Medicine	3:26
3	Hectified	2:44
4	Don't Show Me Heaven	4:15
5	She Goes To Bed	4:16
6	Nobody Knows	4:06
7	Follow Me	4:07
8	Before My Heart Attacks	3:43
9	Afraid Himself To Be	3:41
10	Miss Understanding	2:58
11	I Go Astray	3:49
12	Untitled	4:01

BUDDY JUDGE Profiles in Clownhenge 1998

 

 by request

 

review

[+] by Jason Damas

Possibly one of the strangest -- and most interesting -- guitar pop albums of the late 1990s, Buddy Judge's first solo project (titled, in full Mister Spalding's Orchestral Devices Proudly Perform Buddy Judge's Full-Length Musical Compendium "Profiles in Clownhenge") sounds almost nothing like his previous work with the Grays. As one of the three frontmen in that project, Judge's songs blended seamlessly with those of Jason Falkner and Jon Brion, and despite some adventurous flourishes, the song writing on that album was fairly conventional guitar pop fare. On this album, however, Judge gets pretty weird: the concept is that the music is inspired by a late 19th century Boston bookkeeper named Mr. Spalding, who created an orchestra of mechanical animal musicians run on steam power. Mr. Spalding was a bit of a recluse who died when the orchestral device's main boiler exploded, also destroying all of his devices. This album is recorded in that particular style -- sounding a bit like a circus gone mad -- making it possibly one of the only tuba-based pop records in memory. What's surprising is that even with the inherent weirdness, Profiles in Clownhenge is still basically a pop album, just with tuba taking the prominent role generally taken by a guitar. So that means that songs like the infectious "Everybody Loves Bob" and a very literal cover of "Send in the Clowns" aren't too weird to scare pop fans away, but are plenty different enough to establish this as a truly creatively unmatched project. (There are four bonus tracks tacked on after the main section of the album. Those songs are more traditional guitar-based numbers that won't surprise fans of Judge's other work.)

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I HATE THE 90S Volume 2 Compilation

1. Cold Water Flat - Virus Road 2. Lida Husik - AZT No 3. Loosegoats - Destined to Be a B-Side 4. Acetone - Chew 5. Red House Painters - Have You Forgotten 6. Maria McKee - I Can't Make It Alone (acoustic edit) 7. Red Dye No. 9 - Pigeon 8. American Music Club - The President's Test for Physical Fitness 9. Linda Perry - Jackie 10. Sammy - Rudy 11. Pavement - Painted Soldiers 12. Uncle Green - He's the Man 13. Fossil - Moon 14. The Marinernine - On My Back 15. Huffy - 50 Yard Dash 16. Man or Astroman? - Escape Velocity 17. Fury in the Slaughterhouse - Dead Before I Was Born 18. Gouds Thumb - Together 19. Maggie Estep - Scab Maids on Speed 20. The Grays - Very Best Years

THE GRAYS Ro Sham Bo 1994

Discogs

Artist Biography by John Bush

A ramshackle collective of four musicians who all hated playing in bands, the Grays comprised ex-Jellyfish members Jason Falkner and Jon Brion, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. After coming together in 1993, the group released just one album, Ro Sham Bo, before amicably packing it in. Falkner later began a solo career, while Brion worked with Aimee Mann, eels, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. 

Tracklist

1	Very Best Years	3:26
2	Everybody's World	5:43
3	Same Thing	4:02
4	Friend Of Mine	5:17
5	Is It Now Yet	4:03
6	Oh Well Maybe	3:43
7	Nothing Between Us	3:55
8	Both Belong	4:25
9	Nothing	3:31
10	Not Long For This World	4:53
11	Spooky	5:07
12	All You Wanted	4:31
13	No One Can Hurt Me	6:29