Some bands/music and other things we have been inspired and haunted by: Nicolai Dunger, Steven Malkmus, Grateful Dead,Television, Gun Club, Hawkwind, Flower Traveling Band, Led Zeppelin, Royal Trux, Nirvana, Mudhoney, Minutemen, Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, Lee Hazlewood, Jefferson Airplane, Merle Haggard, Trailor Bride, Dungen, Deerhoof, Will Oldham, Giant Sand, Fairport Convention, Elvis Perkins, Scout Niblett, The Beatles, George Harrison, The Kinks, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Band, Sam Pekinpah, Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia, Pat Garret And Billy The Kid, Don't Look Now, Five Easy Pieces, Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf, McCabe And Mrs. Miller, Bonnie And Clyde, Kurosawa, Herzog, Altman, Ashby, Scorsese, Coppola, Albert and David Maysle, Gates Of Heaven, Cries and Whispers, 100 Years Of Solitude, Anna Karenina, Flannery O'Conner, Russell Banks, Richard Brautigan ("so the wind wont blow it all away" and "the abortion"), Cormac McCarthy, Dave Eggers, Adonais, Keats and Shelley, Emily Dickinson, The Animals (poems), Photos by: Robert Frank (the americans), Gary Winogrand, Diane Arbus, Larry Fink, Danny Lyons, Larry Clark, ...
Here are some bands we have toured with: Black Mountain, EARTH, Bright Eyes, Sparklehorse, Iron And Wine, Marissa Nadler, Inara George, Mark Kozelek, The Knitters, Great Lake Swimmers, Nicolai Dunger, J.Tillman, Jennifer O'Conner, The Long Winters, Winfred E.Eye, The Moaners
Some shows we have played alongside the likes of(recent and long ago):Yo la Tengo, Deerhoof, Coco Rosie, Calexico, Arboretum, Viva Voce, Neko Case, The Sadies, Giant Sand, Howe Gelb, Nada Surf, Death Cab For Cutie, Tom Brosseau, Mike Dumovich, Damien Jurado, Amy Rude, Whiting Tennis, Larry Barrett, The Winter Pills, Steve Turner, Rocky Votolato,Trailer Bride, Steve Earle and so many others that have blown our minds!
Sounds Like
Past reviews for "Oh, My Girl":
"...Oh,My Girl is the soundtrack to lonliness, and rarely has a record sounded so quietly riveting or intense... a beautiful heartbreaking album. Country gothic at its bleakest and most starkly poignant....." Paste ****
"Utterly Transfixing"-Rolling Stone *** 1/2
"Spellbound music,rapt in fatalism and sorrow"-Voted one of the top 10 sleepers of '04 by Jon Parales in The New York Times
My life is going by at an insane speed - as lives tend to do. I've been
here just long enough to have almost forgotten where it is I really came
from, or maybe it's that I've been here long enough to have learned how
to let go of "that" constant longing for where I came from. I've started
to love people I once disliked or even thought I hated, and I have
stopped loving some that I thought I could never be free of. All that
said, there is still a long way to go and I am just so grateful to be
here -- and grateful to be creating music with the people I hold dearest
to my heart. I met Phil Wandscher in 1998 in a dive bar back when
Seattle still had dive bars (how I miss those times!). I think I knew
instantly upon meeting him that my life would change forever - just a
gut feeling I guess, but i was right! Together, he and I have been lucky
enough to spend our musical partnership with a group of really
great, talented people - some who have stayed, some who have
left - but who will never really be "gone."
In 2002 we christened our "collective" Jesse Sykes And The Sweet
Hereafter. Since then,we have criss-crossed the country countless times,
crossed the pond to Europe several times, had the honor of collaborating with bands such as SUNNO))), BORIS ( i wrote the lyrics, melody and sang the song "The Sinking Belle") Pink Mountaintops, Mount Analog and avant- garde composer Eyvind Kang. I've had times that I'll remember for the rest of
my life. The
past has been magical, but all I've really been thinking about for the
last year and a half is our latest record "Like, Love, Lust & The Open
Halls of the Soul". We were trying to capture some pretty ephemeral
stuff on this album -- love and fragile human emotion, the 21st
century's strange combination of swagger and vulnerability --
and the feeling of a tight knit group of friends coming together
and sharing music.We are very much looking forward to spending the
next year on the road and seeing the people and places that we've been
missing, and hoping that, at least for some people out there, this new
album is (or becomes) a companion of sorts, just like it's been for me
and the band for the last several months. Hope to see you soon! J.S.
voted one of the top albums of 2007 in Artforum, Harp, Paste, Amazon and others....
-MOJO-**** UNCUT-**** SPIN - ****
On their third offering... the Sweet Hereafter are stretching themselves, incorporating different textures, sonics, and even song structures to build bridges for that understated, intensely expressive voice to articulate a poetic view that's decidedly subterranean and perhaps even sublingual.... this is the most satisfying offering from Sykes and her band yet. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
"Her best record yet. The songs are simultaneously catchier and darker.
Her voice has grown deeper, richer, and spookier, alternately evoking
Cat Power, Grace Slick, and Karen Dalton."-- Paste FOUR STARS
"A document of a band in full command of its powers.Most noticable though, is the continued evolution of Sykes' singing and songwriting...With "Like,Love,Lust And The Open Halls Of The Soul" she's served up her first masterpiece".-DALLAS OBSERVER
"This is folk rock for the 21st century"-METROLAND,Albany,NY
“Sykes sounds less like a performer and more like a sage. Completely overpowering.”
- Magnet
"Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter manage to build a sepia toned masterpiece from inside the framework of country- noir.Thats the sum,but the genius is in the parts"-SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN"
"Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul shows a band not
half-awake, but all-consumed-even enraptured-by its own spacious,
apparitional soundscapes, moving deliberately, patiently, pensively
through 12 tracks of transcendental western balladry and country-rock."
- American Songwriter
Sykes' voice is an unedited, unforced and completely un-self-conscious hallway through harrowing vulnerability, a cavern of subtle hues and the drip, drip, dripping of time and experience (time happens; life teaches). It travels through twilight corridors of natural composition (hope), decay (despair) and evolution (resignation). The closest comparable emotional exposure is found in the voice of Shannon Wright, but their music hasn't an iota in common. -TUSCAN WEEKLY
"“More intoxicating than ever . this is simply a wonderful record!"-Q ****
“Her songs are reveries on loss, and they’re equal parts solace and clear-eyed melancholy.”
- The New York Times
to hear some of the new album "Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls of The Soul" Go Here... e-card
Also available at all fine record stores or though our label Barsuk Records is the debut album "Reckless Burning" - ****Uncut ****MOJO and the second album "Oh, My Girl"
thank you Jesse! "On This Land" connects with me right now. Very beautiful, honest and heartfelt. Thank you and i know i always say this but here it is again - Keep up the REAL work and that's ART:)
hello. probably a question asked alot - how can I buy songs and albums? Will they be searchable in any particular recommended shops? I'm not that keen on buying online but would love the songs on my Ipod.
Has anyone any ideas on this? It would be a great help so I can share my new find with my boyfriend.
Sorry if I have missed something, maybe that got put in a Blog.
jesse yes we do. i am in germany right now on my way to italy. have thought of you a lot. let us get caught up very soon. will you come to tucson soon? love, a
great sound and good songwriting you have...and nice production as well! It seems as though you have a nice music career ahead of you and I wish you the best! Oh, and thanks for adding us...
so I can share my new find with my boyfriend. 
