Martin Hansen: bass
Blake Jones: songs, vocals, guitar, theremin
Mike Scott: guitar, vocals
John Shafer: drums
Leland Vander Poel: keyboards, vocals
Influences
Seeing Ray Davies perform live, watching film footage of Keith Moon, digging through the record collections of my brother and sister, digging through the record collections of my friends, never-ending talks about music and life and music as life with friends over the years, reading about Leon Theremin, reading about Nikola Tesla, reading TapeOp magazine, and watching local bands tear into it on a good night.
Listening to:
SMiLE, Revolver, The Who "Sell Out", Clara Rockmore playing the theremin, Tom Waits' "Swordfish Trombones", The Shins "Shoots Too Narrow", Joni Mitchell's "Blue", Pet Sounds, The Kinks' "Village Green Preservation Society", anything by Jonathan Richman, Esquivel, "Bringing It All Back Home", Quadrophenia, Dizzy Gillespi's "Salt Peanuts", Bjork, Syd Barrett, Donovan, renaissance vocal music, ...and more more more
Sounds Like
Cool & Strange Music Magazine said:
But right here and now, it provided a clue to at least two of Blake Jones' major inspirations: the melodic pop of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney. Also hovering above and within this collection of well-constructed pop songs are the melodies of Todd Rundgren as well as the occasional (and non-satirical) trace elements of Frank Zappa. [Their music is] clean, orderly and unabashed pop ...of the highest optimism.
independentclauses.com said:
like a lost radio station from 1965 playing the Beatles, early Who, and early Kinks.
indiepop.it said:
Jones e soci sono aperti ad ogni influenza dal pop al garage, filtrati dalla 'science fiction'.
Smother Magazine said:
what makes it even more like something from Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson is its inventive use of instrumentation with a shopping list of instruments including toy pianos, organ, theremin, as well as the usual suspects.
A long time ago:
I remember us all riding our bikes to Me n' Ed's. We stopped to pump up our bike tires. Rob pumped his too much and it popped real loud. We all laughed---except for Rob. He was mad. Hey, we were insensitive teenagers. But he wrote better songs than any of us.
And then I think someone said something like:
The problem with developing/growing in the world of art or music, is that
one becomes more and more of an idiosyncratic marketing problem. One
becomes more and more interestingly oneself. This means that no matter
how many genres they give you on the little pull-down menu, you cant find
one you can happily wrap around your forehead, and it becomes more and
more difficult to answer the innocent question:
"Yeah, but what kind of music do you play?"
Even longer ago:
My mom said that sometimes when I was really little, she'd run off to do a quick errand and leave me with just my little record player. This explains a thing or two.
Blake Jones and the Trike Shop's Friend Space (Top 18)
Hey Blake, gotta check out the official John Lennon Myspace page (on my top favs)...one of the featured vids is of Good Dog Nigel! US - yeah, I friend of mine made the video a couple of years ago using our song "Like an August Night". Seems to have gotten some attention - pretty cool, huh?
I hope your band has a wonderful performance at the Fuse Festival. I am sending a big hug to Laurie and yourself for sending me a goodbye! Much appreciated. Take care of yourselves!
Sweet!! We had a blast. Can't wait for you guys to come back. Look for a preview clip of you guys' show to be coming to ya next week and the actual show to be on www.livefromsoulstavern.com August 13th.
The Councilmen are playing Crossroads with The Bastard Son's of Johnny Cash June 17th! Get up early Friday morning and see them on the FOX Morning Show!
yes! masculin feminin is my favorite too. you're the first person i know who agrees (let alone watches godard). i actually drum for it's an icicle, thus the top friend slot. we're all huge zappa fans too. the one time we got onto 90.7 evening eclectic we had them play "Prelude to the Afternoon of a sexually aroused gas mask" and a live recording of Salt Peanuts.
your music is really great. i'm definitely going to grab your new cd from spinners. thanks for stopping by.
