Today while keeping my eye on the super slow smart-phone "gamecast" of the Chiefs upset win today, I shaped up press bits for the The Golden Motors one-sheet. (Claire Flint is helping us pull it all together. Thanks Claire! Our power lunch at Bagel Sphere was like a 2-person underground communist party scene from Reds, but they did not have bagel dogs in Reds.) The official cd release in Eugene is 2/25 at Sam Bond's. The "street release" date is March 1. Anybody who wants a review copy, get on the tin-can phone and let me know. It's got an extra long string.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who put in a good word over the years.
And thanks to The Chiefs for an inspiring turnaround--whoah. That rocked.
the good word about singer-songwriter dan jones, his bands, and his amazing discography
The Golden Motors is exactly what you’d play at a raving party.
Jones is likely in his 40s but he dresses and performs like he’s 18 and
his new rock band just made it on the cover of Rolling Stone and their
music is burning up the airwaves, primed for world domination. And
what’s enjoyable about Jones is his keen ability to know when less is
more and when it’s okay to slow down the pace of a song. In that
respect, Jones is an artist, not just a rock star. (Andrew Fickes, gig write-up, northwestindiemusic.com, 8/23/11)
The
music contained in the grooves of this four-song EP is driven by a
throwback innocence and energy that rummages through the vintage closet
of ’60s pop. Jones kicks off side one with “Don’t Be Afraid of Love,” a
three-chord rocker that channels early Who, and Wilde’s flipside opener,
“Two People in Love,” is a laid-back ballad that floats on a swell of
Hammond organ and pedal steel. Long live DIY and the crackle of static. (Rick Levin reviews Dan Jones and Peter Wilde’s My Name Is John Smith e.p. in The Eugene Weekly, 10/28/10)
When the lyrics start to go all metaphorical in the middle of Dan Jones and the Squids new album, Totally Human,
and you hear lines like, "Sometimes I feel just like a gremlin on the
wing of our love" or "I think we saw the rapture, but it went as far as
it could go," you know you've entered true Squid territory. (Chuck Adams reviews Totally Human in The Eugene Weekly, 5/31/07)
A
repetitive Jiminy Cricket has been following me around pointing out my
foibles. When I stopped by Jones' garage for a recent rehearsal on a hot
May evening, "Being Difficult" was one of the first songs Jones and the
Squids launched into. "Being difficult/ Like a knob that won't turn,"
Jones sang, his band sweating and periodically requesting ice cream,
"Like a vine that won't wind." I felt downright guilty until I focused
on what I decided the point of the song was: Being difficult is "totally
human." And it's that line, taken from the most infectious song on the
album, that seems to validate all of our petty existences. (Serena Markstrom, Eugene Register-Guard Ticket cover story for release of Totally Human, June 2007)
Eugene staple Dan Jones delivers something like a more mature, less
crazy Daniel Johnston vibe and keeps it rockin' thanks to the lo-fi fuzz
of able backers The Squids.
(Amy McCullough, show preview The Willamette Week, March 12, 2008)
What
are my first impressions of Dan Jones’ music? Strongly influenced by
REM, Robyn Hitchcock and The Who, does that suggest Guided By Voices to
you? Perhaps. In fact, there is a very strong 80s alt-rock sound here. I
mean, please also include Dream Syndicate, the Minutemen, Sonic Youth
and the Replacements into the mix. Make no mistake, though, Dan Jones
delivers where it matters – great rock music, whatever the genre. (Kevin Mathews reviews Get Sounds Now at powerofpop.com, 10/22/06)
Clocking
in at slightly more than half an hour, Dan Jones' Get Sounds Now is a
whirlwind of raw rock and roll color. Sounding like The Who fronted by
an unpretentious, tuneful Lou Reed, Jones bashes out his short tunes
with equal parts fire and tenderness. Get Sounds Now has the magical,
inexplicable appeal of an album that gets you through. (Jon Itkin reviews Get Sounds Now in The Oregon Voice, Fall 2005)
Billy
Barnett, owner of Eugene's Gung-Ho (where One Man Submarine was
recorded and mixed) says of Jones' songs, "They tend to be musically
straightforward, unpretentious, melodic; lyrically smart and thoughtful;
and the angst and angles within the storylines come across with a wry
humor and sympathy...never the urgent, needy, in your face variety." (Josh Sommer, Get Sounds Now show preview,
The Portland Oregonian A & E, 7/8/05)
One Man Submarine is the real deal, 12
unforgettable tracks whose instantly hummable melodies will stick in
your brain like gum under a desk long after you’ve wrested the CD from
your player (good luck on that, by the way). Jones’ plaintive, well-worn
voice is the ideal instrument to deliver his whimsical, detail-rich
story songs, in which getting your PHD in post-war pornography theory,
driving a Chinese car, and living in a town called Penitentiary are all
possibilities. If Jones ever wearies of music-making, a long career in
short story and novel-writing awaits. (Walker Grey, NWradio.com, 2003) reviews One Man Submarine at
Smash your head on the acoustic punk rock. Diehard fans of Dan Jones' debut, For Your Radio
may miss the days when the Eugene singer-songwriter would ply his
Cormac McCarthy-inspired stories with simply an acoustic guitar. But
considering that this working-stiff-songsmith as always had a jones for
rocked-up stuff like The Who, Husker Du, and Guided By Voices, it's
little wonder that Jones eventually turned to electric guitar. (Kim Chun, show preview, The Portland Mercury, 4/29/04)
More
open sky and underwater than just "Americana," this sophomore release
from a late blooming master songwriter is blissfully washed in fragile
acoustic and jangle Pop guitars, building and leaning, cutting loose
with Punk Rock riffs and -- when you least expect it -- roaring walls of
humming waves. Deliciously melding influences like Roger Miller, Lou
Reed, Hüsker Dü, The Meat Puppets and Steve Earle, Jones' wit and chops
are electric, haunting, spontaneous, and fun. (John James reviews reviews One Man Submarine in Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah, 2003)
For Your Radio is lyrically driven, storytelling folk music at
its finest. With a warm, undistilled voice, Jones walks his way through
a kaleidoscope of adolescent memories, revisiting the basketball court,
the local grocery store, a freshly fertilized front lawn and other
suburban touchstones. Jones album, with its collection of childhood
tall tales and remembrances, is reminiscent of a shoe box full of old
photographs. The images are there, incomplete and unsorted, and the
fragments come together to form an incomplete, but somehow vivid, story.
(Lewis Taylor, show preview, Eugene Register Guard, 2000)
Any given verse of his songs packs more wit than a roomful of singer-songwriters could must in a month of open mics. (Jeff Rosenberg, show preview, The Willamette Week, 2000)
For Your Radio
exemplifies why local music fans should welcome back this prodigal son
with open arms. Name-dropping certain sports stars, hitting the road
with a "skanky hardcore band," and threatening to open a keg of whupass,
Jones isn't the stereotypical sensitive-guy folk singer. Jones juggles
witticisms with truly touching tales of longing and emptiness, setting
both to gently rolling country melodies and spare descending scales. If
his Acoustic Grudge Matches were actual competitions, Jones wouldn't
have much to worry about--it's difficult to imagine a contender besting
For Your Radio. (Kansas City Pitch, 2000)
Dan Jones lovely new tape For Your Radio opens with a trio of
post-adolescent boy-meets-girl songs that feel like plot summations of
movies such as Say Anything...all first love and fear of the future and
small-town anxiousness rolled into one poignant moment. (Mare Wakefield, show preview, The Eugene Weekly, 1999)
