Jon of the Atom's Life in Groton, NY

As promised last Wednesday, today's post is on Jon Fink's (of The New Wave Dirt) side project Jon of the Atom. I unexpectedly received this album is my mailbox in a sort of unofficial album swap that occured between myself and Jon, both mine and his being pseudo-side-projects of the bands we're currently in.

Similar sounding to NWD's "The Apple", Jon takes his solo project in a trippier and more electronic direction. His distinct voice is still there innocently creeping into your skull. The instrumental "The April Fool Song" is sort of Portishead-esque with a very synthetic drumbeat, and immediately following is "Bicycle", which my first description of was that it was a song that Jon would be singing to an adult who is tripping balls, laying in an oversized crib crying about his imaginary bicycle being stolen.

There's three cover songs on the album: Beck, Woody Guthrie and D. Johnson, and besides those self proclaimed influences I hear a little bit of the Olivia Tremor Control, a pinch of Pinback, and some Middle of Nowhere, New York country blues. The last two tracks are unlisted, "I'm a Hard Working Pearl Diver" (which was on NWD's first release "Elephants Tap Dance Recital (Cozy Home Records)" and a magnificent cover of The Microphones "I Felt Your Shape", another influence that can be heard: off time strumming, crazy panning, and fuzzy drum beats.

Most distinguishing for me is Jon's voice. On anything that's come my way from his direction the quality of vocal recording is just phenomenal. Almost in the way that Robert Schneider commented that he was most pleased with how we captured Jeff Mangum's voice for Neutral Milk Hotel, I feel that Jon's voice is recorded in such a way that absolutely captures the emotion that you would hear if you were spying on him while he was playing the song alone in his room. Sometimes it's off key, sometimes it's off time, sometimes there's two vocal tracks singing in octaves...no matter what, its up front, its incredibly clear considering Jon's drawling sort of Thom York-ish drone; innocent, wanting, and sometime downright eerie. He is up there on my list of favorite distinct voices, including: Willy Mason, Jeff Mangum, Ramona Cordova and Thom Yorke.

I couldn't help but put four mp3s up, I know its a lot, but I could'nt choose between them. Other tracks I would highly recommend are: his cover of the Microphones "I Felt Your Shape", the instrumental "April Fool Song" and the 12th song of the seemingly 11 track disc, "I'm A Hardworking Pearl Diver".

Here's Jon: www.myspace.com/jonoftheatom

Here's Jon and Megan Geiss: www.myspace.com/thenewwavedirt



mp3: Bicycle

mp3: Church Bell People

mp3: A Ride Without A Fair

Bonus mp3: I Ain't Got Nobody (Woddy Guthrie)

The New Wave Dirt's "The Apple"

this 19 track disc (62 minutes) is the second album put out by guitarist/vocalist jon fink (of jon of the atom, see next wednesdays post) and drummer megan geiss. it takes you all over the musical spectrum, with about half of the tracks being instrumentals. there's chaotic and scratchy guitars, happy ukuleles, sad clarinets, jazzy 2 minute drum solos, pulsating synth parts, and jon's droning baritone voice (think thom yorke, but comprehendable).

in february, NWD travelled down to Binghamton, NY to play a house party with Snow Cave and the ol' Sgt. Dunbar. tucked in the middle of the bill, they absolutely stole the show. for the first time ever i was bracing myself to go crashing through the throbbing wood panel floor down into the basement below. during their opening song my freshly opened beer tumbled off the amp it was sitting on as the packed living room began to shake the house in time with the music. the mic was on a stand that wouldn't stay upright and plugged into a small crate amplifier, drastically underpowered, but luckily i was about a 6 inches away from jon in the hot, crowded, smokey living room; so at least i could hear him.

i remember them playing 'keep it moving' quite well. i paused the pathetic jittering that i call dancing to watch the crowd as megan led them from a little jazzy shuffle into an all-out-rock body spasm, and back again, and back to spasms, and then back down,....and yes, then back to chaos once more. the pauses they put between each section of the song left us wondering what was coming next, and i remember being kind of disappointed when i began clapping, knowing that the song was officially over. megan's drumming is impressive and entertaining and when you see jon (sometimes clad in a dress) violently smashing his pick on the strings its enough for you to lose control of your apendages and shake violently as we all did that snowy february night in upstate NY. i couldn't stop myself from thinking about their set for probably 3 days after the show. it'd been a long time since i had that much fun at a show and saw that kind of positive reaction from an audience towards a band that they had heard nothing of before that night.

"the apple" is put out by cozy home records, a fake record label/music collective similar to that of b3nson based out of utica, new york. NWD isn't actually signed to them, but cozy home has their cd's available on their fancy website and promotes their music to a larger audience then the two of them could do theirselves. CD's are only $4 on the website, and you can figure that at least 3 of that goes towards the shipping/production, done by some kid in front of his out of date PC. so i'd say it's a worthwhile investment.

they will be at The Warehouse in Syracuse at 8pm on April 20th and hopefully somewhere in Albany before then, but if not, then definitely sometime after that. if afterwards you want to tell jon how much you dug the set dont take it personally if he backs himself into a corner, he's just a little shy.

The New Wave Dirt's Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/thenewwavedirt)

Cozy Home Records (http://www.cozyhomerecords.com)

mp3: Ghost In A Photograph

mp3: Keep Things Moving

mp3: Solvanian Worker Bee