Jon Brion - He's just great

"His tight-pinched hooks and broad lush strokes, his mastery of countless kooky instruments and his jaw-dropping creativity have racked an impressive resume. He has helped shape and define the careers of Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple and produced countless others, including Rhett Miller, the Eels, Elliot Smith and Rufus Wainright. Critically acclaimed movie director Paul Thomas Anderson also recruited Brion to oversee the soundtracks for his movies Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love." (Rolling Stone)



Jon Brion.

This is a name that I've seen countless times over the last year or so. I became intrigued and developed a need to gather some more information about him and discovered an incredible resume hidden in his discography. Even the movies, such as "I Heart Huckabees" and "Punch Drunk Love" have this recognizable soundtrack and have made me appreciate what a musical score can do to a movie. Try watching Punch Drunk Love and Magnolia again and tell me you don't recognize the impact the music has on those movies. It's crazy to see how intense the emotions are and how in-tune they are with the music.

My intrigue was also amplified after reading ?uestlove's story when he met Fiona Apple and Jon Brion. If you haven't read this, check it out...it's quite entertaining.




Anyway, I want to discuss this man a little before he really blows up. Kanye West has recruited him to co-produce his upcoming album, Late Registration. I've always really liked Kanye and it's obvious he has great musical taste...I can't help but assume his new album will be amazing. It's a lot of hype to live up to, but I am pretty confident it'll get there.

So I learned about Jon Brion's Friday night show in LA at a place called Largo....here's a recap of one of his shows from a little while ago. (Posted by seandammit on okayplayer):

I just want to share my experience I had with his music a few weeks ago. It was something amazing, and I don't know why I hadn't recounted here til now, but having seen his name attached to posts about Kanye, I am reminded of how fucking awesome this man is.

I was in LA for the night, the weekend of Coachella. One of the guys I was traveling with was raving about how we had to get check him out at this club called Largo where Brion plays every Friday night. I was familiar with his work on Fiona's second album, and could vaguely recall the music from all the films he had scored. Regardless, I was still down to check it out, because how often am I going to be in LA in the foreseeable future?

So we get to this modestly sized club, and he has already started, the lights are all dim, and people are sitting at tables as he plays onstage. We had to stand in the back near the bar and the entrance from the kitchen.

I honestly have to say that his performance impressed me more than anything I saw at Coachella the next day.

The man is simply a prodigy at all of his instruments. He's got a drumkit on stage, guitars, pianos/keyboard/vocoder. Tons of pedals and gear on stage that allows him to loop and create a wall of sound, all created by him. To watch this man create these dense layers of multi-instrumental tunes was like watching a scientist work in the lab.

I'm told that his shows are very improvised, and I could see that looseness in this performance- not in a sloppy, all over the place way, but in more of an inspired, real way. Not only were his originals great, but he was constantly asking for requests from the crowd. He was really friendly and very conversational with everybody, and did a wide range of material.

Two songs stick out: a simply flawless "And Your Bird Can Sing" that had my jaw gaping at how easily he built the song from a drum loop to a rocking out band sound; the other was in response to shouts for both the Beach Boys and Nirvana- a Brian Wilson-esque version of "Lithium", complete with Pet Sounds piano chords, and harmonized vocoder vocals.

The man is a genius. I can't rave enough about how much talent this man has- it elevates him above any other musician I have ever encountered. My friend got his solo CD, and we listened to it on the way to Coachella- it was really good, but doesn't nearly convey the greatness of him live. I'm going to check out his soundtrack work now that I have caught the Brion bug. Anyway, if you are ever in LA on a Friday night, go to Largo- you won't be disappointed.

and another story:

the first time i went was valentines day. it was pajama night at largo (which is always too damn dark) and jon came strolling out in a silk pajama suit and sat down. he said he'd play without intermission for what would ultimately be a 4 hour show. he sits down at his piano and starts to play, and he plays for a while until he gets bored. then he runs over to his guitar and he fiddles around with that a while. then he gets up and bangs around on his drumkit for a few more minutes. he plays all of his instruments with equal adeptness and with an incredible enthusiasm. he stops playing and says "i've been through a lot this year. let me show you what i've been doing for the last 6 months" and he plays 6 songs off his record by himself. he does all the loops and all that shit, building up from a simple drumloop and then added all these rhythmic elements until he's got a whole band of jon brions playing along. eventually, someone from the audience walks onstage....and its fiona apple. they do some jazz standards ("mr sandman" is the only one that comes to mind right now), and her sister comes out of the crowd and does a duet with her. we left after about two hours since my sister was tired (around midnight) but i guess he played til 2 or 3am and another band came to play with him, too. i think it was grant lee buffalo, but im not sure. either way, my cousin says fiona came out and they played some more beatles covers.

Check him out!