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Showing posts with label JPW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JPW. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Weekly Listening: September 2022 #2 | JPW – Wealth of the Canyon

[Repost from Various Small Flames; by Jon Doyle, September 12, 2022]

What better schooling can there be in music than consistently talking to the best? As the writer and host behind the ever-present Aquarium Drunkard, Jason Woodbury has had the opportunity to do just that, and his debut solo record Something Happening / Always Happening, out now on Fort Lowell Records, suggests he has been taking notes. Under the moniker JPW, Woodbury creates songs dialed in to both the surrounding landscape and the mystical dimensions above and beyond it. Classic cosmic folk rock which might well beam you up, if only to get a better look at the world below. Take single ‘Wealth of the Canyon’, its sound rich and enveloping, its easy rhythms so laidback as to be practically horizontal. But within the warmth lies something mysterious, something quite possibly sublime. A cloaked thing which you can only hope to catch in glances as time goes by.

Something Happening / Always Happening is out now via Fort Lowell Records. Get it now via Bandcamp.

Friday, September 9, 2022

OUT NOW: JPW ‘Something Happening / Always Happening’ [LP]

the debut album by Jason P. Woodbury, host of Aquarium Drunkard's weekly Transmissions podcast and Range and Basin on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard with dublab. Featuring musicians Zach Toperek of Young Mothers (FLR001), Zane Gillum of KITIMOTO (FLR044), and produced by Michael Krassner of Boxhead Ensemble, the album has received praise from media outlets such as MTV News: “A desert broadcast from the past where remnants of space-age pop mingle with an undeniably easy (and breezy) feeling you might've found out Topanga in 1972.”

CLICK HERE now or visit your favorite digital music platform to give it a spin. If you live in Phoenix, Arizona, stop by The Dirty Drummer tomorrow (Sept 10) at 8pm to catch JPW live in concert for the Record Release Party, or visit Stinkweeds + Zia Records to pick up your copy of ‘Something Happening / Always Happening’ on vinyl record — which by the way is almost SOLD OUT! We only have (6) copies left ourselves, so if you were planning on mail ordering the album from us directly, you’d better CLICK HERE immediately. Thank you, everyone, for the support with this fantastic album. Enjoy the music! 🖤

Saturday, September 3, 2022

al Riggs on JPW 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

"Very few music journalists are good musicians themselves, and vice versa. Because I'm cooler than you i had the chance to hear this album nearly a year ago and it finally arrived in wax form on my doorstep today. Jason P. Woodbury (JPW) is a lovely person and this album rules." ~ al Riggs

Pictured: al Riggs

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

The Must-Hear Songs by Phoenix Musicians of August 2022

[Repost from Phoenix New Times; by Chris Coplan, August 29, 2022]

JPW, "Always Happening"

We recently told you
 all about JPW, the sleek desert rock (sorry not sorry) project from local writer/music guru Jason P. Woodbury. But we're not the only ones excited about JPW's upcoming album, Something Happening / Always Happening. Writer Kevin Murphy went as far as kickstarting his So Much Silence blog after eight years to debut another track. Whereas "Halfway to Eloy" felt a bit more breezy, Woodbury said "Always Happening" is a "10-minute psych epic about eternalism blessed by Lenny Kaye." Enjoy.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

JPW Song Premiere "Always Happening"

[Repost from So Much Silence; Kevin Murphy, August 25, 2022]

“Kevin, crazy idea.”

I wasn’t expecting that text from Jason Woodbury, let alone opening up this site to write something here for the first time in (gulp, checks notes) EIGHT years.

It’s not surprising Jason reached out, asking if I wanted to check under the hood and rev this thing up to premiere a song off his upcoming album “Something Happening/Always Happening” (due out Sept. 9 on Fort Lowell Records). He’s already had wonderful — and well-deserved — praise for the project heaped his way in Pop MattersMTV News and in this great Phoenix New Times feature. Not sure if you read the part about me not updating this site in eight (8) years, but there’s not a lot of visibility I could offer here. The music blog hype machine dried up long ago.

And yet, that was sort of the point for Jason. It’s just the kind of selfless and kindhearted people he and his wife, Becky, are. This was less about promotion and more about connection, a “fun way to honor SMS and the ‘blog era,'” as Jason put it.

Jason was a regular contributor here back in the heyday, and it was pretty obvious then (as it is now) his taste and talent are unimpeachable. No surprise he’s been such a longtime stalwart — writer of words, host of podcasts — over at the legendary Aquarium Drunkard, among many of the hats he’s worn.

It was, perhaps, kismet that Jason reached out this week. I recently began a massive undertaking of re-ripping my CD collection (I’ve made it all the way through “E”!), which sent me on a nostalgic trip — about music and this site, which I’ve often thought of reviving, a topic I’ve subjected Jason to countless times. And he’s always offered a positive word of encouragement.

He’s been such a champion over the years for so many others, it’s nice to be able to return the favor, however small. In the same way Jason has worked tirelessly to cultivate our scene, he’s similarly developed such a unique vibe on this solo debut, a meditative montage of low-key psych — sounds lovingly warped and reformed in the way only someone who has spent a lifetime in the desert can synthesize.

The premiere here, “Always Happening,” is the album closer, a 10-minute trip built on a short loop from Link Cromwell’s “Crazy Like a Fox.”

“For much of my debut record, I kept the songs really short, as I was very uninterested in overstaying my welcome,” Jason said. “But ‘Always Happening’ is a song where Michael Krassner rightly suggested we let it drift outward. He added these celestial electric guitar leads and synths and recruited Laraine Kaizer-Viazovtsev to play violin. I get lost in it each time I listen to it, still. 

“I emailed Lenny Kaye to ask for his blessing. I didn’t hear back for a while, and I let a lot of self-doubt eat at me regarding the situation. Then I got over myself and thought of all the unread emails in my inbox. I sent a follow-up note and Lenny responded back almost right away with a really kind missive. “It is amazing the lifeline of ‘Crazy Like A Fox’…and I’m surely happy to hear it utilized in such a consciousness expanding manner…Sounds like my kind of trance and dance.” Blessed by Lenny. You can hardly even believe it.” 

“Something Happening/Always Happening” is out on Sept. 9. Pre-order the album here.

Thanks to Jason for the music and the opportunity … perhaps there won’t be eight years between posts again.

Friday, August 26, 2022

OUT NOW: JPW "Always Happening" [Digital Single]

JPW is the moniker for Jason P. Woodbury, host of Aquarium Drunkard's weekly Transmissions podcast and Range and Basin on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard with dublab.  Today, JPW's third single -- "Always Happening" -- from the debut album -- Something Happening / Always Happening -- is out as a digital single on all platforms.  For fans of Nels Cline, Brian Eno, Lambchop, Hayden Pedigo, and Pure X.

"A meditative montage of low-key psych." ~ So Much Silence


Thursday, August 25, 2022

As JPW, Jason P. Woodbury Transcends Into the Desert Rock Ether

[Repost Phoenix New Times; by Chris Coplan, August 22, 2022]

When you talk of ecosystems, there's this idea of "lynchpin" species. Those animals that are vital to sustaining a specific system; the capelin, for instance, serves this role for regions like the North Atlantic.

Without attempting to embarrass or hyperbolize, Jason P. Woodbury is our own capelin.

Since the mid-2000s, he's done it all: musician (including KITIMOTO); record store employee (Zia); writer and editor (Phoenix New Times); and host (Wastoids and Aquarium Drunkard). He's helped foster our robust local scene for years by applying his immense passion and deep curiosity. It's a story worth exploring as Woodbury commences a new journey: a solo career as JPW.

Woodbury's early love of music started, as it should, with Dave Matthews Band — until he quickly became enamored with punk. It’s a true snapshot of his lifelong, multifaceted obsession.

"Music was a thing I felt deeply connected to that was beyond a hobby or an interest," he said recently at the Linger Longer Lounge. "It was pretty quick that I recognized that I'd become obsessed with the idea of it."

At that time, Woodbury would make some lifelong connections, including Zane Gillum, who plays on JPW's debut album, Something Happening / Always Happening. But it wasn't long before Woodbury found his other great love: writing about music.

"I think that my relationship with [music] was less focused on me playing it all the time," he said. "Although that was a big part of it. I also wanted to tell my friends what records they should be listening to."

And, while he kept playing music for himself alongside pals like Gillum, Woodbury eventually gave up any "aspirations" for life as a writer and editor.

Then, of course, the world went and changed.

Woodbury said that as COVID-19 reared its head, he picked up his guitar more regularly. That led him to record an album with the aforementioned KITIMOTO, June's truly excellent Vintage Smell. It was that solidarity that largely sparked the JPW project.

"I think it was the process of being in a band with friends and getting to add touches to songs and not have to be the sole songwriter," he said. "It engaged a part of the creative side of my brain that I missed and that I hadn't engaged so much."

But it was different still. A decade-ish away, and his efforts to work through big ideas and emotions, pushed Woodbury into a new place musically.

"So what happened — maybe it's getting older or maybe it's devoting myself more or less to a kind of spiritual practice — but all of a sudden, when I started working on this record, I had a couple songs tumble out that were very, very spontaneous," he said. "They felt like they came from someplace that wasn't my head."

He's referring to cuts like "Cruel in Time" and "Wealth of the Canyon," which exemplify the album's overt sense of ease and a commitment to emotionality over technical prowess.

"They happened in a matter of just a couple of days," Woodbury added. "They just came out and were recorded in ways I'd never recorded. I was utilizing loops and drum samples. I listened back to them, and I heard in them a quality that I'd just never been able to hear from my own music."

To some extent, this wellspring of creation was a chance for Woodbury to counter what he'd taught himself as a professional writer/editor.

"When I'm doing something more journalistically, you have to have a quality filter on," he said. "You're mediating and filtering everything you're thinking through these differing sorts of criteria. What had always locked me up in the past in all the bands I was in, where I was the main creative force, I struggled with turning off the quality filter in the early stages."

But the music helped him see things clearly, and he found ways to counter and create more freely.

He added, "And then the other thing, of course, is anytime you're a critic who puts music out, it's impossible not to ask yourself, 'Are these good?' Or, 'Are people going to look at this?' I found myself surprised and shocked for the first time in my life to say that I wouldn't care because I like them."

Woodbury's "transformation" also came as he's accepted himself as a proper utility player. He referenced the Brian Eno book A Year with Swollen Appendices, in which the legend talked about how "less technically adept" players are often his favorite (like the bassist from James, per Eno’s example).

"And I identified with that," Woodbury said. "Sometimes what they're doing might be the simplest thing that's happening, but it adds an ineffable quality to the recording. I realized some time while we were making the KITIMOTO record, the simplest ideas I had were often the most potent ideas."

The JPW record expands on those ideas: Keeping it simple doesn’t mean keeping it boring.

"There's a lot of repetition on the record," Woodbury said. "Because I want to establish a groove. … Let that exist for two, three minutes, and then get out. Look, if you're only going to make this one record, make sure it's the 'you' record as much as possible, which even extends to the project name. I can't come up with another dumb band name; I'm just going to call it JPW."

Aside from Eno, Woodbury leaned into another hero, Neil Young, who he said talks about the idea that "the closer you are to the raw idea, the more likely you've got something that's interesting or pure." That helped in making certain decisions, even as collaborators Zach Toporek and Michael Krassner had insights.

"[Toporek] was like, 'I want to fix this.' And I'm like, 'Nah, man, we got it.' And he says, 'I don't think we did,'" Woodbury said. "I have to violently wrestle it away from him and take it over to my lair and turn it into what it becomes. It's a real question I have with myself. Are you being impatient? Or are you on to something? There's something that caught initially; those are the things that I feel most attracted to."

It also helped that this somewhat transcendent approach fed into Woodbury's lifelong aspiration: being more like a personal hero, comics writer/mystic Alan Moore.

"I want to be a mystic," he said. "I don't know if I am. That's the idea, and that's what strikes me as the most romantic and most interesting idea, the version of me that I find most attractive. I think I just find myself more and more drawn to the idea that without awe and wonder and mystery, life is a suspect proposition."

Just don't expect him to worship serpent gods. If anything, embracing mysticism is to further the true magic of communing via one's art.

"I'm interested in the kind of cultural storytelling that we engage in," he said. "There's a symbiotic relationship to it, and so I've become more interested in these ideas of what narratives take root through art, and how those things break into the real world in their own weird ways. This thing [an album track] started rattling around in my head and now it's out of my head and it exists in a form that [everyone] can listen to."

Part of that mysticism "shtick" is also for Woodbury to further codify and celebrate his beloved home in the Southwest. He readily recalls growing up in Coolidge, channeling some other bigwigs.

"The Southwest and Arizona is a deeply weird place. I think we've produced deeply strange musicians, from Sun City Girls to the Meat Puppets," he said. "Lee Hazlewood, Duane Eddy, and Waylon Jennings all worked at a [Coolidge] radio station, KCKY-AM. I didn't actually hear that growing up, they were long gone by the time I came of age, but at some point, I found myself very interested in and connected to the idea that there's a musical history that is uniquely Arizona. I wanted to listen to that station in my mind, hearing those voices on the air, and tap into the spirit I imagined up."

So does that make Something Happening / Always Happening a desert album?

"I didn't try to do a desert record," he said. "[This is] the place where I have a root in the ground. It's a place that I understand on some level, and the parts of it that I don't remain intriguing to me. I didn’t want [Arizona] to be a punchline on The Daily Show or The Simpsons; just make a record about your weird experience in this place. So it’s about Arizona, but it's about my imagined Arizona."

He added, "A friend asked if I was OK with this being called desert rock. I have to be honest: I'm really OK with people calling it anything they want as long as somebody's listening."

To an extent, the album wasn't even the end goal. Woodbury said he "didn't keep notes or write down the chords," and mentioned playing live as an afterthought. Instead, the record was representative of something he did for himself as a person.

"A big part of this record coming to existence was me allowing myself the freedom to create a thing," he said. "And allowing whatever else happens now to also happen and not worry about it and not stress and curate the experience."

Just don't expect him to worship serpent gods. If anything, embracing mysticism is to further the true magic of communing via one's art.

"I'm interested in the kind of cultural storytelling that we engage in," he said. "There's a symbiotic relationship to it, and so I've become more interested in these ideas of what narratives take root through art, and how those things break into the real world in their own weird ways. This thing [an album track] started rattling around in my head and now it's out of my head and it exists in a form that [everyone] can listen to."

Part of that mysticism "shtick" is also for Woodbury to further codify and celebrate his beloved home in the Southwest. He readily recalls growing up in Coolidge, channeling some other bigwigs.

"The Southwest and Arizona is a deeply weird place. I think we've produced deeply strange musicians, from Sun City Girls to the Meat Puppets," he said. "Lee Hazlewood, Duane Eddy, and Waylon Jennings all worked at a [Coolidge] radio station, KCKY-AM. I didn't actually hear that growing up, they were long gone by the time I came of age, but at some point, I found myself very interested in and connected to the idea that there's a musical history that is uniquely Arizona. I wanted to listen to that station in my mind, hearing those voices on the air, and tap into the spirit I imagined up."

So does that make Something Happening / Always Happening a desert album?

"I didn't try to do a desert record," he said. "[This is] the place where I have a root in the ground. It's a place that I understand on some level, and the parts of it that I don't remain intriguing to me. I didn’t want [Arizona] to be a punchline on The Daily Show or The Simpsons; just make a record about your weird experience in this place. So it’s about Arizona, but it's about my imagined Arizona."

He added, "A friend asked if I was OK with this being called desert rock. I have to be honest: I'm really OK with people calling it anything they want as long as somebody's listening."

To an extent, the album wasn't even the end goal. Woodbury said he "didn't keep notes or write down the chords," and mentioned playing live as an afterthought. Instead, the record was representative of something he did for himself as a person.

"A big part of this record coming to existence was me allowing myself the freedom to create a thing," he said. "And allowing whatever else happens now to also happen and not worry about it and not stress and curate the experience."

That doesn't mean, though, Woodbury hasn't performed, with recent shows being shared sets with Toporek's band, Dadweed. But even those gigs are a chance to further explore his muse.

"It's a nice way to open the songs up because I have no real desire for the songs to always be presented exactly the same for each show," Woodbury said. "Or, that the record version is the version. A good song can withstand almost anything you put it through."

Aside from more dates, Woodbury and Toporek are nearly done with JPW's second album, which could arrive sometime in early 2023. (Expect a single possibly soon, Woodbury teased.) He said it's a much different record, with influences of "1970s folk records and ‘90s trip-hop stuff."

So, does that mean that Woodbury the Writer is hanging it up indefinitely for Woodbury the Rocker?

"Writing is too important to me to leave entirely," Woodbury said. "And I've had moments of realization and epiphany and transcendence through that means as well. Both are acts of empathy in which you're able to create a space for yourself and others to feel a thing or explore a thing or unpack a thing with you. I want to do more of both."

Something Happening / Always Happening will be released September 9 via Fort Lowell Records. The record release show is set for Saturday, September 10, at The Dirty Drummer, 2303 North 44th Street; tickets are free and doors open at 8 p.m.

Monday, August 22, 2022

The Modern Folk on JPW 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

"Jason Woodbury (JPW) is best known as a music journalist - but like Peter Laughner, his deep engagement w/ music as a writer has led to some equally deep output as a musician - his debut LP is perfect, eccentric desert pop, ranging from minimal grooves to lush psych-tinged jams." ~ The Modern Folk

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER JPW VINY NOW


Pictured: J Moss of The Modern Folk

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

JPW Album Release Party

The official album release party for JPW Something Happening / Always Happening will be held on Saturday, September 10th at The Dirty Drummer in Phoenix, Arizona with Caleb Dailey, Pale Morning, and DJ Set by Johnny D.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

The Must-Hear Songs by Phoenix Musicians of July 2022

[Repost from Phoenix New Times; by Chris Coplan, July 26, 2022]

JPW, "Halfway to Eloy"

Jason P. Woodbury is a Renaissance man here in the Valley. He’s been a writer and editor (including for New Times); hosted several podcasts (including for Wastoids); and he even performs in two bands, Kitimoto and the solo project JPW. It’s the latter outfit that’s been Woodbury’s focus as of late, as he’ll release Something Happening / Always Happening on September 9. So, what sort of musical wonders has Woodbury crafted over his multifaceted career? Why new singles like "Halfway to Eloy," a sleek, earnest rock ballad celebrating the wonders of our wonderful desert home.

Monday, July 25, 2022

JPW Takes a Cosmic Rock Roadtrip With "Halfway to Eloy" (Premiere)

[Repost from PopMatters; by Jonathan Frahm, July 18, 2022]


Jason P. Woodbury (JPW) finds the avenue between cosmic country and psychedelic rock on his offbeat new single, “Halfway to Eloy”.

Jason P. Woodbury is the voice behind JPW, the self-titled acronym representing the Arizona songwriter’s latest output. The nine-track LP slides in just shy of a 40-minute runtime, featuring a penchant for the psychedelic and mystical that scratches a different itch than the crunching guitars of his rock outfit, KITIMOTO. Both are evocative of the desert Woodbury has come up in, but where KITIMOTO rides a blazing, guitar-driven wave, JPW wanders on a more incongruous, mystified string. “Halfway to Eloy” saunters between influences like Bruce Springsteen and Todd Rundgren, the artist notes.

“In a lot of weird ways, I don’t quite know what ‘Halfway to Eloy’ is about myself,” says Woodbury. “I want to evoke this out-there ‘State Trooper’ vibe where you don’t get a full view of what you’re digesting, but you get it from a certain point of view. There’s mystery. I like the idea of this song being viewed from this weird lens.”

The single came to be with the help of an ace crew, including producer Michael Krassner (Boxhead Ensemble) and longtime collaborators Zach Toporek and Zane Gillum. Where “Halfway to Eloy” veers into a breakbeat-esque, funky aesthetic in its second half, JPW credits Gillum for helping to shift its pace. “Zach brings so much new to me. It was a pivotal point in the making of the record, realizing that this thing could be mystical and a little funny.”

Regarding his collaboration with Krassner, Woodbury states, “Krass is one of those dudes who quietly and unassumingly elevates everything he partakes in. He took these recordings that were scattered and done in all of these various places and wove it into this gorgeous, cohesive thing. Having someone of his caliber on this record is still mind-blowing to me. It freaks me out.”

JPW’s debut album, Something Happening / Always Happening, is set to release on Fort Lowell on 9 September. “Halfway to Eloy” drops on 22 July, finding itself somewhere between cosmic country and psychedelic soft rock. The project nods to the natural Arizona vistas that Woodbury grew up with.

Recognizing this connection, JPW says, “It’s hard for me to put a finger on it, but I’m from Arizona and grew up in Arizona. This is where I’m from. A lot of these songs were inspired by time outside and time spent in the Arizona wilderness. I grew up in Coolidge. There’s an evocation of the desert that I’m drawn to; long before my family was in Coolidge, Lee Hazelwood, Duane Eddy, and Waylon Jennings were on a radio station over there. “

“I love where I live. I didn’t mean for the JPW music for it to be evocative of that, but it sort of tumbled out of my brain and became that way. It also tumbled out of the brains of my collaborators, like Michael Krassner, who told me that it reminded him of the Verde River in the 1970s.”

Friday, July 22, 2022

OUT NOW: JPW "Halfway to Eloy" [Digital Single]

JPW is the moniker for Jason P. Woodbury, host of Aquarium Drunkard's weekly Transmissions podcast and Range and Basin on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard with dublab.  Today, JPW's second single -- "Halfway to Eloy" -- from their debut album -- Something Happening / Always Happening -- is out as a digital single on all platforms.  For fans of Bill Callahan, Jim James, Cass McCombs, Jeff Tweedy, and Kurt Vile.

"A cosmic rock roadtrip." ~ PopMatters



Wednesday, June 29, 2022

We Heard Wonders - music review podcast from Scotland

[Repost from We Heard Wonders; by Iain McKinstry & Andrew Hall, June 29, 2022]

Episode Forty Two - New Music! Julia Jacklin! Minami Deutsch! Gorillaz feat. Thundercat! JPW! Alison Cotton! & the VINYL WORD!

On this week’s We Heard Wonders, GORILLAZ join forces with THE THUNDERCATS in the greatest cartoon crossover team-up OF ALL TIME!!! Er, sorry, our mistake - it’s actually Gorillaz featuring elastic-bass-supremo Thundercat...still pretty cool though, right! Elsewhere, singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin returns with something strident; Iain Googles Japanese kosmische-rockers Minami Deutsch with baffling results; Aquarium Drunkard contributor Jason P. Woodbury turns creator of wonderful widescreen music on his project JPW; and experimental folk artist Alison Cotton produces something appealingly eerie. Plus, obligatory Glastonbury chat and the Vinyl Word. 

"The track takes its time and encourages you to lean back & take your time with it, relax into its vibe."

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

only the good shit

[Repost from Aquarium Drunkard; Instagram Account, June 13, 2022]

Archie Bell and Drells once quipped, "we don't only sing, but we dance just as good as we walk.” A similar sentiment could be said of AD editor, and Transmissions host, Jason P. Woodbury per his forthcoming debut LP, "Something Happening/Always Happening", out this fall via Fort Lowell Records.

It’s a collection of songs you might hear on the radio after a cosmic camping trip, familiar but far off. Songs for stepping out of the spaceship to crack a cold one on a blurry summer day, taking a moment to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass.

Thursday, May 19, 2022

Bop Shop: Songs from Kendrick Lamar, B.I., My Chemical Romance, and more

[Repost from MTV News; by Patrick Hosken, May 13, 2022]
Jason P. Woodbury recently called his album Something Happening/Always Happening a collection of "meditation pop/spiritual twang." For someone who just became a father, these words felt like they vibrated at the right frequency for me. So I dug in to find that "Wealth of the Canyon," a standout track, plays like a desert broadcast from the past where remnants of space-age pop mingle with an undeniably easy (and breezy) feeling you might've found out Topanga in 1972. Its message is clear and whispers to you in the voice of everyone and no one: "Hey, everything's gonna be alright." What a relief. —Patrick Hosken

Monday, May 9, 2022

Listen: JPW – “Wealth of the Canyon”

[Repost from Petal Motel; by Lara Bennett, May 3, 2022]

Petal Motel is beyond thrilled to announce and premiere the first single “Wealth of the Canyon” from JPW’s debut solo album, Something Happening / Always Happening, out September 9th on Fort Lowell Records.

JPW is of course the moniker for none other than Jason P. Woodbury. It’s no surprise that the tastemaker’s first full-length is a gorgeous blend of favorite sounds, yet something completely unique and brand new. Inspired by the rural expanses of Jason’s native Pinal County, Arizona, soul searching, and the influence of his expansive record collection, Something Happening / Always Happening showcases how the Transmissions podcast host’s voice seamlessly transforms into something extremely pleasant to listen to. “Wealth of the Canyon” highlights Jason’s Mayfield-like falsetto, the organ and percussion working together to weave a hypnotic, laid-back groove, and an echoing guitar line accented with subtle sounds of the desert, like an eagle screech. This song could not get much cooler, but I promise that there is so much to look forward to with the full album release.

Pre-sale will be live on June 9th so follow Fort Lowell on Bandcamp

The album was produced by Michale Krassner of Boxhead Ensemble

Some words from Ben Chasny:

It’s got a killer vibe like that Donnie and Joe record but with a cool Jesus and Mary Chain melodic sense, but waaay more laid back, desert-style so it sounds totally unique.

And a few more from Ben Seretan:

Every jangly guitar chord ever broadcast over AM radio is still out there vibrating, one wave among many in the ever-expanding cosmos. They hear Roy Orbison’s three-octaves loud and clear at the other end of the galaxy, the Vox Continental minor/major organ stabs from ’96 Tears’ teeter around the edge of some celestial Kirby Crackle, The Ronettes’ broken hearted melodies bounce off purple deserts on the dark side of Venus. The songs are out there, you simply have to tune your instruments to them.

Jason Woodbury is a galactic citizen, dialing in from the Sonoran Desert on planet Earth. Something Happening / Always Happening is the debut from his project JPW. It’s a collection of songs you might hear on the radio after a cosmic camping trip, familiar but far off. Songs for stepping out of the spaceship to crack a goddamn cold one on a blurry summer day, taking a moment to enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass.

Woodbury’s voice may be familiar to those interested in the more theologic strains of American songwriting. For the last decade, he’s penned liner notes and criticism, and contributed to Aquarium Drunkard, hosting the weekly Transmissions podcast and Range and Basin on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab, a radiophonic showcase for his love of comic books, science fiction, and mysticism. All of that is legible on the surface of Something Happening / Always Happening, but here listeners are gifted with another side of Jason’s voice: his singing, which is just as unhurried and serene as you’d expect.

Mostly self-recorded by Woodbury with longtime musical collaborators Zach Toperek and Zane Gillum, the album was produced by Michael Krassner of Boxhead Ensemble, a long running instrumental combo which has aligned members of Dirty ThreeCalifoneWill OldhamGastr del SolJim O’Rourke, and many more. A natural outgrowth of their work together on Range and Basin and shared love of Arizona’s diverse topography, Krassner wandered deep into the sounds, adding guitar and piano to the ghostly tones, percolating Rhythm Ace drum machine beats, and sand dune surf guitars. The result is mood music in a sense—listen casually and you might even miss the unexplained aerial phenomena before your eyes. But by the time the final / title track, built on a sample of Link Cromwell‘s (Lenny Kaye) “Crazy Like a Fox,” reaches its atomizing 9th minute, Woodbury’s thesis is clear: not only are we all made of star stuff, that stuff is alive and vibrating. Adjust your frequencies and hear it sing.” 

Cover Photo by Dorothea Lange, November 1940 Taken in a cotton field near Coolidge, Arizona; via US National Archives and Records Administration

Friday, May 6, 2022

OUT NOW: JPW "Wealth of the Canyon" [Digital Single]

JPW is the moniker for Jason P. Woodbury, host of Aquarium Drunkard's weekly Transmissions podcast and Range and Basin on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard with dublab.  Today, JPW's first single -- "Wealth of the Canyon" -- from their debut album -- Something Happening / Always Happening -- is out as a digital single on all platforms.

"“Wealth of the Canyon” highlights Jason’s Mayfield-like falsetto, the organ and percussion working together to weave a hypnotic, laid-back groove. This song could not get much cooler." ~ Petal Motel


Monday, April 25, 2022

Luz de Vida Record Release Party // Fort Lowell Records Showcase

Tucson, Arizona -- Saturday, May 21st -- iHeartRadio and Zia Records presents Luz de Vida: A Benefit Concert for Survivors of Trauma at Hotel Congress; the second official Record Release Party for Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors, featuring a Fort Lowell Records Showcase.

Luz de Vida – Spanish for Light of Life – is an expression of community, love, healing, grace and hope, a positive response from Tucson musicians and national artists. The original Luz de Vida project began in the days after the Jan. 8, 2011 shooting that took the lives of six people and injured 19 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and shook the Tucson community and nation.

For the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, members of the original Luz de Vida production team partnered with Homicide Survivors, Inc. to release a second compilation record, featuring Tucson and national artists and released on Fort Lowell Records.

Join us Saturday, May 21, 2022 to celebrate the official album release of Luz de Vida II along with Homicide Survivors, Inc. and Fort Lowell Records. The concert will include featured artists from Luz de Vida IITracy Shedd, Soda Sun, and Gabriel Naïm Amor – along with other Fort Lowell Records recording artists such as La Cerca, Young Mothers, and newcomers from Phoenix AZ: KITIMOTO and JPW.

Tracy Shedd; Photo by Scott Madgett
Soda Sun
Gabriel Naïm Amor
La Cerca; Photo by Andrew Berg
KITIMOTO
Young Mothers
JPW; Photo by Trevor Novatin