May be playing in a rock band does not give people all the creativity liberty they are looking for ,since numerous musicians end up having their solo project on the side after a while, and very often this solo part turns out quite different from the original band’s stuff. Jason Simon, the frontman of psychedelic-rock Dead Meadow band, is one of these musicians and he was playing an in-store show yesterday night at Vacation Vinyl in Los Angeles.
His songs are quiet and plaintive, slowly expanding their calm and peaceful atmosphere, served by a haunting acoustic guitar. They undoubtedly install some sadness, although the word melancholy fits much more with this kind of soothing-repetitive guitar, at time accompanied by a surfing-crying electric guitar played by Dead Meadow bassist Steve Kille, and a curious little accordion-keyboard in a wooden box.
‘Good hope road’ was warm and comforting like a hot cup of tea during a snowy day, but other songs were more bluesy-countrish (there was even one song ‘What you put in your head’ that kept bringing me some Bright Eyes’ memories) or even noisier and louder, with a guitar echoing like church bells, building an almost antic mood.
I am not sure if his songs are folk, country, blues, alt-country, but does it matter? The music is subtle and spacey, slowly settling a still and rural landscape of dusty roads and houses on a hill.
For the little Hollywood story, Jason is David Simon’s nephew, ‘The Wire’ co-creator, but this is completely irrelevant to his music. He has just released his self-titled album on Tee Pee Records and I have heard it also includes a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘As I Went Out One Morning’.