"Music resembles poetry; in each are numerous
graces which no methods teach, and which a master hand alone can reach."
So said Alexander Pope and no truer words could be spoken.
Music is indeed a great deal like poetry. Cast
with the utmost consideration for potency in language, just as the song is as carefully
arranged in expressing what burrows deepest within man's complex and convoluted
soul. It is a form of expression that has been celebrated, praised, and
exercised by the greatest minds in history―an art form that can bear no price.
I happened upon an artist approximately eight
years ago―an experience that changed me forever as a fan of music. I wasn't
looking for anything different. In fact, I was comfortably nesting in a rut of
Classic Rock―I couldn't believe that good music existed outside the glory days
of the sixties and seventies. I was raised on Classic Rock―it was Rock and
Roll's golden age with its perfectly memorable hooks, attitude and age defining
oldies that will forever sit in the back of our collective minds as "that
one song"
I can't say I liked Tyler Jakes’ music right away,
because he didn't simply emulate the Classic Rock genetics I sought. Jakes
absorbed music, vast in difference of time, place, and culture. With a flair
for dramatic production he presented the world as he saw it―or perhaps as he
wished to see it―with a thick Rock & Roll glaze. Within my first few
listens I felt a gnawing conflict in my gut. His music presented sounds that
were fresh, raw, new and above all, dangerous to me. It was almost like being a teenager in the late sixties; Tyler
Jakes was the secret Black Sabbath record I hid from my Catholic parents. My
guilty pleasure.
Tyler Jakes hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota
where he had flirted with numerous Rock bands, all of which couldn't be
bothered to take the music seriously."I was
frustrated," he says, "I really wanted to get somewhere, but none of
the bands I was in were taking it very seriously. I felt like I was wasting my
time, so I quit." Frustrated, Tyler found a gnawing urgency to
escape and take a plunge. "I packed my bags
and moved to Europe. I didn't want to be in a band anymore, I just wanted to
get away from it all and clear my head."
So he ventured off for what was supposed to be
a six week trip. Unbeknownst to Jakes, the surreal charm of life in Europe
would ensnare him completely. "I fell in love with it," he recalls, "the people, the
pace of life, the music, the food...everything. I mainly lived and traveled between the Czech
Republic and Bulgaria. Eastern Europe has become a second home." He would remain there on and off for three
years, ever observant and embracive. "The musicians that influenced me when I was
there were the gypsies and the 'non-professional' musicians of the villages. Every
place I went, someone had a guitar or an accordion or something and we would
all start jamming, singing, and dancing."
During
this time, he wasted no time writing poetry, lyrics, notes, scraps―what have
you. "I was writing purely
for the sake of writing. I had no intentions of putting an album out, but I did want to learn to record. So I
picked up a cheap used 4-track and a mic at a swap
meet and I spent a year experimenting with sound. I had no idea what I was doing, but I think it turned
out better that way." After
returning to the U.S., he had a working demo, "Lie Awake" that came
together with his experimentation. A friend from Minneapolis sent it into a
local station and it received a great deal of attention. Within a couple weeks,
Jakes received a request from the local record store to stock an album.
When
I got my hands on what would become that first official album, Lo-Fi Matter, I was presented with a
collection of eleven songs that spanned beloved homegrown American genres like
dark, swampy Blues, wayfaring outlaw Folk-Country, Cow Punk, all woven together
with European allusions that interjected modern and timelessly old fashioned
roots. The kickoff is "Lie Awake," which will take you on a bruising
Rock & Roll chainsaw ride, giving a taste of Jakes’ clever tongue and the
devilish smirking lyrics that are ever-steeped in hysteria and neurosis. His
voice alone has been likened to Tom Waits, Marilyn Manson, Peter Murphy, and
even Axl Rose; able to cross from a smoky, gravel-pit vibrato to a banshee's
scream in a matter of seconds.
The
tracks continue, each standing alone individually as a completely unique work.
The album is so diverse that there is no solitary demographic to which it can
be presented. It could very well find a home on ten unique radio stations. The
mantelpiece of the entire album is no doubt "If I Ever Make It Home"
with its rambling bindlestiff spirit. There are works that invoke memories of
eighties-Jesus & Mary Chain noise rock, the fond days of Grunge in its
prime, experimental spoken word No-Wave Punk numbers that, no doubt, take cues
from the agitated beat generation of the seventies and eighties, rambling Gypsy
and Spanish Folk-Punk, and heavy sliding Delta Blues in the masterful
"Mentholated Blues" with its schizo-paranoid lyrics:
I cleanse my memories with
a moist towelette,
Then I smoke a GPC
mentholated cigarette.
I stole some ideas from a
third world war,
But now the police
officer’s at my door.
The
wordplay continues with absolutely striking classic Blues constitution, but
slowed down to an absolutely sinister degree. The
crowning achievement of this entire album has to be its grand finale, "Bring
Me Down" with its outlaw Blues decor, the unforgettable guitar line, and
Jakes’ scathing lyrics:
Well I'm a pendulum swinger on the midnight train.
In the codeine garden I'm a child of the rain.
I'm the voice of another; you don't have to pretend,
'Cause I ain't your brother, and I ain't your friend.
I leave it all up to the judge and jury,
'Cause some get lost and some get found.
I'm going up top without a worry.
There ain't nobody gonna bring me down.
Well everybody get together, you got to love someone,
Like birds of a feather flying into the sun.
That gun wasn't loaded, I tried to explain.
It must have just exploded down memory lane.
The instrumental second half erupts into your
ears, summarizing the entire album and every single one of its influences in a
hellfire of guitar fury and finally, tender Latin strings mark the glorious
exit. He proudly proclaimed later that "this song was recorded with a
Radio Shack microphone and an analog Tascam 4-track. After I was done recording
it, I ate some chicken and mashed potatoes." It's amazing what can be done
with so little. This was the very first track I heard and it set the stage for
everything to come.
His goal was a simple one; stay true to
himself, his trials and life experiences, no matter what. The music would
thence come together effortlessly. When Lo-Fi Matter was officially released in late 2005, Pulse
of the Twin Cities drew comparisons as broad as Bob Dylan and Black Rebel
Motorcycle Club, remarking that Tyler "is intent on laying down some truly
dirty Rock and Roll here...Lo-Fi Matter is a great starting point." Rift Magazine reported that Jakes
"displays great range and talent as a song writer. . . . Somebody get this
man some more canvas!" Later, "Lie Awake", was featured in the
short film "Under The N", with Tyler also performing the film's
score.
Still bitten by the travel bug, Jakes packed
his bags and headed west for Northern California's beautiful coastline and the
eccentricity of San Francisco. It was here that he forged his Bootleggers, a band that was
completely on board with his creative think tank. Here, he could rely on able
musicians to bring about his vision of music for a crowd and in fact, expand on
his sound. They set out to record a new album with harder Rock & Roll
leanings, creating anthemic staples like "Rise," "Off The
Track," and the epic "I Can't Take Anymore." The album is
littered with as much diverse inspiration as Lo-Fi Matter, offering up tints of
sweet Country-Blue brine with "114th Street Devil Woman" and
"Pretty Up Our Love," while keeping a hefty Punk influence in the abrasive and unforgiving "Ballad in Plain F"
and "Death Valley Surf Safari."
In 2008, Tyler Jakes released the full length LP Rocking Hoarse Calypso to ecstatic live crowds
and delighted critics. Vernon Reid of the Grammy-award winning Living Colour described Jakes
songwriting as being "gritty and witty." With two well received
albums in his repertoire, Tyler Jakes and his Bootleggers commenced upon an
expansive tour of the West Coast during 2008 and 2009.
Soon after his promotional tour, Jakes felt the
urgency to once again purge. He set forth upon his follow up; the prodigious,
ambitiously realized Burning Down The
Underground, which in this listener's opinion, was his crowning achievement
up to that point. Bursting at the seams with genre-defying achievements in
lyric and style, it serves as a glimmering demonstration in the universal
potential of music with a mind for originality and ambition. There isn't a
single track that can be skipped without feeling its absence in the listening
experience. Jakes’ mastery in recording had also come full circle, offering
truly dynamic grit and crunch to his sound.
The diversity between tracks like "Topaz
Satellite," a Molotov cocktail of Rock, and "Color It A Mystery"
with its slow bindle-over-the-shoulder Country shuffle give the album a sense
of epic proportion. "Unleash" gets the party started off right with a
Stonesy blues harp and grungy grind, followed up with the equally as slovenly
"Vibrator." One of the true highlights, "South of Northern
California Girl" is a brilliantly conceived, trumpet-laced acoustic tale
that could have easily found a place in any rambling gypsy's songbook. The song's
facetious conclusion is worth the price of the entire album alone. It's a thing
of beauty and pure joy to witness such clever workmanship in songwriting.
Jakes’ most somber work to date rests in "Nothing To Hide," a Mark
Lanegan-league ballad that is gutturally crushing. The final tracks, "Lazy
Daze" and "Goodnight, Sweet Lady" give the album a sort of
grandiose conclusion in the same vein as The Beatles' White Album; entirely well suited
for a work that covers so much territory. Overall, it's an ode to fine musicianship and
ambition. The album was very well received, picking up airplay on over 150
stations across the U.S. and Canada, charting multiple times in the Top 20.
Tyler is now promoting his latest effort, Evil, set for release on March 5th, 2013. He
has already begun making waves in the top 20 of Alternative and Rock stations,
finding company with the likes of Pulp, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains,
and even Jimi Hendrix's back-from-the-grave chart topper. His first single,
"Out Of It" is a supercharged highway rocker that'll get the blood
boiling with its bone crunching Queens of the Stone Age dulcorate and Foo
Fighters-esque big chorus. Connections with musicians go a long way and Tyler
has plenty of help here; "This Is A Robbery," features the trumpet of
Jason Marks (of Malamanya), blazing like the Pixies scoring a spaghetti western
soundtrack. Minneapolis virtuoso Steve Clarke lends his bari-sax to a Gogol
Bordello meets Morphine surf-punk tune called, "The Wolf." The true
fist-clutchers must rest between "Deathtrain To Amarillo,"
"Blood Money," and "Fifth Fang"; full of sinister vocals and dark grooves; sickly twisted
tales of being strung out on the road, and associating with unsavory
characters. The finale, "Lucid Dream Epilogue" plays like a
bittersweet memory that pays tender homage to some terrible pain. On its
dissolution the guitar trickles out, licking its chops before its final savage
attack, and then bam! Guitar ferocity that leaves no Rock and Roll junky
without their fix.
Twelve songs deep, Evil covers a whole lot of territory;
seamlessly blending garage rock, heavy blues/punk, and a tinge of dark gypsy
folk that has no doubt come from Jakes’ time spent in Eastern Europe. It is as
delectably varied an album as any of his releases and yet, it stands as his
most cohesive work to date. He does not limit himself what so ever. There are
nods to nearly every artist in the back of Jakes’ constantly gyrating mind with
a flowing lucidity that weaves it all together seamlessly. In addition to the
release of Evil, Jakes has worked tirelessly to bring his uncompromised sound to vinyl
for the very first time. There is no finer reason to invest in a turntable and
sound system than right now. The needle will never feel quite as savaged and
brutalized as when it grinds to the fruit of Jakes' ruthless labor.
With so much to offer and engines running on
all cylinders, the question no doubt still remains: "So what? Why isn't
Jakes involved with a record label by now? Isn't that the first step in producing
music? Why should I give him an ounce of my time?" The answer is quite
simply put―maintaining artistic freedom and integrity. Record labels have much
to offer, and yet over time they can only serve as an anchor that will prevent
unchecked expedition. Tyler Jakes' music is a completely self-operated entity,
which is a massive feat unto its own. After Rocking Hoarse Calypso, he gave this entity a
label. Skulltrax Records is now your source for all things Tyler Jakes, as well as the
beginnings for a collective force of likeminded musicians that are brave enough
to take the same plunge. Great things have very small beginnings.
As Jakes has proven, the craft of song is far
more delicate than is given credit. He does not forsake a moment's fleeting
thought if he thinks it might manifest into something rich. This is precisely
why his songs are so impulsive. They are crafted with utmost care and attention
with a burning drive to experience and depict, just as the greatest artists,
poets, and essayists know; days are not to be spent in vain, but experienced,
shared and portrayed with the tools afforded us. Jakes’ experiences portrayed
through his music broadened my horizons to an infinite degree. His music
instilled a hunger for experience, knowledge, and appreciation. There are few
scholars left in the world that are truly worth their salt. Tyler Jakes is
definitely one of them.
Tyler Jakes' music can all be purchased here. Don't forget to pre-order Evil!
Tyler Jakes' music can all be purchased here. Don't forget to pre-order Evil!
