Jake Flowers
I’ve written about Jake Flowers a couple of times, and I thought now was a good time for a bit of a reminder, given he has a single out soon and has been rather splendidly included on the bill for this year’s Fence Collective Homegame festival.
Small World is available now on iTunes and in a couple of weeks on vinyl and I’d recommend it. I got into Jake’s stuff from a couple of dubious MySpace rips and his really nice EP with the Carol-Anne Showband and, and there’s a warmth to his pastoral English folkiness which I really like. He accelerates up to a hillbilly stomp on occasion, but for the most part it’s pretty mellow, lovely music.
The big question with this kind of thing recently seems to have been whether or not it can retain its quirk and charm as it gets more popular. We’ve seen the likes of Noah & the Whale and Emmy the Great really fail to translate low-fi wonky underground appeal into a mass market product of any real quality. Don’t get me wrong, I know they’re popular, but I still honestly can’t say that I think either is any good. So I’m really pleased that Jake has found a label to release on, because I’ve been a fan of his music for a while, and I hope he steups up to greet a larger audience as well as I think he probably can. Anyone who can get this kind of music played on Kerrang Radio, for fuck’s sake, must have something about them.
What else is there to say, I suppose. His new stuff is sounding good, this all strikes me as really promising stuff and I am looking forward to seeing him live and finding out more.
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Well that’s a relief.
When you mentioned his “pastoral English folkiness”, I was worried this was going to turn out to be another one singing in that daft Blackadder-theme-song accent, sounding like he should be prancing about a forest in tights with a lute – like that other crowd you liked a few weeks back.
Luckily, though, this is rather pleasing, if a little on the mild side for me.
I don’t mind a spoonful of your korma if we’re at the curry house and sharing, but I’ll order a nice Dansak or Dopiaza for myself, thank you very much
So if this guy can chop up an extra few chillies to add to the mix when he steps up that “hillbilly stomp” you also mentioned, then we could be onto something tasty.
hhhmmmmmmmmm
Is that you agreeing, Euan, or thinking about a nice curry?!
really quite lovely
tho i don;t know how often i would listen to such nice music
it’s me thinking i’m not that keen.
not great. quite similar to xavier rudd i thought but not as good.
This is pretty good, although I think you posted a tune called Stalker once before that I like a bit better than Anyhow. I feel sort of “meh” about Rosalie until the 2:10 mark, but then it switches gears and becomes really joyful. I’m thinking this would sound really good live.
Yeah, I don’t have too much to go on – not much more than you guys I suppose. As people above have suggested, it could easily just drift into slightly spiritless pleasantry, but I do think there’s more than enough in what I’ve heard so far to suggest that he definitely has the potential to be really good as well. We can but dig a little and try and find out I guess.
this is bizarre. My flatmate for two years at Uni was a guy called Nathan, who always used to talk about his brother being a singer-songwriter. I never took any interest, dunno why, never bothered to listen to him. AND THIS IS HIM. My flatmate was Nathan Flowers. I can’t believe you know who this guy is Matthew!
Bloody hell. It’s a small world!
[...] Jake Flowers sounds disturbing awesome. There’s really nothing wrong with him, but I think he might be awesome. Matthew likes him and I greatly enjoy Matty Matt’s Matthew’s taste [Song, By Toad] [...]
Jake’s bro sure is Nathan! http://www.myspace.com/jakeflowers to listen to some new recordings
Just listened to Michael’s band, hmmm where are the songs!!!