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Jack o’the Clock are an unbelievably great band, Damon Waitkus is an extraordinarily courageous composer, and this is some of the freshest and most surprising music I’ve heard since, well, since their first record. Hallelujah!
-Fred Frith
HOW ARE WE DOING AND WHO WILL TELL US?
Album Reviews:
“The East Bay area (Oakland and surrounding) has produced some interesting musical hybrids of late. A lot of that no doubt has to do with Fred Frith’s involvement with the esteemed Mills College, where many of the musicians involved in this musical renaissance have ties to. Enter Jack O’ The Clock, a five-piece led by Damon Waitkus, who plays guitar, banjo, piano, flute, ukelin, hammer dulcimer, and sings. This is their second release. Other members provide additional voices (male & female), violins, bass, banjo, trombone, psaltery, flute, recorder, accordion, bassoon, drums, and percussion, as well as field recordings to the mix. Their sound might nominally be called experimental folk, as acoustic instruments tend to dominate, and the compositions odd as they sometimes may seem, are song oriented yet they are pushing those limits out in every direction, be it 20th century classical, Americana, chamber, progressive rock, medieval music, just about anything one might imagine. For example in one section of the ten-minute “First of The Year,” Beach Boys-like harmonies mix with chugging metal rhythms flanked by beautiful classical-inspired melodies courtesy of violin and bassoon. Field recordings and sound effects mix freely with their inventive arrangements, where almost anything becomes possible, yet always remains listenable. Normally around this part of a review I would offer some reference points or comparisons, but in this case that would be futile. There’s an amazing amount of originality in these twelve tracks, and those looking for some intrepid, barrier-breaking music would do well to start here.” -Peter Thelen, Exposé Magazine
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“So you think you have heard it all? Maybe you have or maybe you just haven’t being looking for new challenges for your ears. Anyway, here’s one for you and said challenge comes from a band by the name of Jack O’ The Clock and their album goes by the name of ‘How Are We Doing and Who Will Tell Us?’
“Make no mistake, this won’t be album for everybody as, whilst there is melody aplenty, Jack O’ The Clock take us on a journey away from the three minute pop song to a nirvana of freeform yet relaxed musical complexity. On that journey, there is much to admire from the window with Curved Air, Lalo Schifrin, Philip Glass and even European ambient electronica getting a wave as the band passes them by. Pulling this kind of trick off takes no small amount of skill and that, perhaps, is the key to this album as with such skilled musicians more chances can get taken. Likewise, without the dubious objective of impressing through sheer loudness, the band can use dynamics and organic time signatures to make their point.
“The actual point here, however, is that we have a band that can go from synergistic synchronicity (‘Last of the Blue Bloods’) to inspired Americana (‘Shrinking’) and even to freeform post rock (‘First Of The Year’) without breaking sweat. This kind of commitment and imagination is certainly commendable and while they do stretch themselves a bit too far at times, Jack O’ The Clock easily make their mark on your musical consciousness. All in all, this album is well worthy of your attention and I, for one, look forward to their further experimentations.” – Bluesbunny, Glasgow, Scotland.
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“When a Bay Area band gets an endorsement from Fred Frith, it means something. There’s a high chance Frith saw them live and/or taught them as students at Mills. He’s got an informed opinion. Like Frith’s band, Cosa Brava, Jack o’ the Clock could be called artsy pop or song-oriented prog: airy melody lines, complex rhythms. It’s the kind of album that would have a violin on it (Emily Packard) and a bassoon (played by Kate McLoughlin, and the bassoon even gets funky on “Last of the Blue Bloods,” one of my favorite tracks here). The melodies are catchy, the composing tickles my prog ear, and the musicianship is solid.
“On the prog scale, this is folky, often easygoing stuff. I don’t mean Canterbury/Ren-Faire stuff (although you get a dose of that with the gentle acoustic-guitar picking of ‘Shrinking.’) I mean that there’s a banjo here and there, and lots of acoustic guitar. The vocals and the violin and bassoon trace melodies of the open air, sunlight through a thick forest of tree branches.
“There’s even an outright jam-band feel on ‘Back to the Swamp,’ which travels at an easygoing rock pace to produce the catchiest song on the album.
“For prog sticklers, there’s the 10-minute suite, ‘First of the Year,’ which has some nicely twisty acoustic guitar lines followed later by some intense electric guitar and bassoon. The song pulls a lot from Jack o’ the Clock’s pack: the sweetness of violin, the percolating sounds of the bassoon and electric bass, a wide variety of musical themes, and some outright nice melodies (instrumental and sung).
“Principal songwriter Damon Waitkus gets some nice lyrical moments in. On ‘Schlitzie, Last of the Aztecs, Lodges an Objection in the Order of Things,’ there’s set of lines, sung in lovely harmony with McLoughlin, that I really love: ‘1 2 3 4 5 6 7,’ you said / You even gave us 9 and 10 / But leave your filthy eights at the door.’ That track also has some nicely bubbling electric bass from Jason Hoopes. Another one that sticks with me: ‘The flag says the purpose of this life is to borrow your ass out of debtors’ prison,’ Waitkus sings on ‘Looking In,’ a pretty and somber piano/voice interlude.
“You’ll probably know right away whether How Are We Doing is for you. I was hooked from the opening, where percussionist Jordan Glenn starts knocking out a marimba rhythms, small and unassuming and full of promise, with tension built by some electronic tweakings by The Norman Conquest.
This is terrific music — likeable, substantial, and deserving of an audience.”
–Craig M, Memory Select, Avant-jazz radio
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“Folk in Opposition? California act Jack O' The Clock's second release is tough to pin down. That's what makes prog great, right?
The first two pieces are cut from the same cloth as Henry Cow and Art Bears with nods to Thinking Plague, Gentle Giant, and all things Dave Kerman. Angular marimba, bassoon, violin, acoustic guitar and bass, flute, hammer dulcimer, saw, banjo, accordion, clarinet, psaltery, piano, and harp all mix in imaginative combinations. Drums plus assorted pots and pans bang and clang out the beat.
After cut three's acoustic guitar-led respite, it's back to the offbeat path with Jack O's avant-garde folk, never knowing what's around the corner. Moody piano, lounge vibes, old-world accordion, American folk, countrified confusion and dancehall fare all mesh together.
Think a lysergic Incredible String Band crossed with a mescaline-addled Fairport Convention. Maddening patterns rub elbows with delicate melodies and bouncy upbeat tunes turn dark as the crew runs the gamut from pretty to pretty weird. If this sounds like a fun wild ride, then I've made my point.” – Warren Barker, Progression Magazine
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“Jack O' The Clock's How Are We Doing And Who Will Tell Us? is adventurous, but more mainstream than avant, more introspect than angsty, and more collage-minded than cacophonic when it comes to its instrumental mash-up. Parts are surprisingly melodic and at times even quasi-ambient down the road of "majestic junk folk" — the band's self-stuck label — the album's twelve songs travel. The quintet, a group of skilled players led by multi-instrumentalist Damon Waitkus, takes itself just seriously enough to produce cohesive bits of music that shun conventional three-act, verse-chorus structures that could also be billed "hillbilly funk" or "backwater fusion." And isn't this what fits the "progressive" bill? Besides guitars and drums, instruments like hammered dulcimer, psaltery, bassoon, melodica and baritone violin help the Jack develop a uniquely nuanced sound. The spacier, airy "Blue Tail Fly" and "Search" are balanced by the urgency of "Schlitzie, Last of the Aztecs, Lodges An Objection in the Order of Things" and "Manifesto" — the latter isn't too far-removed from moments on some pastoral prog albums issued on Musea. "Last of the Blue Bloods" is a pleasant romp infused with enough compositional variety to make for a radio edit for FM exposure. In all, the perfect album for the discerning listener looking for something different yet not alienating.” -Elias Granillo Jr., Prognaut
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“Peculiar Americana. The designed-for-sustained-thought stories and sorta-folk-rock, sorta-venturing-onto-new-paths music remind me of Joanna Newsom, if she were male, had a gently limber and precise voice, was less interested in death and more interested in alive weird outsiders, and played no harp but instead occasional banjo. Or else the album reminds me of a backwoods, not-using-drugs-because-the-librarian-would-stop-them Incredible String Band. Or how R.E.M. could have followed Fables of the Reconstruction had Michael Stipe's stories got longer and more detailed while the band stretched out to comment on the plots. Or Fairport Convention if none of them were Sandy Denny but all of them were as promisingly odd as young Richard Thompson.” -Brian Block, Greensboro, NC, Epinions.com
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“An original work full of inventive compositions”–Mark Johnson, Sea Of Tranquillity
SFChronicle 1/20/11 Bandwidth Article and Interview HERE
RARE WEATHER Album Reviews
“Jack O’ the Clock calls themselves ‘majestic junk folk,’ but you can decide for yourself what to call the quirky mix of guitars, banjos, hammer dulcimers, bass and violin, to name a few. They’ve developed music for UC Berkeley grad student documentaries, most recently The Naked Guy and Carny Girl, where they put their improvisational creativity to the test. The band rounds out their sound with Jordan Glenn, percussionist and accordion player from Eugene.
“Jack O’ the Clock combines traditional folk with modern, avant-garde experimentation: according to vocalist Damon Waitkus, songs are meant to be “digested” by the listener. The melodies and hooks are there, but with a slower, more gradual sense of pacing that might require just a little bit of patience to get the full effect. Many of the songs in their debut album, Rare Weather, are over six minutes long; the longest track, ‘Sea Change/Rare Weather/I Watch the Planes,’ spans 11 minutes. But the more you listen, the more the details of lyrics, melody and orchestration unfold.
“On the band’s website, a featured track, “New American Gothic,” haunts you with melancholy, warbling vocals layered with guitars, harp and violin. A shorter ditty, “Suckers N’ Marks,” was designed for Carny Girl to sound like “black and white stills of carnies having a night on the town half a century ago.” Somehow, they’ve accomplished this feat as well as anyone could; whether you’re familiar with folk music or not, the music seems to take you back to an earlier time, before auto-tune, synth and teen pop sensations.”
–Darcy Wallace, Eugene Weekly
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“This is a goldmine. I don’t like to use the word indie, but they are truly unsigned and unheard of.
I don’t know how to describe Rare Weather. It’s a pretty fair degree of folk, but then there’s this whole “experimental” layer of found instruments, basically junkyard scouring. At times it sounds like symphonic and grand enough to be mistaken for Anathallo or Sufjan Stevens, but with more kitchen utensils being used for percussion. The standard song is maybe an acoustic guitar, banjo, dulcimer, music box, accordion, bassoon, violin, drum kit, and rusty barrel for good measure...The lyrics are really imaginative and tell fun stories not too far off from Picaresque and the instrumental “Suckers ‘n Marks” sounds like an amalgamation of the Secret of Monkey Island soundtrack and a Tom Waits tune...this album is accessible and, moreover, fun.”
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“Jack O' The Clock brings an offbeat sort of energy to the imagined intersection of American folk songwriting and experimental music. I say "imagined" because it's not clear to me that there is any sort of commonality between the two. This group gives the effort a good shot however.
“The group's sound is a mix of concert-hall sensibility, meandering musicality and junk shop scouring. The arrangements are a mish mash of instruments that don't necessarily have a lot to do with each other. We're talkin' psaltery, banjo, and bassoon, with a background of electric bass and assorted cooking utensils as percussion. It's possible there's a kitchen sink in there as well.
“As Laurie Anderson said in one of her performances, ‘Get ready for difficult listening.’ The music is certainly not danceable and I can't say the melodies are easy to follow. Listening to Art music is usually an exercise in humbling oneself before the great composer. On this recording, the sound is accessible and not at all full of itself. There are enough traces of standard compositional techniques to keep the listener grounded in the here and now.
“Given the mechanical repetition of a lot of the sounds, it would be easy to put these guys into the same category as the electronica types. What's different is that the sounds are all produced by found items and there is something human and grounded about the result. JOTC also have a plan (except when they're improvising) of where they want the music to go.
“The lyrics and singing raise this recording to another level. The voices are frequently used to create dissonance with the instrumental line and this is unusual in a pop recording...”
–Jeremiah Sutherland, Bullfrog Music
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“Rare Weather is the new self-released album from Oakland-based indie folksters Jack O' The Clock.
“This 5-piece band uses ambient noises and earthy sounds to create their folk music. The result is a desolate, wintry version of twangy folk.
“Spiking the songs with an eclectic array of traditional Americana instruments gives the tracks depth. Besides the normal guitar/bass/drums arrangement, Jack O' The Clock gives us dulcimer, banjo, flute, violins, saw, bassoon, recorder, trombone, accordion, and half a dozen other instruments, each played with aplomb...If you are a fan of musicianship, you will get quite a lot out of Jack O' The Clock. If you are a fan of pop music, you may want to take a pass on this one. –Snob's Reviews, Toronto
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Rare Weather is a rare musical gift.
Musician Damon Waitkus...describe[s] his music "as song-driven experimental folk using a lot of strange and junk instruments alongside the usual suspects." That seems about right. What really struck me is the use of many different instruments. ‘Suckers 'n Marks’ and ‘Fire at Noon’ are great examples of this, and ‘Sea Change / Rare Weater / I Watch the Planes’ is the album's musical epic. Waitkus has created songs which definitely do not blur together. Every track can stand on its two feet. This is not by any means conventional music so one shouldn't be expecting that. If you're looking for something different instead of Top 40 pop playing on the radio, check out Rare Weather. It's worth a listen, and I look forward to what Jack O' The Clock comes out with next.” – Keith Gaboury, SF Examiner