Tag Archives: Jacco Gardner

Tony’s View of Bumbershoot, Day Three 

Hoba Hoba Spirit.
Hoba Hoba Spirit.
Smokey Brights.
DakhaBrakha.
DakhaBrakha.
Rose Windows.
Rose Windows.
Shaprece.
Shaprece.
Mexican Institute of Sound.
Bomba Estereo.
Bomba Estereo.
Tangerine.
Tangerine.
Jacco Gardner.
Real Estate.
Reverend Horton Heat.
Reverend Horton Heat.

Shana Cleveland of La Luz, rocking the tremolo. (photo: Tony Kay)

Lena Simon handles the low end for La Luz. (photo: Tony Kay)

Punk funk raga rock, courtesy Hoba Hoba Spirit. (photo: Tony Kay)

Hoba Hoba Spirit. (photo: Tony Kay)

Ryan Devlin testifies on behalf of Smokey Brights. (photo: Tony Kay)

DakhaBrakha, direct from the Ukraine. (photo: Tony Kay)

(photo: Tony Kay)

Rose Windows: The Mamas and The Papas, with guts. (photo: Tony Kay)

Rose Windows. (photo: Tony Kay)

Shaprece: Soul for the space age. (photo: Tony Kay)

(photo: Tony Kay)

Mexican Institute of Sound busts out a heady stew of Mextronica. (photo: Tony Kay)

Bomba Estereo works up a sweat. (photo: Tony Kay)

(photo: Tony Kay)

Marika Justad of Tangerine. (photo: Tony Kay)

Yes, you can smile and rock simultaneously: Miro Justad of Tangerine. (photo: Tony Kay)

Jacco Gardner: Trippy without getting hippy-dippy. (photo: Tony Kay)

Bittersweet sounds from Real Estate. (photo: Tony Kay)

The Reverend and his rockabilly clergy testify: Reverend Horton Heat. (photo: Tony Kay)

(photo: Tony Kay)

So in case you’re still playing along at home, here’s the view of Bumbershoot’s final day (Monday, September 1), from my cramped perspective.

The Great: La Luz, per usual, oozed kitten-in-a-motorcycle-jacket coolness for their early set; Smokey Brights continued to forge a catchy through-line between heartland rock, new wave, shoegazer music, and garage rock—and they did it with buckets of energy and passion live; Shaprece commanded the End Zone Stage while her band and producer IG88 lent able accompaniment. If you’re looking for a beating, soulful heart amidst the incalculable coolness of modern electronic dance music, look no further.

Speaking of the future, four international acts set world music expectations on their ear and provided some of the most exhilarating, forward-thinking sounds of Bumbershoot 2014. Hoba Hoba Spirit, a rock outfit from Casablanca, spiked traditional Moroccan melodies with hard funk rock (think The Clash, rocking the real Casbah); Mexican Institute of Sound (AKA DJ/producer Camilo Lara) cut an almost comic figure in his derby and t-shirt as he and his band roused the Fisher Green crowd to a sweat with an electrified blend of dance pop and Mexican folk tunes (Mextronica?); Colombian groove collective Bomba Estereo pumped up the dance jams even more furiously thanks to Liliana Saumet’s seemingly boundless energy; and Ukranian quartet DakhaBrakha jolted their traditional folk tunes with subtle 21st century touches: acoustic percussion laid on with almost mechanized precision, and a smear of effects distortion on Nina Garanetska’s cello that turned the instrument into one unlikely but intense psychedelic instrument.

The Reverend Horton Heat closed out Bumbershoot 2014 with a galloping hot rod of a set played to an ever-lovin’ T—rockabilly as bad-assed yet tongue-in-cheek performance art—and just watching the Rev coax all manner of twanging, pinging, and locomotive roars out of his Gretsch guitar was a show by itself.

The Really Good: Rose Windows’ marriage of sunny sixties pop and darker lysergic sounds really clicked live, like The Mamas and the Papas growing a set of rainbow-painted brass ones as they stomped on the distortion pedal. Jacco Gardner took things even further down the rabbit hole with impeccably performed chamber-pop songs that tapped into the druggy lushness of vintage ‘60s bands like The Left Banke and Love.

Seattle quartet Tangerine delivered unashamedly bright and pretty pop, winsomely sung by front woman Marika Justad and anchored by Toby Kuhn’s solid guitar, Miro Justad’s feisty drums and Ryan Baker’s impressive bass playing. And Real Estate’s introspective indie-rock felt like a perfect companion piece to the waning of the weekend, with plenty of bittersweet chord changes that felt like memories being made and remembered, all at once.

The Rest: For the second day in a row, I really liked—or loved—everything I heard. Well played, Bumbershoot.

Crap! I missed it: Jonathan Richman; Nada Surf; Campfire OK’s dependably-solid live performance; Tendai Maraire’s non-Shabazz Palaces conscious dance party, Chimurenga Renaissance.

An Interview with Jacco Gardner, Coming Soon to Barboza

Jacco Gardner by Nick Helderman_hi_res2

Jacco Gardner via Skype

Jacco Gardner (Photo: Nick Helderman)

Jacco Gardner (Photo: Nick Helderman)

Some people chase their fantasies; others capture them.

On Cabinet of Curiosities, you enter Jacco Gardner’s labyrinth. His debut album is a world rich with harpsichords, lush studio experimentation, and velvety baroque pop elements. Jacco transforms the soundscapes of a 60s psychedelic (often LSD-induced) era, rather than mirroring it. It’s easy to get happily lost within the corridors on songs like “The One Eye King” and “Where Will You Go.” He has created an enchanted netherworld that is completely under his control.

I spoke with Jacco via Skype while at his live/work Shadow Shoppe Studios in Swaag, Netherlands before he hit the road for his international tour.

People often describe your album as “articulations of lost youth.” Do you feel a sense of lost youth at all? Or was that just something you wanted to explore?

I can see why people say that. For me, making music has always been a way of holding on to that feeling that you have when you’re younger. That feeling that magic is real. The Peter Pan effect. For me, making this kind of music is a way to create that magic.

Did you watch a lot of fairytales growing up?

I’m not a fanatic, but I’ve always been very interested in things that took you to another world. Stories that take you away. I’m a very visual person, so when someone tells me a story, I can see it very clearly. I think that’s why my music is, in some ways, more cinematical.

How did you first come to discover this 60s psychedelic pop sound? What first drew you to it?

I’ve been listening to music that’s otherworldly for a while now, but it wasn’t until recently that I started to listen to 60s stuff. When I first heard Syd Barrett’s music, I was drawn to how he created such a unique world. When I found out that he was a casualty of the 60s and drug culture, I started listening to more 60s music. There are so many bands from the 60s that do that same thing – creating another world. And also, just recreating that moment of childlike imagination with the drugs that took them there.

I’ve read you prefer to be in the studio versus playing live. Is performing getting easier? 

It’s getting easier and easier. It was really difficult in the beginning to get the right sounds live. But now that we’ve played more and more, it’s getting closer to what I’m satisfied with. I’m still not satisfied yet. In the future we’re going to add one more person in the band to play keyboards so I can do more instruments. The live performance is always a simplified version of the album. For me, it’s always been a little too simplified, and I’d like to make it more of a range.

What’s your ideal setting, then?

It would be nice to have all the instruments that I have on the record on stage. I’d actually really like to have string players, or an orchestra. I’m not sure if it would be ideal, however, because you create an atmosphere on stage as a band. And  if the band is too big, it’s harder to create.

How many instruments do you think you used on the record?

If I had to guess, probably twenty. Maybe more, maybe less.

On Wednesday, October 9th, catch Jacco Gardner at Barboza (8 p.m., $10, 21+).

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