#The Grays #Jason Faulkner #pop rock #power pop #indie rock #supergroup #post-Jellyfish #1990s
The Grays - a ramshackle collective of four musicians who all hated playing in
bands, the Grays comprised ex-Jellyfish member Jason Falkner, Jon Brion,
Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. After coming together in 1993, the
group released just one album, Ro Sham Bo, before amicably packing it
in. Falkner later began a solo career, while Brion worked with Aimee
Mann, Eels, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. From: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/97842-the-grays
The Grays were a supergroup which consisted of four insanely talented musicians/songwriters that honestly not too many people knew of outside of the L.A. power pop scene. The band was Jason Falkner, Jon Brion, Buddy Judge, and Dan McCarroll. I know, you’re thinking “Who?”. Falkner got his start in the power pop band Jellyfish. Brion, ironically enough, had taken over guitar duties for Falkner when he left Jellyfish and played on the band’s last album Spilt Milk. Of course Brion has gone on to be a rather prolific film composer and producer, but at the time of The Grays he was still a relative unknown. Judge and McCarroll? I have no idea where they came from, but for them to keep up with Falkner and Brion they had to be damn good.
Jason Falkner felt rather underused in Jellyfish with Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning fighting for supremacy in the songwriting department. He left the band on bad terms and vowed never to be in a band again, just work as a solo artist and make music the way he wanted to make it. But as fate would have it his girlfriend happened to be playing a mixtape at a coffeeshop where she worked that he made for her. It was a good chunk of Zombie’s Odessey and Oracle and The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society, which completely blew away customer Jon Brion. This led to Brion and Falkner meeting, jamming, and next thing you know these cats are signed to Epic Records. The band was supposed to be a band of four equals, with each getting the same amount of tracks on the album. No one person as front man. Of course this didn’t work. The producer, the legendary Jack Joseph Puig was partial to Falkner’s songs and voice, so he got one more song on the album than the rest of the guys. Egos clashed, feelings hurt, and the band disbanded.
Falkner and Brion did quite well regardless. Falkner went on to a pretty great solo career with solid albums, as well as a side project called TV Eyes with Brian Reitzell and Roger Manning (old pal from Jellyfish.) He also performed and produced two children’s albums of Beatles covers for Sony Music Group called Bedtime With The Beatles 1 and 2. Brion, well, he’s scored countless amazing films for Paul Thomas Anderson, Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman, Judd Apatow, and Greta Gerwig to name a few. He’s also produced for artists like Fiona Apple, Kanye West, Spoon, and Rufus Wainwright. His solo album, Meaningless, is extraordinary, too. As far as Buddy Judge and Dan McCarroll, I don’t know. I’m sure they’re good. I guess Dan McCarroll was the former president of Warner Brothers Records, so yeah, I think he’s good.
Despite all the in-fighting and ego clashing, The Grays made an outstanding record. Ro Sham Bo, for me, is the quintessential power pop album. But it’s got some teeth. It’s not twee or precious; it’s a record that pulls from both classic reference points and, for the time, more modern indie vibes. There’s a groove and an edge to the tracks, with an undercurrent of psychedelia. Jason Falkner, on reflecting on the album 25 years later, felt it could’ve been far more psychedelic and weird. But producer Jack Puig mixed it as a more straightforward, “classic rock” album.
From: https://complexdistractions.blog/2021/08/13/orchard-ridge-albums-part-one-the-grays-ro-sham-bo/
