David Jacobson and the Space Wizards

Sounds like: The Silverfaces, Small Talk, Swimming Tapes
Why do we like this?
Spend a week with my father, and you'll hear so much Grateful Dead that you'll swear off the very notion of a jam band or guitar solo for at least six months. I just spent several days with him, melting in the South Florida heat.


So upon my return to the Bay Area, I did not expect to dig "8 A.M." by Brooklyn-based musician David Jacobson, who along with the so-called Space Wizards, has jammed his way to something special here. It's great listening for a long drive near the beach, and a reminder that sharp music can cut through even the most cynical vibes.


"8 A.M." appears on David Jacobson's new EP, which is available as a name-your-own-price download on Bandcamp. - Indie Music Shuffle

David Jacobson touts a sound full of presence and vintage rock ‘n’ roll warmness. Like many, his early bands in middle and high school were influenced by Led Zeppelin and The Who fandom, later getting into the jam band scene in college. Living in Scotland for a year from 2006 to 2007, he also got into acoustic music (“We were also peers with Marcus Mumford of Mumford and Sons. He used to come to my dorm room and sing songs with us,” Jacobson says. “He once asked me to record guitar on a demo he was working on. I’m not sure what happened to that recording. It was fun.”)

When he was a senior in college, Jacobson decided to pursue another style in jazz and fusion, jamming often with Ben Silverstein of The Main Squeeze. As for his current project, here’s how it happened:

“I moved to NYC in 2013 to pursue music full-time. After dabbling in a few projects, in October 2015 I decided to record and release an album. I ended up putting together a trio in January, and called it the Space Wizards. We played some gigs, and I set up a recording date in February to record a 5-song EP. The drummer quit about two weeks before we were going to record. So I scrambled to put together a band to record the tunes with. I ended up finding a band on craigslist for hire. They said they would give me a rehearsal for free. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I tried jamming with them. It was hand in glove the first time we played. I hired the band (they are actually called Rexford) and we recorded in one hurried live session in Brooklyn. All of the takes you hear on the EP were done live in the last two hours of the day.”

“8 A.M.” is a standout track from the release, beginning aptly with awakening percussion and guitar trickles. A great vocal melody, vintage guitar twangs, and bits of harmonica and twinkling keys comprise the remaining instrumental arsenal, assuming a loose tone reminiscent of War on Drugs. Everything from Jacobson’s musical journey – the nostalgia of classic-rock from his high school days to the jam-band aesthetic of his later college years – is captured well here, showing an act capable of an eclectic rock output. Look for his new album in full in the coming days. - Obscure Sound

David Jacobson plays simple acoustic guitar lines like a man capable of more than a little Frivolous Complexity, who has nevertheless learned the value of restraint. ‘Please Tell Me’, the opening track of his scintillating debut Come Around Again, lilts into being with a simple strum that shimmers with grace-notes and sophisticated ornamentation before resolving into a refreshing backbeat two-step of kick drum and electric bass. A lesser musician would bring these melodic lines to the fore and build entire songs around them; Jacobson is content to let these elements play about the margins. Jacobson is no lesser musician.
Come Around Again is urgent, driving, and heartfelt –– it plays across the senses like a waft of mountain air. Unusually for a singer-songwriter effort, the short record is extremely effect-laden –– in its first few tracks, fiddle and harmonica and soaring vocals mingle in a reverberating nether that speaks of open highways and chasms of the soul. Jacobson owes a debt to his musical and philosophical forebears; these are songs about longing, going home, finding a place, finding beauty. So when a chord progression sounds lifted fromAfter the Gold Rush, or when a melody conjures Robert Plant’s torment or a lyric, Jerry Garcia’s natural mysticism, it comes off as a loving homage and not a thoughtless grift.
The true highlight is the final track, ‘Everything is So Beautiful’. This smouldering gem builds around a disarmingly simple structure and layers harmony upon harmony, carnivalesque drumming upon a feverish lead guitar line that betrays Jacobson’s expert theoretical and technical command of his material. It washes over like a water-colour (and counterpoints the impressive album art by Andy McGrath). Like the psych-folk equivalent of LCD Soundsystem’s insanely underrated ‘Great Release’. In its final moments we are left once again with a lone acoustic guitar ostinato that draws the record to a musing close, like an afterthought, like if he hadn’t needed to push the ‘stop’ button on his laptop Jacobson would still be sitting there, playing those two chords, happy as a clam.
This is a studio record, maybe even a bedroom record. Jacobson plays every instrument on the EP and it shows –– he is a guitarist, predominantly. So when the drums rattle away with an abandon they seem to prize over accuracy, it’s endearing and not alienating. One part bluegrass, one part psychedelia, one part folk and five parts nostalgia, Come Around Again is a gem of a record and its creator ought to be on his way to another release and not troubling himself with silly trivialities elsewhere (sources indicate he recently graduated from law school).
Naturally, the entire outing is available for free download from Jacobson’s bandcamp. Do yourself a favour. - My Entertainment World

Thanks to the World Cup throwing off my rhythms, today brings us a very special Sunday edition of Gelatinous Blog. We’ve got tunes from New York-based psychedelic folk/blues guitarist David Jacobson.

Jacobson is a former member of a band we’ve featured in this spot before — Gainesville, FL’s Pseudo Kids. He played with them for a spell and then decided to move home to work on forming his own songs. The move was on good terms, and Jacobson even went as far as to say that Fletcher and Scott of Pseudo Kids inspired him to start writing his own songs and to not just be a guitar player.

Lucky for us, Jacobson did exactly that, resulting in his debut LP Still Waiting, which was released this past spring. The LP seems inspired by older rock acts and contains a steady psychedelic influence, a bit of a country tinge, and big, virtuosic guitar performances. It’s a record where the guitar playing can sound like Dylan, Hendrix, or Scofield — it all depends on what track you get.

You can go download a digital copy of Still Waiting at Jacobson’s Bandcamp page. Keep up with the rest of his work by following him on Facebook.

GB! JUNE2014 Mixtape by David Jacobson

Before it really gets going, “Girl” opens with some reversed electric guitar and muted picking, which quickly makes way for full-toned picking, some accenting bass notes, and a little taste of the lead guitar. Soon enough, the tune picks up, with some “four-on-the-floor” kicks driving it along, and Jacobson’s vocals (vaguely reminiscent of Kurt Vile at the start) kicking in. This is a tricky tune tempo-wise, with a constantly evolving pace. It speeds up and slows down throughout — one minute you’re bobbing your head, and almost instantaneously your bob becomes a slow sway. This dynamic approach to speed helps define the tune as a whole, and that’s mostly what I take away from it.

You can find “Girl” as well as the rest of this month’s featured tracks on the free download of the GB! June 2014 Mixtape, the latest in our monthly mixtape series. Come back and get it on June 30! - Gelatinous Blog

David Jacobson and the Space Wizards are based out of Brooklyn, New York, with a track record of playing around town at clubs like Palisades, Sidewalk, Pete’s Candy Store, Pianos and Bowery Electric, among others.
David has a string of indie releases to his credit – this is his latest EP with the Space Wizards line-up. The new EP is eponymously titled David Jacobson and the Space Wizards; it seems like an appropriate name for this collection of spacey, laid back psychedelica.
The singer/songwriter’s promo talks about his influences in 1960’s and 70’s rock but you wouldn’t need liner notes to pick up on the obvious groove. Overall, David’s got a nice ear for a melodic hook and catchy song structures that stick in your head.
8am leads off the EP with a trippy groove and swirling guitar lines, the vocals meandering in a melody above it all. The track has a nice sense of momentum and a vintage feel that doesn’t feel forced. Lyrically, David mines the universal love philosophies of his chosen period. The Seeker goes philosophical with the guitar line on permanent overdrive. It’s a kinetic approach to guitar that works well with the song.

He’s aiming for a nice, clean production that lets the music seduce the ear with its languid, hippie groove. There are many who have gone down the path of psychedelic 1970’s style rock and while it is sonically familiar, the fluid, melodic guitar work is David’s distinguishing characteristic.
The other characteristic element of their sound is the distinctive quality of David’s vocals – and in that, something of a double-edged sword. He gets a certain raspy quality and an inflexibility that may be a stylistic choice, but inflexible can be limiting too. Harmony vocals here and there might add a more interesting texture.
While most of the songs occupy that well-worn territory somewhere between vintage psychedelica and classic rock of the 1970’s, other influences come into the picture. Her Smile slows down and adds a more prominent synth line and Goodbye has element of classic British rock, with the emphasis on melodic virtuoso guitar. Justine has an appropriately romantic/anthemic groove that’s livened up by country-style guitar line.

If stylish and accomplished hippie music isn’t a contradiction in terms, that’s where I’d file David Jacobson and the Space Wizards.
The new EP will be available on soundcloud and bandcamp on July 3, 2016 and later on iTunes, Spotify and Pandora – check his website & Facebook for updates. - My Entertainment World

Slow-grinding tunes set to early morning mountain roads and the dew-covered houses we've
known, loved, and left behind; Delusions of Grandeur - the debut recordings of Gainesville
based singer/songwriter David Jacobson - are a lifelong culmination of love and admiration
towards those who have inspired and developed the soul he holds today.

The four-track EP is quite the listen. Calm, but uplifting. Soft, but fills the room with fervor
the way a desk fan circulates warm, summer-drawn air. His tales revolve around a communal
one; that first breath we all share and at times take for granted. Take the blues-fueled
radiance that is 'Go Ahead, Smile!' and even the more reserved 'On My Way' - a theme of
person-to-person inspiration spans their entirety where trials are realized and trails less
traveled shine with future family and forest friends.

Find yourself in Delusions of Grandeur on DJ's Bandcamp. - Tiny Waves (now defunct)