Jon Garcia

SOUND CHECK 9/15: JON GARCIA
BY CURT SCHULZ, SPECIAL WRITER, THE OREGONIAN

Songwriter Jon Garcia has a problem most artists would kill for: his trick-bag of ideas is stuffed to bursting.
On his self-titled debut, he won’t stick to any approach long enough to give listeners a fix on the territory he’s working, and the overall effect is like he stacked up all his conceptual building blocks into a pile, knocked them down and worked with the patterns he found on the floor.
Jazzy piano fights it out with violin accents, acoustic guitars are attacked with heavy metal fierceness and an angelic chorus contrasts with Garcia’s own unassuming Texan drawl. Thematically, it’s a mess, but the richness of musical vocabulary on display is downright dazzling.
Some of this range has to be attributed to the varied musicians that Garcia (from Corpus Christi via Austin TX) assembled for the project. “Some of these songs had been in my repertoire for years, and new players reshape the material. I pretty much let people do what they wanted,” he says. And where does a new musician in Portland find a harpist or three drummers or three bass players? The internet. “I found everybody on Craigslist. They were never all together in the same room at the same time, and many of them never met each other.” He’s currently accompanied live by friend Micah Tamblyn </CQ> on keyboard and guitar while he puts together a regular band.
Having played on Austin’s bar circuit before moving to Portland in 2005, Garcia wasted no time once in town, firing up his keyboard to collect the people needed for the CD, which was financed by a tax return and completed right before a cross country tour last winter. “I had to cancel the first week of shows because the album wasn’t finished,” Garcia says, “it’s a rush job in parts, and there are times when I listen to it and I hear the missing parts that I forgot to record.”
Nobody else is going to hear anything missing (the CD is polished and full) and if this is his idea of a hastily constructed release, what he’d able to accomplish with the luxury of a more reasonable recording schedule would be worth investigating.
As is this first release. The CD’s scattershot but never boring, and the tangible feel of a 27 year old artist trying his hand at umpteen different approaches (jazz, folk, rock, whatever) is very much in evidence. While Garcia admits his relentless eclecticism might make his reception as a songwriter problematic, there’s a savvy on display here that belies his relative youth. On “One Night Stand With Myself,” Garcia breathily murmurs a quiet reflection on an evening out alone, “I was good to me/ I paid for everything/ Opened every door/ And lit my cigarettes/ Just a matter of self-appreciation/ And solitude my inspiration.”
Garcia hasn’t mastered every form he’s attempted, but his ambitions have paid off on this initial offering. After all, better that your reach exceeds your grasp than achieve a small thing perfectly.
Curt Schulz is a Portland writer and musician. He can be reached at schulzcurt@hotmail.com
www.jongarcia.org </CQ>
- The Oregonian

SOUND CHECK 9/15: JON GARCIA
BY CURT SCHULZ, SPECIAL WRITER, THE OREGONIAN

Songwriter Jon Garcia has a problem most artists would kill for: his trick-bag of ideas is stuffed to bursting.
On his self-titled debut, he won’t stick to any approach long enough to give listeners a fix on the territory he’s working, and the overall effect is like he stacked up all his conceptual building blocks into a pile, knocked them down and worked with the patterns he found on the floor.
Jazzy piano fights it out with violin accents, acoustic guitars are attacked with heavy metal fierceness and an angelic chorus contrasts with Garcia’s own unassuming Texan drawl. Thematically, it’s a mess, but the richness of musical vocabulary on display is downright dazzling.
Some of this range has to be attributed to the varied musicians that Garcia (from Corpus Christi via Austin TX) assembled for the project. “Some of these songs had been in my repertoire for years, and new players reshape the material. I pretty much let people do what they wanted,” he says. And where does a new musician in Portland find a harpist or three drummers or three bass players? The internet. “I found everybody on Craigslist. They were never all together in the same room at the same time, and many of them never met each other.” He’s currently accompanied live by friend Micah Tamblyn </CQ> on keyboard and guitar while he puts together a regular band.
Having played on Austin’s bar circuit before moving to Portland in 2005, Garcia wasted no time once in town, firing up his keyboard to collect the people needed for the CD, which was financed by a tax return and completed right before a cross country tour last winter. “I had to cancel the first week of shows because the album wasn’t finished,” Garcia says, “it’s a rush job in parts, and there are times when I listen to it and I hear the missing parts that I forgot to record.”
Nobody else is going to hear anything missing (the CD is polished and full) and if this is his idea of a hastily constructed release, what he’d able to accomplish with the luxury of a more reasonable recording schedule would be worth investigating.
As is this first release. The CD’s scattershot but never boring, and the tangible feel of a 27 year old artist trying his hand at umpteen different approaches (jazz, folk, rock, whatever) is very much in evidence. While Garcia admits his relentless eclecticism might make his reception as a songwriter problematic, there’s a savvy on display here that belies his relative youth. On “One Night Stand With Myself,” Garcia breathily murmurs a quiet reflection on an evening out alone, “I was good to me/ I paid for everything/ Opened every door/ And lit my cigarettes/ Just a matter of self-appreciation/ And solitude my inspiration.”
Garcia hasn’t mastered every form he’s attempted, but his ambitions have paid off on this initial offering. After all, better that your reach exceeds your grasp than achieve a small thing perfectly.
Curt Schulz is a Portland writer and musician. He can be reached at schulzcurt@hotmail.com
www.jongarcia.org </CQ>
- The Oregonian

Playback magazine

Home Cover Story Profiles Reviews Columns Events PB Blog Links Contact Search Rates & Data
Jon Garcia | Jon Garcia (Self-Released) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Janelle Greenwood

It sounds like a gentle lullaby, one that Ryan Adams might listen to before bed. Some people might pass this kind of music off as easy listening for the folk rock crowd, but that just means you don’t get it. the recycled paper and ink–drawn cover art of Jon Garcia’s CD cover, his self-titled album is an organic picture of folk guitar straight from Portland. It sounds like a gentle lullaby, one that Ryan Adams might listen to before bed.
Some people might pass this kind of music off as easy listening for the folk rock crowd, but that just means you don’t get it. Imagine life through a camera lens, looking at every detail like a newborn for the first time. Suddenly, simplicity becomes a much larger thing, worth taking some time to notice.
“Television Blackhole” is definitely one of the standout tracks, particularly because it takes things to a new level on the album. It gets a little more upbeat here, and yet mellow at the same time. “The Delaware Carousel” is similar in that same way.
Throughout Garcia’s self-titled release, he utilizes a varying amount of instrumentation that properly frames each song’s demeanor. Listen for the Rhodes and the string instruments in particular. It’s somewhere between a throwback to the old-school usage of the Rhodes and a little symphony that wants to be cooler than the band kids.
The music and lyrics are definitely stronger than Garcia’s voice itself. It’s not horrible; he just doesn’t have that honeyed voice that flows like slowed molasses on a summer day. The vocals seem too sunny at times, where it sounds like a more gentle approach may have worked better, like in “Ashes Black and Roses All Around.”
Highlights include the trio in the middle of the album, “Life’s a Wave,” “Dizzy Star,” and “Wounded.” They make the most of Garcia’s ability to frame each song with a descriptive picture that has its own soundtrack.
Overall, these 14 tracks serve as a glimpse into a soul who would rather find enjoyment in everyday life than rely on already tired and generic emotional states that show up on most records.

- Playback Magazine

Playback magazine

Home Cover Story Profiles Reviews Columns Events PB Blog Links Contact Search Rates & Data
Jon Garcia | Jon Garcia (Self-Released) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Janelle Greenwood

It sounds like a gentle lullaby, one that Ryan Adams might listen to before bed. Some people might pass this kind of music off as easy listening for the folk rock crowd, but that just means you don’t get it. the recycled paper and ink–drawn cover art of Jon Garcia’s CD cover, his self-titled album is an organic picture of folk guitar straight from Portland. It sounds like a gentle lullaby, one that Ryan Adams might listen to before bed.
Some people might pass this kind of music off as easy listening for the folk rock crowd, but that just means you don’t get it. Imagine life through a camera lens, looking at every detail like a newborn for the first time. Suddenly, simplicity becomes a much larger thing, worth taking some time to notice.
“Television Blackhole” is definitely one of the standout tracks, particularly because it takes things to a new level on the album. It gets a little more upbeat here, and yet mellow at the same time. “The Delaware Carousel” is similar in that same way.
Throughout Garcia’s self-titled release, he utilizes a varying amount of instrumentation that properly frames each song’s demeanor. Listen for the Rhodes and the string instruments in particular. It’s somewhere between a throwback to the old-school usage of the Rhodes and a little symphony that wants to be cooler than the band kids.
The music and lyrics are definitely stronger than Garcia’s voice itself. It’s not horrible; he just doesn’t have that honeyed voice that flows like slowed molasses on a summer day. The vocals seem too sunny at times, where it sounds like a more gentle approach may have worked better, like in “Ashes Black and Roses All Around.”
Highlights include the trio in the middle of the album, “Life’s a Wave,” “Dizzy Star,” and “Wounded.” They make the most of Garcia’s ability to frame each song with a descriptive picture that has its own soundtrack.
Overall, these 14 tracks serve as a glimpse into a soul who would rather find enjoyment in everyday life than rely on already tired and generic emotional states that show up on most records.

- Playback Magazine

West Coast Performer Magazine
Jon Garcia — Jon Garcia
Engineered and mixed by Robert Bartleson and Jared See
Recorded at Haywire Studios
Mastered at Nettleingham Audio by Kevin Nettleingham
Produced by Robert Bartleson and Jon Garcia

After spending his formative years playing with various rock bands in Austin, Texas, Jon Garcia made for Portland to sing for his supper as a solo artist. His new self-titled record is the fruit of the front porches and sun-bent bedrooms he found there.
It is clear that Garcia is a songwriter and instrumentalist with creditable influences. A particular debt is owed here to Jeff Buckley, while some moments bear the mark of Joe Boyd’s pastoral productions of the British folk era. Indeed Garcia, with his violet vibrato reminiscent of Buckley’s, has a knack for cleverly-penned chord changes and sylvan arrangements for strings.
“Life Between Cigarettes” is one of several highlights on the record — a pretty piano-ballad-turned-funnel-cloud of commotion. Garcia’s vocals ride atop the gathering turbulence like Slim Pickens straddling the falling A-bomb in Dr. Strangelove. “What will I be? What will I be someday?” Garcia sings, while piano and harp provide a counterpoint.
However, as the final dying notes cross-fade seamlessly into “Television Blackhole,” the timbre set forth so succinctly by the first four songs of the album is cracked and divided. An angst-ridden guitar scorcher about the boob-tube, this track has more in common with Sunny Day Real Estate than the tawny-hued songs of the album’s outset. Again, Garcia does justice to his influences, but gone are the harp, the cello, the flute and the music box. Here now is the stomp-box.
The remaining songs on this album can be divvied into either of these two camps. “Ashes Black and Roses All Around” and “Life’s a Wave” are characteristic of the jagged guitars that were fodder to the 120 Minutes generation, while “The Delaware Carousel” and “Saturday Morning” live in the same zip code as Rufus Wainwright.
While its divided loyalties diminish the effect of the whole, Garcia’s album is nonetheless an able effort filled with strong song-craft. (Self-released)
www.jongarcia.org
-Henry Baker
- West Coast Performer Magazine

West Coast Performer Magazine
Jon Garcia — Jon Garcia
Engineered and mixed by Robert Bartleson and Jared See
Recorded at Haywire Studios
Mastered at Nettleingham Audio by Kevin Nettleingham
Produced by Robert Bartleson and Jon Garcia

After spending his formative years playing with various rock bands in Austin, Texas, Jon Garcia made for Portland to sing for his supper as a solo artist. His new self-titled record is the fruit of the front porches and sun-bent bedrooms he found there.
It is clear that Garcia is a songwriter and instrumentalist with creditable influences. A particular debt is owed here to Jeff Buckley, while some moments bear the mark of Joe Boyd’s pastoral productions of the British folk era. Indeed Garcia, with his violet vibrato reminiscent of Buckley’s, has a knack for cleverly-penned chord changes and sylvan arrangements for strings.
“Life Between Cigarettes” is one of several highlights on the record — a pretty piano-ballad-turned-funnel-cloud of commotion. Garcia’s vocals ride atop the gathering turbulence like Slim Pickens straddling the falling A-bomb in Dr. Strangelove. “What will I be? What will I be someday?” Garcia sings, while piano and harp provide a counterpoint.
However, as the final dying notes cross-fade seamlessly into “Television Blackhole,” the timbre set forth so succinctly by the first four songs of the album is cracked and divided. An angst-ridden guitar scorcher about the boob-tube, this track has more in common with Sunny Day Real Estate than the tawny-hued songs of the album’s outset. Again, Garcia does justice to his influences, but gone are the harp, the cello, the flute and the music box. Here now is the stomp-box.
The remaining songs on this album can be divvied into either of these two camps. “Ashes Black and Roses All Around” and “Life’s a Wave” are characteristic of the jagged guitars that were fodder to the 120 Minutes generation, while “The Delaware Carousel” and “Saturday Morning” live in the same zip code as Rufus Wainwright.
While its divided loyalties diminish the effect of the whole, Garcia’s album is nonetheless an able effort filled with strong song-craft. (Self-released)
www.jongarcia.org
-Henry Baker
- West Coast Performer Magazine

Artist: Jon Garcia
Album: Jon Garcia
Link: myspace
The packaging for this record is the first thing that will catch your eye. A modest, brown cardboard envelope that folds open from the back. Boasting a spectrum of different sounds, from harp, violin, and cello, the one thing that overwhelms all things is Garcia's voice which has a bit of a spectral quality about it. Song length seems to be a bit of a problem on a lot of these tracks, but for the amount of instrumentation going on, I can imagine how difficult it must be to compress this massive amount of ideas. Fans of Anathallo, and the Snake the Cross the Crown, please pay attention.



http://www.wrankmusic.com/reviews/albums/0608.htm
- Wrank and Review

Artist: Jon Garcia
Album: Jon Garcia
Link: myspace
The packaging for this record is the first thing that will catch your eye. A modest, brown cardboard envelope that folds open from the back. Boasting a spectrum of different sounds, from harp, violin, and cello, the one thing that overwhelms all things is Garcia's voice which has a bit of a spectral quality about it. Song length seems to be a bit of a problem on a lot of these tracks, but for the amount of instrumentation going on, I can imagine how difficult it must be to compress this massive amount of ideas. Fans of Anathallo, and the Snake the Cross the Crown, please pay attention.



http://www.wrankmusic.com/reviews/albums/0608.htm
- Wrank and Review