#neal argabright

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When we are Dogs by Jaye Jayle featuring Bonnie Prince Billy and Patrick Shiroishi

[peterhutchins]

Jaye Jayle - Evan Patterson, Jonathan Glen Wood, Neal Argabright & Todd Cook @ DC9, Washington, DC on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

Spring Tour 2017 Setlist:

As Soon As Night Sugar Ran Wild Cemetery Rain House Cricks Low Again Street Hanging Mirror

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 621: Jaye Jayle No Trails and Other Unholy Paths

The following is the bio I wrote for Jaye Jayle’s excellent second album:

Jaye Jayle’s earliest recordings consisted of four 7” singles packaged in the bare-bones dust jackets of early country 45s and etched with the stark Americana-noir of Louisville-based singer/guitarist Evan Patterson. The material was a significant departure from Patterson’s primary musical endeavor at the time—the percussive Sturm und Drang power trio Young Widows—but it fell in line with his ongoing creative arc of embracing of negative space, acknowledging that less is more, realizing that a whisper can speak louder than a yell.

The songs on those four singles sounded as if they’d been performed by candlelight, recorded into a Fostex four-track machine, aided and abetted by bourbon and cigarettes. Even when Jaye Jayle expanded into a four-piece for their debut full-length House Cricks and Other Excuses to Get Out, there was a certain austerity to the material. The songs were hypnotically repetitive; the riffs were subtle and understated, and the modest recording only hinted at the expansive sound conjured by the band in the live setting. With their new album No Trails and Other Unholy Paths, Jaye Jayle’s transportive desolation and hallucinatory sonic mantras are fully documented in all their glory.

“Paths are the future and trails are the past. These pieces of music are for the future,” Patterson says of the record. He also clarifies that the album doesn’t have a specific beginning or ending. Side A and Side B are meant to be interchangeable. The album could either open with the arpeggiated piano instrumental “No Trail” or the siren blare synths and sultry slow-burn throb rock of “As Soon As Night”. And from there, either path reaps rewards. With his cohorts Todd Cook (Shipping News, The For Carnation) on bass, Neal Argabright (Phantom Family Halo, Freakwater) on drums, and Corey Smith (Phantom Family Halo) on auxiliary instrumentation, Patterson weaves a tapestry of neo-folk’s economy, krautrock’s experiments in repetition, skid row’s darkest blues, Midwestern indie rock’s nihilism, and early Tangerine Dream’s analog oscillations. The album seethes with tension and anticipation, with a heightened push-and-pull on tracks like “Marry Us” and the second song titled “No Trail” when songwriter Emma Ruth Rundle adds call-and-response vocals to the mix. It’s been a considerable journey from those raw and intimate early 7”s, an evolution undoubtedly affected by the relentless touring schedule that transformed Jaye Jayle from a solo project to an immersive collaboration.

“The album has a lyrical theme in motion and direction, searching and questioning, and discovery,” Patterson explains. “A certainty in placement and uncertainty in destination. Primal consideration for surroundings, which may be or may not have been the surroundings sought after. The grayness of life's paths. The where-have-I-been, where-am-I-now, and where-will-I-be.” It’s a wanderer’s approach that yielded an unlikely romance and expatriate dreams between Patterson and Rundle during a European tour together in support of their split 12” The Time Between Us.  It’s an approach also taken to the studio, where the band worked with film composer Dean Hurley—David Lynch’s music supervisor of the last twelve years—to serve as producer. The songs were recorded at Earth Analog by Warren Christopher Gray and handed off to Hurley to manipulate at his will. The result is an album that retains its frugal approach but pushes its aural dimensions to their thresholds.

[sargenthouse]

8/10 for Jaye Jayle’s “No trail and Other Unholy Paths” // Pop Matters

Evan Patterson is best known for his main band, the fantastic noise rock, psychedelic, post-hardcore act Young Widows. With Young Widows, Patterson explores the experimental edge of the rock spectrum in a unique manner, reconfiguring the ideas of progression and the stylistic tendencies of the genre. However, his other project Jaye Jayle is a departure from that sound, seeing Patterson instead dive into the territory of Americana and producing dark and retro works sourced through blues motifs, country progressions, and folk ambiances. 

8/10 Stars via Pop Matters. 

Jaye Jayle began as a fairly minimalistic outlet from Patterson, with the release of various singles and EPs leading to the band's debut album House Cricks and Other Excuses to Get Out. This work featured again a very minimal setting from Patterson, with the drums and guitars paving the various pathways of the record. The music was still mesmerizing, and the subtle touch of Jaye Jayle resulted in a less is more quality, where the soundscapes became prevalent with some very simple ideas. Now, Patterson returns with the band's second offering, No Trail and Other Unholy Paths, which sees the proper formation of Jaye Jayle. Where House Cricks and Other Excuses to Get Out felt like a one-man project, even though it featured other musicians, this time around Jaye Jayle feels like a band, with the inclusion of Neal Argabright on drums, Corey Smith on the synthesizer and percussion and Emma Ruth Rundle on vocals and guitars. 

No Trail and Other Unholy Paths by Jaye Jayle

The instrumentation still carries the same stripped-down approach that the band's debut album set, with few elements being present at each moment, but with the sound still appearing full and impressive. The textures that each element of the music invokes works towards the final, grand design of Jaye Jayle. For the most part, the motifs stay true to the Americana approach. However, there are moments when certain twists reveal a more modern and experimental take. An example is "Accepting" with the sound taking on a metallic characteristic, as the drums produce a mechanical progression to the otherwise bluesy tone. And still, the dark brew that Jaye Jayle has mixed so intricately features a few surprises, as is the case with the saxophone freestyling over the end of "Accepting" or the more twisted start of "As Soon As Night" with the synths creating these alarm-like sounds in the distance. 

The overall ambiance that No Trail and Other Unholy Paths is depicting a neo-noir scenery, not unlike the aura present in great, contemporary neo-Western films like Windriver or Hell or High Water. The exquisite "Marry Us" feels like a dive into this abyss, presenting a majestic trip through a ceremonial procession where Patterson and Rundle shine with their vocal delivery. To this blend of sounds and images, the psychedelic elements that Patterson introduces take the whole endeavor even further, giving it a uniqueness. The excellent "Cemetery Rain" is such a moment, with its haunting presence displaying the morphing capabilities of Jaye Jayle, while the final track of the album sees them dive even further into a krautrock territory reaching an expansive and cosmic level. 

However, for the most part, the record does stay within the Americana realm enacting a rural mysticism through images and memories of the American South. The narrative element in such records is dominant, and through the record Patterson is providing wonderful storytelling elements, through the two interchangeable sides of the record. It all makes No Trail and Other Unholy Paths feels like an expedition undertaken through the Appalachian mountains and the fields of Kentucky. It is an endearing and personal release, sourced through a great musical tradition.

[stephaniemarlowftw]

JAYE JAYLE REVEALS NEW SINGLE, PREPARES FOR U.S. TOUR WITH WOVENHAND

Listen to “Soline,” an outtake from the No Trail and Other Unholy Paths sessions, now.

"...feels like a midnight road trip in a land of eternal darkness. The music is austere, Evan’s baritone voice is enigmatic, and the instrumentation is layered and elegant." - Gazette Musicale

In anticipation of their upcoming North American tour with Wovenhand, Jaye Jayle have unearthed an outtake from the sessions that produced the band’s 2018 masterstroke No Trail and Other Unholy Paths. The song, a convolution of bandleader Evan Patterson’s Louisville roots and flair for gospel-tinged country, encapsulates Jaye Jayle’s myriad of influences into one phenomenal track.

Stream (+ share)  Jaye Jayle’s slow burning “Soline” on YouTube.

“It was a difficult choice to not include 'Soline' on our album,” Patterson says. “Alas, the uplifting and almost gospel nature of the song just didn’t meld with the dark foliage of the record.”

A collaboration with Joe Manning, Deputy Director for the Louisville Story Program and multimedia artist, “Soline” convenes Patterson’s vast network of artists of all stripes to create a composite of far-reaching inspirations. Rounding out the star-studded lineup of collaborates is Cheyenne Mize on strings, Emma Ruth Rundle on guest vocals, and a choir consisting of Manning, Mize, Neal Argabright, Tory Gallager, Todd Cook, and Corey Smith.

No Trail and Other Unholy Paths was released in 2018 via Sargent House. Adopting a “Choose Your Own Adventure” concept, the record was tinged with a Lynchian paranoia that was reinforced by Dean Hurley’s production prowess. Each spin of the LP yields an inimitable adventure regardless of track sequencing. No Trail And Other Unholy Paths is an album that drives its aural dimensions to the absolute threshold — and then some.

No Trail And Other Unholy Paths is available via Sargent House here. Catch Jaye Jayle on tour with Wovenhand this fall (which concludes with Jaye Jayle's stop at Austin's Levitation Fest) — a full tour itinerary can be found below.

Jaye Jayle — On Tour: 

September 1 Chicago, IL @ Martyrs' *

September 3 Three Oaks, MI @ The Acorn *

September 5 Detroit, MI @ Deluxx Fluxx *

September 6 Columbus, OH @ The Basement *

September 7 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre *

September 8 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place *

September 10 Boston, MA @ ONCE Ballroom *

September 11 Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall *

September 12 Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Park Brewery *

September 13 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie *

September 14 Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus Bar *

September 15 Washington, DC @ U Street Music Hall * 

September 16 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In *

September 18 St. Louis, MO @ Fubar *

September 21 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge *

November 5 Birmingham, AL @ The Firehouse

November 6 New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jack

sNovember 8 Austin, TX @ Levitation  

* with Wovenhand

No Trail And Other Unholy Paths — Track Listing: 

1. No Trail Path One

2. No Trail Path Two

3. Ode To Betsy

4. Accepting

5. As Soon As Night

6. Cemetery Rain

7. Marry Us

8. Low Again Street 

Artist Photo Credit: Elmore 

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We Stormed by Jaye Jayle, originally recorded in 2017 during the No Trail and Other Unholy Paths album sessions

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Miss Paranoia by Jaye Jayle from the album House Cricks and Other Excuses to Get Out

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Soline by Jaye Jayle

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Hanging Mirror by Jaye Jayle from the album House Cricks and Other Excuses to Get Out - Video Directed by gardenback featuring Laura Hopwood

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Low Again Street by Jaye Jayle with Bruce Lamont on sax, live on Chicago Music Exchange

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No Trail by Jaye Jayle (featuring Emma Ruth Rundle) from the album No Trail and Other Unholy Paths - Video by gardenback

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Unnecessarily by Jaye Jayle from the album The Time Between Us (split with Emma Ruth Rundle)

[sargenthouse]

Interview: Jaye Jayle on the web // Echoes and Dust

Interview: Jaye Jayle 

on the web: Facebook // Bandcamp

In a fantasy world it would be just making records and making songs in world of people who spend their night lives when the sun goes down, the kids go to sleep and they’re laying in their bed or sitting on their couch they don’t turn on the TV and scroll through netflix or look at their phone. They put on a record and take it in and breathe and feel something that you don’t feel in any other world besides that world.

Full interview by Michael Hayden via Echoes and Dust.

My first experience with Jaye Jayle was seeing them live opening for Oathbreaker. It seems like their blend of americana, kraut-rock grooves and Morricone-esque soundtracking would be an odd fit for a metal show, their presence and weightiness stole the show for me. I was so impressed by their performance that I became a bit obsessed with both their debut album House Cricks and Other Excuses to Get Out and their outstanding split release with Emma Ruth Rundle The Time Between Us. I didn’t know at the time (even though he looked familiar) that the main songwriter was Evan Patterson from the mighty Young Widows. As a fan of Young Widows this just intrigued m even more. How does a person go from the thunder and fury of Young Widows to the dark, moody and tension filled music of Jaye Jayle? When the opportunity to interview Evan about their upcoming album No Trail and Other Unholy Paths (available June 29th via Sargent House) I jumped at the chance to hear more about this intriguingly unique project.

We planned on talking after their set opening for Russian Circles at the Empty Bottle here in Chicago. Evan immediately strikes you as a warm and engaged person, he gives everyone who approaches him his undivided attention. It seemed like no matter where we went to begin the interview he was being approached by old friends, acquaintances or newly made fans and he always took the time to share some words with them. I was really impressed by his kindness towards strangers and his patience when confronted with some of Chicago’s more exuberant drunks. The conversation that followed was a real pleasure to have and I’m even more of a fan of the band now that I’ve spent some time hearing about it’s genesis and evolution.

(((o))): How did Jaye Jayle get born out of Young Widows?

Evan Patterson: The initial thought of the project or the idea of writing songs outside of Young Widows was just to not think about anything in capacity of it being performed. It was just kind of writing songs casually. I was actually in Santa Fe, NM visiting a past partner. She had a parlour guitar that was all fucked up, the bridge was already pulling away and the only thing I could do was kind of play on the last five frets to get it to stay in tune. I decided I was just going to write a song or what I felt was a song. It was always just a couple of minutes or a couple of parts. Not a deliberate idea of anything, just kind of a stream of consciousness thing.

(((o))): Previously did you write with a more compositional approach?

Evan: A little bit, once the band becomes involved in a project or any kind of composition or songwriting to me it makes to consider that they are there. There’s Jaye Jayle songs that I work that have no base of anyone playing with me and when we get together and play them they just come out how they are. One the band becomes involved it’s adding the saturation or the color to the song.

(((o))): That kind of my addresses my follow up question. I know that you’re the main songwriter but do you bring raw ideas to the band and let them play to their strengths or do you dictate who does what?

Evan: It’s a bit of a compositional dictatorship in the songwriting process until we get to the pinnacle moment of a song or a piece. I say here’s all the ideas I have and here’s the drum beat and this is where I hear the bass to be and this is where I hear the vocal melody and once it all becomes musical, that’s where the freedom sets in. Then we can say “this section of song is open” but it takes a long time to get to that place but those guys are

(((o))): You have some great players.

Evan: Todd (Cook) is my favorite bass player to ever live on the face of the planet and Neal (Argabright) can play keyboards better than anyone else. Todd and Neal don’t want to be soloists, they want to be part of the composition rather than just doing the same thing or wondering when they get to take the lead. There’s no leads. It’s more of a score.

(((o))): It’s interesting to me that a lot the press around you guys bring up the kraut-rock kind of influences and I hear it a bit but when I think about bands like say Can often times the song is just a really long guitar solo. I hear it in more of say Michael Rother’s (Neu!) solo stuff where all of the instruments are placed well, or contributing to the whole piece.

Evan: When I listen to Can I don’t really listen to the guitar work as much as I do the forward motion of the songs rather than it just being parts. When a Can song starts you kind of know it’s not going to leave. You always know when you hear the beginning of a Can song if that’s going to be the Can song you want to listen to or if you don’t want to listen and that’s usually in the rhythm section.

(((o))): So the new album is produced by Dean Hurley(David Lynch’s sound collaborator). I love Twin Peaks and the sound design has always been a big part of that, especially in the most recent season. How did working with him come about?

Evan: That sound design is all Dean. I actually had no idea about any of his collaborations with David Lynch until I heard Lynch’s album ‘The Big Dream’ and I’m such a fan of that record. Something about the way it incorporated modern music and that Twin Peaks sound, everything about that. I associated with so much of what’s going on with that record, maybe at times not melodically or vocally what was going on but the production of it completely surrounded me. So I saw that Dean Hurley worked on, produced and co-wrote the record so I just wrote him an email.

(((o))): Nice, that simple huh?

Evan: Yeah, he said “send me some songs” and then he said he loved the kind of strange blues-dirge thing we were doing.

(((o))): One thing I love about you guys is the music does kind of the same thing as Twin Peaks, it creates an environment that you kind of live within during the duration of the music. When I found out Dean Hurley produced it I thought that made perfect sense for what you do.

Evan: Yeah, me too.

(((o))): You recorded it at Earth Analog (Matt Talbot of Hum’s studio) right?

Evan: Yeah in Tolono, Il which is also kind of a Twin Peaks oddball kind of place. It’s an old industrial wasteland that’s a crossroads for trains. Where we were there were trains going by every ten minutes at such a high speed that they would shake the building.

(((o))): Did you have to stop working when the trains went by?

Evan: There’d be times where we’d work around it and there’d be times that we’d just play. There’s train horns all over the recording, mostly in a way that wouldn’t even know and you’d probably just think it’s a synthesizer.

(((o))): In the press release for the album it mentions that it’s designed to be completely non linear, where you can start it at any point. I think that’s an interesting departure from both people who think that the single is everything and the kind of people who write big concepts that are meant to be listened to in a very specific way.

Evan: It’s difficult to listen to a full album. The attention span of a modern human being is so small, I feel like we have the attention span of an ant. It’s just how it is when we have accessibility to everything and everything. With that each side of a record needs to live on it’s own because the is the attention span of human beings. I love records and I collect a ton of record and so many records that I have it’s difficult to get up and flip the side, you know? Being a collector and investing myself in artists from all times, anything that was created on vinyl really, there’s a thing about listening to one side of a record and having it feel complete. Rather than the ending of the first side leaving you hanging, I just wanted to feel like it doesn’t leave you hanging.

(((o))): Not a lot of people take people’s attention span into consideration, haha.

Evan: It’s just a fact.

(((o))): You’re active in a lot of projects, the most active being Jaye Jayle and Young Widows, do you sit down and with intention to write for either or do you just write and decide where it lives later?

Evan: Young Widows is very inactive right now, we’re rehearsing and doing Old Wounds but we didn’t play at all for about 14 months. But it kind of refers back to your first question with writing music and spontaneity of creativity. Jaye Jayle and the songs we write are just what I’m writing right now. Young Widows songs a lot of time were just from showing up and playing and seeing what happens. Composition always kind of came later after we’d been playing for a while. With Jaye Jayle pieces they’re just something I work on every single day for hours and hours, whether it’s playing one chord for three weeks trying to find the melody or dynamic or rhythm within that note or chord or whatever it might be. I absolutely love Jaye Jayle, it brings me more joy than anything I’ve ever done in my entire life. It’s the most euphoric and hypnotic and therapeutic music that I’ve ever created and I feel lucky to have the band because they’re all on the same page.

(((o))): With Jaye Jayle there’s a kind of tension where it feels like it’s about to explode but it never does whereas Young Widows feels like everything is exploding all the time.

Evan: Absolutely

(((o))): Is that conscious decision? Kind of intentionally moving away from that more explosive outlet and stripping it back?

Evan: It’s definitely unconscious and unintentional. It’s more exciting for me to be contained and in control. I was extremely nervous tonight in a way of being in control. It’s so much easier to go full on, just playing loud and having it turn into this chaotic thing. Staying in the environment we have created is exciting because it’s difficult. The instincts of being a musician is at times playing more and everyone having their times of stepping out of the composition. Honestly I feel what’s going on with this music is the tip of the iceberg of what’s going to happen and there’s going to be even more tension and control going forward.

(((o))): You played a lot of new material tonight and one thing that really struck me is the restraint your auxiliary player (Corey Smith) shows, he’ll just rest and wait. Finding musicians like that is pretty rare. That adds to overall feeling that at any moment one of these guys is just going to bust out into a solo or lead line but they never do, is that kind of a theme?

Evan: I don’t know if it’s a theme so much as it is an idea of composition rather than individuals. At times even the singing and the lyrical subject matter and the control of even singing, I don’t even want that to shine. I always think about film and film scores. I just rewatched Badlands and that film influenced me highly. Watching that again and every time the music comes in it doesn’t take you out of the film it kind of puts you more in it. It gives you a narrative and a voice and almost earthly place. I know everyone in the band understands that feeling, we’ve all been playing music for a long time and we’ve never been it in trying to live a world of dominant showing off. We just all want to create an environment.

(((o))): It works really well, even tonight where you played mostly new songs that I had never heard it didn’t really matter because the environment is consistent and holds your attention. Which brings me to the last question. Is it hard to switch from this controlled environment back to the Young Widows sound for you upcoming tour?