Artist bio

See also: Jason Falkner, Jon Brion

The Grays formed in 1993 as a "utopian band" built around singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalists Jason Falkner, Jon Brion, Dan McCarroll, and Buddy Judge. All four experienced some degree of disillusionment with their former bands, and wanted the Grays to be the solution to that, with each member contributing songs, and each adding their ideas to the pool in a round-table fashion.

It worked, but only for one, psuedo-classic album, Ro Sham Bo. The admirable ideals of the group collapsed around their varying degrees of musical ambition. All have had extensive dabblings since, Falkner and Brion the most high-profile with their producing/writing/arranging/playing talents being used on any number of pop albums, including their own. Judge put out an album and toured with Aimee Mann's band, while McCarroll manned Sheryl Crow's drum seat for a while.

Luckily for listeners, the one record of the foursome's collaboration is still preserved on plastic.

Albums by this artist

Ro Sham Bo (Recommended) (1994)

The Grays

Ro Sham Bo

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

NATN Recommended The Grays Ro Sham Bo Epic, 1994 RiYL: Jellyfish, Michael Penn, Aimee Mann, Big Star

The Grays were an inevitably self-destructive band. The outfit was formed by Buddy Judge, Dan McCarroll, Jon Brion, and Jason Falkner in late 1993, when all four were fed up with the being in other bands with "leaders" who exerted too much control over their music. They put together The Grays on the idea that it would be a utopian band, based on the ideal of everyone contributing songs, everyone recording together and fleshing out each others' ideas, and everyone playing each others' instruments when it fit certain songs, so no one is the true "leader".

But like the similar precepts of communism, the integrity of these ideals went out the window when actually put into practice. How long do you think a band can last when all its members have the musical talent to record songs with full instrumentation by themselves, and they're all afraid of losing creative control?

The answer: one album. The result: Ro Sham Bo. The verdict: not bad.

The album is a very eclectic pop record, stemming from the fact that the different songwriters bring distinct styles to the table. Judge's and McCarroll's tunes tend to be more rhythmically focused jams, like "Everybody's World" and "Is It Now Yet," while Brion and Falkner stick to '70s-style ultra-cool pop rock, Brion's harmonic melancholy on "Nothing Between Us" contrasting with Falkner's unabashedly catchy jubilation on "Both Belong." But everyone puts themselves into each track, and the result is like a nice musical stew, none of the ingredients outshining the others in contribution to the overall taste.

Though they weren't able to align musically for more than this one record, all members' attentions seem very focused on fully realizing each others' tunes on Ro Sham Bo. The instrumentation is thick and hearty, with sometimes four or five overlapping guitar parts and keyboards propelling a song toward its climax. Splashes of psychedelia (backwards tape loops, oddly distorted vocal harmonies) accentuate some of the later tunes, and Falkner displays some rare vitriolic screaming on "Spooky".

A well-rounded effort, this album has picked up a mysterious reputation since its release. It is no longer in print, and is somewhat revered by fans of '90s power pop (such as Jellyfish and The Posies) as one of this genre's hidden gems. Ro Sham Bo was an interesting experiment, and it remains one of the curious, off-the-path milestones of '90s pop.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.