#john jeffrey

Passage by John Jeffrey

The painter Takao Tanabe was one of John Jeffrey’s inspirations for these four long improvised tracks. The artist is known for land and seascapes that depict Canada’s northwestern coast in luminous blocks of color. Neither wholly representational or fully abstract, his paintings convey a sort of idealized, distilled vision of natural beauty, and it is easy to make the connection to the surreal, airy clarity of Jeffrey’s music.

Moon Duo Make It a Psychedelic Tuesday at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Moon Duo – Music Hall of Williamsburg – November 12, 2019

A couple of years back when Moon Duo came through town, their production consisted of jittery psychedelic projections that well matched their twitchy drone rave-up repertoire. Last night the Portland, Ore., band returned to Brooklyn with a new stage design and the evolved sound of their latest record, Stars Are the Light. They performed behind a three-paneled translucent screen, or, more accurately, inside a translucent box, walls on both sides, front and back, set up so with the flattened perspective of a 3-D rendering of a two-dimensional drawing of a cube. This was a perfect setting for a duo that’s actually been touring as a trio for many years—synth, guitar and drums, Sanae Yamada, Ripley Johnson, John Jeffrey projected onto the walls, a live-action rendering of an animated film, or something. As the music kicked in and the walls took up geometric and hallucinogenic projections, never quite clear which were the shadows and which were the silhouettes of the musicians, the easiest way to describe it would be pretty cool.

The set nicely balanced material from the recent release and older tunes, beginning with a long drone from the synth that opened into “Flying,” pulsing bass-drums forming a base for gorgeous cascading guitar melodies, hippie jams intruding on the dance club. Each new piece was accompanied by new mind-bending visual motifs flickering across the panels onstage, almost impossible to separate the sound from the sights. White spirographs and scatter plots joined psychedelic disco, minor-key industrial accompanied melting third-eye animations, polyhedron sunbursts danced along with haunting doom-funk, cubist cityscapes were soundtracked by a science-fiction country jaunt and ’80s video-game lasers bounced to a bonus-level extended soundtrack. Between each piece, birdsongs played over the PA, a small dose of interstitial reality while the projector cued up the next barrage. The set ended with “Lost Heads” low-end synth vibrating pant legs, swarms of pixels on the screens rotated around some unseen center of gravity, one light for every note from the guitar, thousands of them until dropping out into a tribal pulse of drums and bass. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

John Jeffrey elected chairman of Six Nations Council

Six Nations have announced that John Jeffrey has been elected Chairman of the Six Nations Council for a three-year term.  He takes over from Pat Whelan who had been Chairman since April 2016.

Mr Jeffrey is the first Scottish Chairman since Allan Hosie in the late 1990s / early 2000s.  He hails from Kelso in the Scottish Borders earned 40 caps for Scotland during his international career…

Moon Duo return with “Slow Down Low,” the 2nd release from their new album, Shadow of the Sun and although it’s kind of more of the same, that’s ok with me. They get a pass…which coming from me should be considered high praise.

  As the release of Moon Duo’s third album nears, Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada are offering up another taste of Shadow of the Sun with “Slow Down Low.” Whereas debut single, “Animal,” featured West Coast punk vibes, “Slow Down Low” presents a cosmic trucker boogie and recognizes no journey is possible without being on the road.

Shadow of the Sun was written entirely during an evolving phase for Moon Duo. It was a rare and uneasy rest period, devoid of the constant adrenaline of performing live and the stimulation of traveling through endless moving landscapes. This offered Moon Duo a new space to reflect on all of these previous experiences and cradle them while cultivating the album in the unfamiliar environment of a new dwelling; a dark Portland basement. It was from this stir-crazy fire that Shadow of the Sun was forged.

Catch the three-piece Moon Duo band – Ripley Johnson (guitars), Sanae Yamada (keys) and John Jeffrey (drums) — all over the U.S. and Europe beginning at the end of this month.

MOON DUO TOUR DATES: Fri. Feb. 27 – Fargo, MN @ The Aquarium Sat. Feb. 28 – Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry Sun. Mar. 1 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club Tue. Mar. 3 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Wed. Mar. 4 – Detroit, MI @ PJ’s Lager House Thu. Mar. 5 – Toronto, ON @ Silver Dollar Fri. Mar. 6 – Montreal, QC @ Le Ritz Sat. Mar. 7 – Boston, MA @ Great Scott Mon. Mar. 9 – Brooklyn, NY @ Rough Trade Tue. Mar. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle Wed. Mar. 11 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery Thu. Mar. 12 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight Fri. Mar. 13 – Atlanta, GA @ 529 Sat. Mar. 14 – Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone Sun. Mar. 15 – Dallas, TX @ City Tavern Sat. Mar. 21 – Tucson, AZ @ Flycatcher Sun. Mar. 22 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room Tue. Mar. 24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Los Globos Wed. Mar. 25 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill Fri. Mar. 27 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret w/ Craft Spells Sat. Mar. 28 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios Wed. April 8 – Manchester, UK @ Islington Mill Thu. April 9 – Brighton, UK @ The Haunt Fri. April 10 – Paris, FR @ La Machine Du Moulin Rouge Sat. April 11 – Bordeaux, FR @ Bootleg Sun. April 12 – San Sebastian, ES @ Dabadaba Tue. April 14 – Madrid, ES @ El Sol Wed. April 15 – Barcelona, ES @ Almo2Bar Thu. April 16 – Lyon, FR @ Le Marché Gare Fri. April 17 – Turin, IT @ Spazio 211 Sat. April 18 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen Mon. April 20 – Munich, DE @ Kranhalle Tue. April 21 – Berlin, DE @ SO36 Wed. April 22 – Copenhagen, DK @ Stengade Thu. April 23 – Hamburg, DE @ Molotow Fri. April 24 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Sat. April 25 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique Mon. April 27 – Birmingham, UK @ The Hare & Hound Tue. April 28 – Bristol, UK @ The Exchange Wed. April 29 – Leeds, UK @ Holy Trinity Church Thu. April 30 – London, UK @ Village Underground Fri. May 1 – Dublin, IE @ Workmans Club Sat. May 2 – Letterkenny, IE @ Distorted Perspective Festival Sun. May 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Live at Glasgow Mon. May 4 – Liverpool, UK @ The Kazimer

Why wouldn’t you love this video? It’s fucking mesmerizing.

Moon Duo are set to release their third full-length album, Shadow of the Sun, on March 3rd via Sacred Bones. Evolving the sound of their first two full-length records, Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012), Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada have developed their ideas with new band member, Canadian drummer John Jeffrey (present on the band’s last release, Live in Ravenna). The unchartered rhythms and tones present on this record are reflective of Moon Duo’s strive for equilibrium while recording the album in an unknown and stir crazy environment. It’s the result of months of wrangling with a profound feeling of being unsettled. There are off-kilter dance rhythms, repetitive, grinding riffs, cosmic trucker boogies and even an ecstatically pretty moment, that, in the end, finally reached a cool and paradoxically sane sound of confusion.

After sharing debut single, “Animal,” which has an early West Coast punk viciousness unique to the Moon Duo catalog, the band is now presenting the video directed by and starring skateboarding legend Richie Jackson. As described by Ripley, “We loved Richie Jackson’s skate videos, the idea of a psychedelic skater, something outside of the norm. We contacted him and he had the idea of doing the world’s first skate video without a skateboard, and we were sold right there.”

Moon Duo return with a more organic and riffy sound on the droney and brief teaser “Animal.” “Animal” is taken from the upcoming ominously titled, Shadow of the Sun, which will be out March 3rd on Sacred Bones Records.

The highest apex of psychedelia, be it art, music, drugs or literature, is to induce a prolonged consciousness shift that affects the consumer far beyond the time they were privy to the act. Moon Duo’s third full-length LP, Shadow of the Sun, was written entirely during one of these evolving phases — a rare and uneasy rest period, devoid of the constant adrenaline of performing live and the stimulation of traveling through endless moving landscapes. This offered Moon Duo a new space to reflect on all of these previous experiences and cradle them while cultivating the album in the unfamiliar environment of a new dwelling; a dark Portland basement. It was from this stir-crazy fire that Shadow of the Sun was forged.

Evolving the sound of their first two full-length records, Mazes (2011) and Circles (2012), Moon Duo — Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada — have developed their ideas with the help of their newly acquired steam engine, Canadian drummer John Jeffrey (present on the band’s last release, Live in Ravenna). The unchartered rhythms and tones present on this record are reflective of Moon Duo’s strive for equilibrium in this aforementioned new environment. You can hear it is the result of months of wrangling with a profound feeling of being unsettled – there are off-kilter dance rhythms, repetitive, grinding riffs, cosmic trucker boogies and even an ecstatically pretty moment. Mixing with Jonas Verwijnen in Berlin, allowed for a creative catharsis and dissolved the album’s formal technique into a cool and paradoxically sane sound of confusion.

Shadow of the Sun is available for pre-order now. iTunes’ pre-orders come with an instant download of lead single, “Animal.” In a nod to a great pop tradition, “Animal” will appear as the A-side of a 7-inch, packaged with each copy of the vinyl edition, and exist as the final track of the album on the CD and digital versions. The song has an early West Coast punk viciousness to it that is entirely unique to the Moon Duo catalog.

SHADOW OF THE SUN TRACKLISTING:

1. Wilding

2. Night Beat

3. Free The Skull

4. Zero

5. In A Cloud

6. Thieves

7. Slow Down Low

8. Ice

9. Animal