What if Grace Slick grew up an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn? She’d hit the road and morph into mock-rock-goddess Rita Emerson! Sing along on Rita’s journey to stardom and back. It’s a musical tale of sex, jugs and rock-n-roll.

Even better is that after the show, The Flying Change is hosting the official after-party at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1.  I’ll be playing some new tunes with Rob DiPietro on drums, Rob Jost on bass, and Matt Ray on piano.  Our show starts late so get there around 1AM after you’ve seen Stephanie debut Feed the Monster.

Click here to buy tickets from Ticketweb

The band had slowly been growing in size.  We added a violin player, a percussionist, even a second guitarist for the last show at the Mercury Lounge.  14 people.  It’s a big production.  It’s expensive to do.  But, also, with so many people, it was feeling a little less magical and a little less organic.  After doing a much smaller show for Paul’s birthday, featuring just me, Matt Ray and Noah on guitar, I wanted to try something where there wasn’t as much pageantry and where we could really focus on organically making music.

The experiment was a success.

The band was me, Noah, Matt, Marc Dalio on drums and Paul singing backup.  That still sounds like a big band but it was small by our standards.  Felt much more like a band.  A bunch of like minded individuals.  It was easier to find a cohesion. A harmony.  A stomping and a rollicking and a good thing going.  I’d say the only drawback was that we played a bunch of new songs and those songs required me to play a lot of guitar and I’ve grown to not really love playing the guitar so much while I sing.  It’s better and I can really concentrate and I don’t screw up the rhythms. 

We played a bunch of new songs that have become finalists for the final tracklisting on Living at the Movies, whenever it finally gets recorded.  They’ll get tighter as we go but the energy was definitely there.  Some notes for those at home and the setlist:

1. Anywhere At All
One way I write is by turning down a song really low by another artist and then singing over it.  It’s strange.  At very low volumes the song shifts and my ears pick up different things and construct their own melody.  It’s not even the same chord changes necessarily. My brain just assembles something into something else and it becomes original. So this song was inspired by a Deerhunter song “Twilight at Carbon Lake”.   One of my favorite new songs.  Just a very natural flowing rolling chorus. 

2. A Difficult Equation
This is one of about three songs I wrote all in a row one afternoon at the old sublet.  The highlight of this tune is two-fold. The verse where Matt Ray wrote this very beautiful part originally on the glockenspiel.  Sounds like a Wilco song I think.  Forget which one.  Maybe Ashes of American Flags.  Then the bridge.  It’s weird.  Bridges are so obviously forced mechanisms.  But you realize why you need them when you’re building a song.  They’re necessary.  They’re an other that brings it back to the home.  Anyway, this bridge is very emotional and pure and real and I like it.

3. Sorry Ghost
A slow waltz about apologizing.  Started with the phrase “The best part of hell … is being dead”.  That’s dark I guess.  But it’s also kind of funny.  A touch of humor. 

4.  Missanthropy
Where we steal the refrain from the Digital Underground.  “Hey yo stop what you’re doin cuz I’m about to ruin” and we turn that into the chorus.  Some people like.  Others don’t.  But it gets us going. 

5. Dirty White Coats
We brought Katie up to play some parts.  Worked really well.  Emphasis on oboe for a moment without having the full-on shebang that we normally have.  We sped up the tempo into the tempo that I had originally written for it.  Always fun to play.  New life into the song.

6. There Is A Light
I wrote this song last year when my grandfather passed away.  A lot of people dig it.  Then on the other hand much of the imagery is pretty religious which surprises me because I’m not really that religious.  It could almost pass for a Christian song.  Given that I’m a Jew, it’s sort of strange.  But regardless it’s real to me.  I miss that man every day.  The line I like is thus: “There is a book etched in the age when all things are written.  And everything good goes on for long.”  Even if someone wasn’t rich or famous there is a catalogue of the kharma they created somewhere.  It counts to be a great person and a loving father and husband, no matter what else happens in this world.

7. Colorado Drugs (Slow)
No matter how much we tried to slow this down, the song comes out rocking and huge.  It was fun.  Noah did a great job on this tune.

8. Broken Bow
Old reliable.  Still best song I’ve ever written.  I’m starting to feel washed up I guess.

9. Vicodin
We were going to play something else but then I got embarrassed and then we ripped into Vicodin and it was great.

10. Oh My God
But then we ended up playing the other thing anyway.  This song may not ever be recorded but my guess is that it’s going to be a crowd pleaser for awhile.  Good times USA.

Bottom line is that we pulled a good one.  The band felt cohesive and tight and the whole thing came off as I’d hoped.  Those are the kinds of shows you want to do more of.

Jacobs shuns the acoustic strumming and anguish-laden lyrics in favor of a more upbeat change of pace with funky, electronic beats a la LCD Soundsystem and the repeated line “I quit my job” on “Singer,” which you can download below. Last year, our hearts were aching; this year, we just wanna dance.

And then Ron Tremblath from Fensepost came in with some great words today.

But, let’s call it as it is folks: A poet, a true artist at that, is in love with defiance, dancing, and pop culture. And he found an absolutely splendid way to make this happen. The songs rock, and can be enjoyed by a wide audience. That is all that really matters here. You just can’t find originality like Jacob’s The Flying Change anymore.

Good vibrations abound.

So please put it on your calendar.  And expect big things from the show.  I’ll be thinking of how to make it as great as possible.

The Flying Change
The Mercury Lounge
Tuesday, May 25th, 7pm
237 Houston Street
New York, NY

Yes, we hope to see you there, my friends.

So we’ll be re-skinning the website, doing a promo clip or two, maybe doing a video, doing a press campaign with Bill and the team at TC, writing a new bio.  And, of course, seeing if there’s a way to recreate these songs live.  I’m partial to and more interested in the first song, “Singer” which has this banging hard edge to it and which I’ve labeled “escapist electro-pop”.  We’ll see how it goes.

So stay tuned.  S/S will probably come out in early June with an EP release party sometime in late May.

Rockwood Music Hall
196 Allen Street
New York, NY
9pm
FREE SHOW

We’re playing another show at Rockwood.  It should be fun as always.  The band is

me – I wrote the songs, I sing them, I play a smattering of guitar
Bronwen Exter – stands next to me, sings, dances occasionally
Paul Brill – produced the record, sings, plays lots of guitar, plays samples on laptop, etc.
Matt Ray – plays piano, glockenspiel, sings, helps arrange the songs
Flavio Gaete – plays viola, claps and says “say something” when required
Katie Scheele – oboe, English horn, takes her dog to dog bars which is a Brooklyn thing apparently
Dan Levine – trombone, euphonium, arranges
Stan Harrison – saxophones, flute, funny jokes
Marc Dalio –  drums and percussion
Rich Stein – percussion
Rob Jost – bass, singing, smiles, other gigs
Noah Lebenzon – electric guitars, glasses, funny stories

Hope to see you there.

The biggest blog besides AudioMuffin is probably Largehearted Boy.  We also got some coverage on a covers blog called Cover Me.  We also got some nice coverage on The Music Slut and Surviving the Golden Age.

And I think there might be more forthcoming.  Thanks to everyone for getting the word out.

Here’s what he had to say about it:

Someone Great brings The Flying Change to an orchestral 13-piece band. Each member of the band adds their own rhythm and titillating flourish.  If anyone has video of this please leave a link in the comments – it sounds epic!

Thanks for the kind words, Frank!  Check out our cover of ‘Someone Great’ on Audio Muffin when you have a chance.

Somewhere between Sam Jacobs’ saddened personal affairs, and his personal and professional relationships with extraordinary talents, he created a mind-scape of fine-tuned and pop-riddled indie rock.

The gang at Striker Bill have listed PIARS as #18.

This is a stark, meticulously elegant and achingly beautiful set of songs that possess an emotional ardor unlike most music that you’ve heard before.

And Ste Birkett at Heavier Than Air listed it at #14.

Exquisitely orchestrated from the delicate, minimalist passages of Broken Bow to the light-hearted bounce of If You See Something, every song here is a winner.

Not bad for a band, a songwriter and a record that were completely unknown seven months ago.  Bring it on 2010.