Blake Jones and the Trike Shop

About Me

A long time ago:
I remember us all riding our bikes to Me n' Ed's. We stopped to pump up our bike tires. Rob pumped his too much and it popped real loud. We all laughed---except for Rob. He was mad. Hey, we were insensitive teenagers. But he wrote better songs than any of us.
And then I think someone said something like:
The problem with developing/growing in the world of art or music, is that one becomes more and more of an idiosyncratic marketing problem. One becomes more and more interestingly oneself. This means that no matter how many genres they give you on the little pull-down menu, you cant find one you can happily wrap around your forehead, and it becomes more and more difficult to answer the innocent question:
"Yeah, but what kind of music do you play?"
Even longer ago:
My mom said that sometimes when I was really little, she'd run off to do a quick errand and leave me with just my little record player. This explains a thing or two.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/26/2006
Band Website: blakejonesmusic.com
Band Members: Martin Hansen: bass
Blake Jones: songs, vocals, guitar, theremin
Mike Scott: guitar, vocals
John Shafer: drums
Leland Vander Poel: keyboards, vocals

Influences: Seeing Ray Davies perform live, watching film footage of Keith Moon, digging through the record collections of my brother and sister, digging through the record collections of my friends, never-ending talks about music and life and music as life with friends over the years, reading about Leon Theremin, reading about Nikola Tesla, reading TapeOp magazine, and watching local bands tear into it on a good night.

Listening to:
SMiLE, Revolver, The Who "Sell Out", Clara Rockmore playing the theremin, Tom Waits' "Swordfish Trombones", The Shins "Shoots Too Narrow", Joni Mitchell's "Blue", Pet Sounds, The Kinks' "Village Green Preservation Society", anything by Jonathan Richman, Esquivel, "Bringing It All Back Home", Quadrophenia, Dizzy Gillespi's "Salt Peanuts", Bjork, Syd Barrett, Donovan, renaissance vocal music, ...and more more more
Sounds Like: Cool & Strange Music Magazine said:

But right here and now, it provided a clue to at least two of Blake Jones' major inspirations: the melodic pop of Brian Wilson and Paul McCartney. Also hovering above and within this collection of well-constructed pop songs are the melodies of Todd Rundgren as well as the occasional (and non-satirical) trace elements of Frank Zappa. [Their music is] clean, orderly and unabashed pop ...of the highest optimism.

independentclauses.com said:

like a lost radio station from 1965 playing the Beatles, early Who, and early Kinks.

indiepop.it said:

Jones e soci sono aperti ad ogni influenza dal pop al garage, filtrati dalla 'science fiction'.

Smother Magazine said:

what makes it even more like something from Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson is its inventive use of instrumentation with a shopping list of instruments including toy pianos, organ, theremin, as well as the usual suspects.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Peace at 7,000 Feet.

I'm thankful that I've got the time, proximity and opportunity to head up into the mountains a couple times each summer---usually for a couple of days at a time. The mountains are so close to us here...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:51:00 PST

Why I Call Frank Zappa One of My Heroes.

Why I call Frank Zappa' One of My Heroes Is it because I love all of his music? Nah. I do like lots of it, but this guy has released something like 90 albums. Some of them I think are brilliant, and ...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:41:00 PST

So how’s the new album coming along?

As many of you know, I’ve been pretty busy with the Rogue Festival. I helped out in my regular capacity as venue manager at Veni Vidi Vici and staged a show [Sprawlzilla vs. Mainstreet] with my ...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:09:00 PST

What I did over Christmas Vacation (writing a show about SPRAWL!)

One of the great perks of having the day job of "teacher' , is that you get some pretty cool days off---the same ones the schoolkids get. (Yeah, the problems of being the 'Music' schoolteacher ...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:49:00 PST

new song post for my brother Bryan

I was just watching a bootleg dvd of the Clash playing New York in 1980---just after the London Calling album. That had to be the first Clash album that Bryan turned me onto, or was it ...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Sun, 19 Aug 2007 05:50:00 PST

lots of recording, and a couple gigs coming up, and a mystery story not yet told

I'm taking a small break from taking a small break: sitting out in the Central Valley late afternoon under a shade tree with a glss of cheap California wine reading from The Bible, Jack Kerouac's "T...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:05:00 PST

The Liverpool Diaries: DAY FOUR: On to Bradford!

Day FOUR: ON TO BRADFORD!--our final gig of the trip!Today we took the train to Bradford, a town in West Yorkshire very near Leeds. We traveled through the Pennines where we saw a number of small tow...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Sun, 10 Jun 2007 09:44:00 PST

The Liverpool Blogs:DAY THREE:no shows today, so the Beatlegeeks take the Magical Mystery Bus

Chapter Four in which the band, having no shows today, take a ride on the Magical Mystery Bus Tour.Woke up this morning and piled down to the breakfast room. Had to be there *well* before 9:30. Yeste...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:07:00 PST

The Liverpool Blogs: Day 2: In which we play the Cavern and get played on the BBC

Day TwoThe Trike Shop plays the Cavern Club and gets played on BBC Merseyside! The day began with our English friend David Summers leading us on a stroll through the Dingle (the non-posh, but charact...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:45:00 PST

DAY ONE: Manic Joy

Day One --- Manic Joy I arrived at the Pineapple Pub & Hotel in the Dingle (the decidedly-not-posh, but character-filled neighborhood of Liverpool in which Ringo had grown...
Posted by Blake Jones and the Trike Shop on Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:12:00 PST