I have a half dozen friends who have had some success in the music industry and today I want to put in a good word for one of them. Maybe, one day I will get to some of the others.
I have known Jesse since he was a teen in the “rival” high school with mutual friends. He was one of the coolest people around back then. I still think he is. He was in one of the two local bands of the day- when the prevailing trends were U2 arena rock and baggy psychedelic Neds Atomic Dustbin style of the day.
I am probably not as close to him as I am with other friends of mine, and yet, I feel like whenever it was the toughest times of my life, he was always there for me. Even now, I really enjoy the quick conversation with him online. Funny, how we probably don’t realize that effect we have on others.
About a decade ago, he got active making music again, playing bass guitar in support for a band in St Louis. I was starting a family and unfortunately never made it to any of his live shows though at the time, I had hoped I could.
Since then, he has made music as a trio mostly in the recording studio with a rare love date.
In the last couple of years, he has really stepped up his recording and making his previously recorded stuff available on line. Although we have many similar tastes, I feel like his recordings dig into his roots of prog rock and Dischord Records style post punk. His last album- 2021s Precious Cargo was more into some of the progressive style stuff.
So I am more excited about his newest album- Mochyn Dall which is his love letter to 90s era Central Illinois music. This is more in line with those latter influences in emo-rock and post-hardcore. On his Bandcamp page, he calls out Sarge, Seam, the Poster Children and Hum.
I have written about my relationship with Champaign, Illinois music before. While I only spent a handful of weekend there, some of my best friends lived there and so I still felt that influence strongly. In hindsight, many of those bands in that scene ended up playing a major part on the development of emo rock.
Have a listen. Visit his Bandcamp if you want https://gentlem3n.bandcamp.com/ or
stream it on Spotify, YouTube or in the usual places.
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