Local Spins spotlights the Grand Rapids jam band with a new studio album, ‘Squids,’ and debuts tracks by Cameron Blake, Dante Cope, The Incantations, Mustard Plug, Mark Farner and more.
Unleashing the Band’s ‘Most Theatrical Piece’ Ever: Desmond Jones’ “Squids.” (Photo/Loren Johnson)
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It’s the stuff of science fiction and suspenseful, big-screen Hollywood spectacles.
Giant alien squids from outer space crash land in the oceans, eventually battling humans for the Earth’s supremacy before returning to their home planet.
The fantastical odyssey isn’t the script for an upcoming blockbuster movie but rather the story behind the latest studio album from popular Grand Rapids jam band Desmond Jones — a wild tale hatched a decade ago when band members were still students at Michigan State University.
“It’s been a long-running concept for Desmond Jones,” said guitarist and singer Isaac Berkowitz, who was inspired to create the album theme after viewing a PBS documentary about squids.
“We kind of worked through this whole idea and we thought it was pretty fun, and from there, we thought the story was big enough that we could add to it. … Everyone in the band put in their little bit of the story and (it) was able to grow into this kind of universe of squids that we’ve been able to bounce off of.”
Returning to Elevation: Deamond Jones’ release show is Nov. 27. (Photo/Nathan Purchase)
“Fun” has long been the operative word for the oft-flamboyant, 12-year-old Desmond Jones, which also features drummer John Nowak, guitarist Chris Bota, saxophonist George Falk and bassist Taylor Watson.
So the upcoming release party for “Squids” at The Intersection’s Elevation in Grand Rapids on Thanksgiving Eve (Nov. 27) shapes up as an elaborate, costume- and jam-filled evening, with Ficus and Hannah Laine opening the show. Tickets, $15 in advance, for the 17-and-older 8 p.m. show are available online here.
“Fans can expect one helluva show,” Nowak said of the performance that will have Desmond Jones playing the new album in its entirety, enhanced by “added theatrics.”
Added Berkowitz: “We have some fun things planned, some fun little extra bells and whistles and stage antics to really bring the story together. We’re excited to kind of make it a full performance and show ‘Squids’ at its biggest that it’s been, at its most full.”
ENERGY IN THE STUDIO AND REVELING IN ‘ARTISTIC FREEDOM’
The band first started tracking the album – featuring three exceptionally long tracks, an intro and an interlude – in July 2022 with Kevin McKay at InMuSo Studios in Webberville and wrapped it up this past summer. Special guests included violinist Ashley Hansen and celloist Maddy Peter, with Kalamazoo’s Collin Pompey of Black Ops Audio mastering the project.
The lengthy tracks (“We’re big Frank Zappa fans,” Berkowitz quipped) took several takes in a row to perfect, recorded live as a band.
“It’s a lot of energy,” Nowak said. “Being all together in the room at the same time playing on the tracks has been the way we’ve done our last three albums. No click track, no tempos or anything like that. And it’s just the best way that we get our organic Desmond Jones sound.”
The band used the opportunity to revel in “artistic freedom” and “explore the sonic themes and addition of auxiliary percussion, string arrangements and improvisation in the studio setting.”
Desmond Jones, “Squids”
It’s the latest milestone for a band that’s created its own sound from wide-ranging influences – Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead, The Beatles, Mingus, Phish, The Band, Led Zeppelin – to cultivate a growing audience across the state and the country.
“One of the biggest changes I think, personally, is getting new fans around the country through streaming services like Spotify and specifically Nugs.net where we upload our live shows to. And they have their own dedicated following of live music fans, specifically a lot of jam band fans,” Nowak noted.
“And since we’ve been on that, we’ve seen a lot of new people showing up to our shows, which is really exciting for us. When we first started … I could probably name 90 percent of the crowd’s first and last names because they were all our friends and our family and we’re so lucky to have the support from all of them.
“Now when we play, I look at the crowd and I don’t recognize that many people. And that’s really exciting because that means we’re still reaching new people, new fans and new listeners even so far into our career. And it kind of gives you that fresh feeling …”
Berkowitz said the band has one more big show planned for 2024 – opening for Dopapod’s final Michigan show at Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Café in Kalamazoo on Dec. 28 – and is working with a new agent to book tours for 2025.
The band also already has one new song, “Park It,” completed, with plans for releasing more studio tracks and live singles in the coming year.
“We have some fun plans, hopefully back to the East Coast and kind of the Southeast area is where we like to hit. So we’ll probably be making the usual rounds and trying to just make more music as we go.”
Remarked Nowak: “We have just as much fun now as we did when we first started.”
For this week’s edition of Local Spins on WYCE, Desmond Jones debuted part of the track, “Squids,” as well as “So Deep,” from the new recording. Check out the full interview below.
Local Spins on WYCE — which showcases Michigan music at 11 a.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Sunday on WYCE (88.1 FM) and online at wyce.org — also featured fresh tracks from The Incantations, Dante Cope, Ficus, Cameron Blake, Cosmic Knot, Mark Farner, Mustard Plug and The JR Band. Listen to the radio show podcast here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (11/15/24)
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