Jacobstone
Milwaukee, Wisconsin7 reviews across 3 releases
Jacobstone was a Wisconsin band formed in 1996 whose music moved between folk-based writing and polished pop-rock, with synth textures and occasional jazz inflections. A.J. Fink's textured, yearning vocals gave Glass Top Ships its center, while songs such as "Crackerstorm" pushed the arrangements toward a strange country-and-1980s-pop hybrid. The band's lyrics could be direct in their Christian concerns, but the song titles and structures were frequently unusual. On Chambers and Volumes, the accessible rock of the debut gave way to intricate arrangements, ethereal guitars and lyrics whose meanings remained oblique. Regions extended that change: its opening four songs were atmospheric indie rock, while the remaining eleven formed an ambient soundtrack for Richard Harden's In a Field of Poppies, using samples, spoken voices and atonal textures.
After Regions appeared in 2002, Jacobstone broke up just as the band was beginning to attract local acclaim. The split followed a sharp change in direction rather than a return to the accessible sound associated with Glass Top Ships: the final release had made the group a more experimental project, with its music tied to an exhibition about conflict in the Balkans.
3 releases reviewed
Glass Top Ships
Chambers and Volumes
