Face The Music..........by Marie Yarbrough

 

A Murfreesboro band of quirky experimental indie-rockers, Juan Prophet Organization blends a myriad of instruments (including violin, piano, accordion, clarinet and glockenspiel) with the traditional guitar/bass/drums line-up. Formed in 1999 in Louisiana, the band includes multi-instrumentalist Grayson White, Joshua Foreman, Kris White and Jeff Holt, and David Jellema and Matt Crisafi recently joined the crew. Currently JPO is working on their third album, "The Carrot and The Stick," due out this winter. See the band open for Sleepytime Gorilla Museum tomorrow night at The Muse and October 30th at Radio Cafe. For more info on the band, check out http://www.juanprophet.org. Here violinist Grayson White talks about her favorite local jazz band, gigantic rats and the elusive Juan Prophet.

Describe your music style, please..........It's rooted deep into a place that is recognizable as Under the Big Top, but destined to perform in 21st-century bars across the U.S. We were invited this summer to join a circus based out of North Carolina and provide the music. I was signed up for their trapeze class, with huge regret, there was a murder and the show could not begin. The bearded lady was in love with merry-go-round man and he went after the Siamese twins, things got ugly. That's the circus for ya.

What's the first album you ever bought and where is is now?.......................... U2's The Joshua Tree and The Breeders, I still listen to both.

What song would you never want to hear again, and why?.................................. "Somewhere out there." It makes me think of those days when you did listen to really bad music, yet when this song came out everyone hated it and every little brat had to sing it for talent competitions or like the last day of school party or whatever. It makes me nauseous.

What's your favorite cheesy song?........................... "Unskinny Bop," no thanks to Kris White.

What's the best gig you ever had?................... The best show for me was a show in Knoxville, Tennessee with Skeleton Key and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. It's a perfect bill for our band first off, and SGM holds people in the band that I consider musical mentors, or at least superheroes. It was nerve racking to play before them, but it was a stellar show. We've done a couple of shows with SGM since then and are bringing them to Nashville October 15th at The Muse.

What's the worst gig you ever had?..................... I would have to say Baltimore, Maryland. We arrived around 4:30 a.m. from Washington, D.C., the rats were bigger than my 70-pound mutt Raga, a rave was going on at the bar we were playing at, and also, the place where we were sleeping for the night. When we did play, about 5 people were there and one was singing with us (they'd never heard the music before, and the others were pretty much makin it up). I think a hooker was there as well. Even though, I can't wait to get back on the road; we are going through the process right now of polishing our new album, looking at different booking agents and praying that someone wants to give us a city bus to tour in.

Who are your favorite Nashville musicians/artists?............... Peter Hyrka

What's your opinion on the Nashville music scene?..................... Actually, there are great parts, the fact that there are some outstanding musicians in this town, and some bad parts, the fact that outstanding musicians play and no one goes out to see them. One of my favorite Nashville groups is the Gypsy Hombres: they play for free every Wednesday at Cafe 123 and I go every week, there is no one there. I think it would benefit the scene if the bands here in town were more connnected and brought in more touring and regional acts.

What are you listening to now?........................... The Rachels and Carl Staling ( who we get compared to a lot). Some of our other influences are Secret Chiefs 3, Estradasphere, and anything off of Mimicry Records.

Where did the name Juan Prophet Organization come from?.................. Well, it's really kind of a secret but the idea was that we wanted to create a forum for the community; for the forward thinkers. Juan Prophet is a fictional character. That's really all I can say. It's a well guarded mystery.