Jasongs/Jayway/Serenade: Rave Reviews

Wow! nicely arranged Beatlesque tunes! Early Pink Floyd also comes to mind. His vocals remind one of Greg Allman or Warren Haynes of Govt Mule. The harmonies are spot on and the melodies offer surprising twists that grab you. Guitar and keyboard sounds are constantly original and changing. Favorite tune for me was Cola Brown Hair but all are so well put together. The cd starts and ends with 2 theocratic songs that many will love. The last song, Communicate is quite an anthem that can make the tears well up. Wow, indeed!

Arriving in my mail box today were a BUNCH of CDs, including Eric Clapton & JJ Cale, Cream, Robert Randolph, Medeski Scofield Martin & Wood, Sam Moore, and this GREAT one from an artist who calls himself Jayway, but I know him better as Jason Arvanites. I listened to this one first, and was not disappointed. It's certainly the freshest music I've heard in a looong time. I hear Genesis, Toy Matinee, and of course the Beatles in these beautifully crafted tunes. And Jay is not shy about showing his sense of humor. My personal favorites - Dust Bunnies, Irukandji, and Communicate (VERY Beatlesque harmonies and arrangements on that last one). Buy this or you'll never be happy again!!!

I would have to agree with Mr. Alt's assessment of Jason's music. I too heard the Toy Matinee influence, as well as a generous helping of slices of Beatles "fruits", to steal the artist's running metaphor re: this release. Nice arranging sensibility, too. Thanks to CD Baby for making music like this from relative "unknowns" available. Buy this very listenable and professionally performed and assembled cornucopia!

This is the kind of kids' music that won't make an adult cringe to hear it. The music is international in flavor, reminding us that we all must share the planet, not just with people, but bugs as well. The variety of musical presentations makes it difficult to believe it's only one small group of folks doing all that. Just buy the whole CD, thar ain't a bummer among 'em!

One of my favorites is "Wash Your Hands". The kids got a big kick out of it too. But I think my personal favorite is "Chores". It has a very infectious beat. I was also impressed with the quality of production. I also enjoyed the international flavor of it. You covered everything from India to Jamaica to Ireland to England and back home again. Thanks again.

My favorites were "Yellow Sleep" and "Mystery Moon". The harmonies are great..."Ahhhh, mystery moon." This album is somewhat Beatlesque in nature too. I also appreciated the tribute to Depeche Mode in "Bash Boom". Very entertaining.

Semigloss Picnic is extremely well produced, exactly what I'd expect from a true Beatle fan. The layered vocals stand out as an obvious fab four influence, especially from Rubber Soul, Revolver and Abbey Road. Great variety of material, and suitably quirky for those of us who are slightly toasted.

As the editor of the other Brainjam (which is a website that's been going since 2000 just in case anybody suspects plagarism) I was given this album by a friend. I chuckled a great deal and now have it on my iPod.

Now that I've listened to Brain Jam II a couple of times, I feel qualified to comment on it briefly. I'm not sure if I like it better than the first one. I was kinda partial to Wash Your Hands. Anyway, I think my favorites are I Hate Pollution and Explore, Baby! What I get a kick out of with the pollution song is the Scotsman-Dylan-Keanu Reeves-Vinnie Babarino treatment. Putting that over that rock beat is a really cool idea. I like the words too. Explore has some really cool use of bass - although I don't usually like songs that are essentially spoken rather than song, I think this one works.