Gary Jules

He is a Folk Rocker from Los Angeles. He stunned several people with his amazing cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World."
http://www.myspace.com/garyjules
Quote from his MySpace.
Wait a minute, thinks I -- critics don't buy records, fans do.

So when I heard that Gary Jules had been handing out home-burned copies of his new self-titled album -- the first since "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets", which took him to .. 1 in the UK in 2003 (when I first met him) -- I figured I'd see what they, the fans, had to say.

Here's what I found:

"I, like many, had only heard his cover of Tears for Fears 'Mad World' from Donnie Darko. When I saw him live I found myself mesmerized by his own songs. Such a soulful voice . . like whispery life-soundtrack music for grown-up indie kids". (Thanks Meredith, San Francisco).

"The best yet. Ties it all together. If there is any justice in the world, this record will make Gary Jules a household name . . . for all of us who sway to Jack Johnson and dream to Elliott Smith." (Thanks "Pablo X, Crooklyn".

In case you're wondering, here's why Meredith and Pablo's words are important:

A small number of independently-produced pre-release copies of Gary Jules' long-awaited self-titled follow-up to "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" are now available, but only at live shows along his Summer US Tour route and online from his website (www.garyjules.com) through CdBaby.com.

For this information to be meaningful, you may need to know the following:

After years struggling in the nascent Los Angeles underground singer-songwriter scene of the mid-90's, Gary Jules' first record "Greetings from the Side" was recorded for A&M Records and released in August 1998. Weeks later A&M's parent label Polygram was bought by MCA/Universal. Jules and "Greetings" were lost in the proverbial shuffle, but not before both received considerable critical acclaim. Zeke Piestrup of VH-1's show "Fresh" called Jules "The best American singer-songwriter to emerge out of the late '90's -- and the only one worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence with Paul Simon, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Nick Drake."

In 2001 Jules' original independent release of "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets", which included a cover of Tears for Fears "Mad World" that Jules recorded with friend and producer Mike Andrews for the film "Donnie Darko", arrived to even more critical acclaim. The Village Voice called it "the best album to be released this year, anywhere. Period." Rolling Stone Magazine said "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets is at once beautiful and haunting, depressing and inspiring, lonely and welcoming -- delicately crafted folk music of the highest order." In October 2001, Richard Kelly's film "Donnie Darko" came out in theaters and quickly became a cult phenomenon. Not bad for an album created in a basement for less than $100.

In 2002 "Snakeoil" was championed by Nic Harcourt, host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic" at KCRW in Los Angeles, and by Bruce Warren at WXPN in Philadelphia. With these giants of listener-supported radio spreading the word, Jules toured constantly as an independent artist, sharing the stage with Jack Johnson, Damien Rice, Sheryl Crow, Beck, Mason Jennings, Jewel, Jason Mraz, The Polyphonic Spree, Liz Phair, and Todd Rundgren. His year-long residency at the then anonymous Hotel Cafe in Hollywood has become the stuff of legend in the new LA underground.

In the Fall of 2003 the Jules/Andrews version of "Mad World" started receiving major airplay in the UK. One story goes that it was originally played on-air by Robbie Williams during a guest DJ spot. Others say it was Thom Yorke. Either way, Jules and "Snakeoil" were licensed by Adventures/Sanctuary and in December, fueled by a slew of powerful live television performances and tons of old-fashioned word-of-mouth love, Gary Jules and Michael Andrews became only the 6th American act ever to win the coveted "Christmas ..1". "Snakeoil" was released in the UK and Europe in early 2004. Jules went gold, then platinum, in fewer than 8 weeks and in several different territories. "Mad World" was the biggest single of the year.

Gary Jules finished an eventful couple of years with tours in Australia and the UK/Europe including a 3 week Summer '04 run with Bob Dylan from Ireland to Portugal.

In August Gary and his wife Greta welcomed the birth of their first child.

In 2006 Gary recorded his self-produced, and self-titled album "Gary Jules", then left Los Angeles and moved to rural North Carolina where he'll probably stay forever and ever wearing white suits and bowties.

TO SIGN UP FOR THE VERY NON-SPAMMY EMAIL LIST, for more info, or to contact Gary Jules, please visit www.garyjules.com.

My favorite song from him is Mad World.
(It's been awhile since I made a band topic, so I don't know what else I'm supposed to say.)[img][/img]

Never heard of him but I'll check him out