Were Jellyfish to reunite . . .

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Rosskolnikov, Aug 4, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Rosskolnikov

    Rosskolnikov Designated Cloud Yeller Thread Starter

    So if Hell froze over (again) and Jellyfish were to re-unite, who should be in the band?

    1. Andy Sturmer, Roger Manning, Jason Falkner, Chris Manning - the original 4

    2. Andy Sturmer, Roger Manning, Jason Falkner, a bassist to be named

    3. Andy Sturmer Roger Manning, Eric Dover, Tim Smith - the Spilt Milk band

    4. Andy Sturmer, Roger Manning, and other players
     
  2. CardinalFang

    CardinalFang New Member

    Location:
    ....
    The original line-up. I wish I would have been able to see them live back in the day...
     
  3. Electric Bozo

    Electric Bozo Holy Synthesist

    Location:
    Chesapeake, VA
    Man, that's tough. I chose Andy, Roger, Jason, and a bassist to be named (preferably Tim as he sang better than Chris in my opinion). Eric Dover is an outstanding guitarist/vocalist, but I like Jason as a part of Jellyfish and hope that if this hypothetical reunion were to occur that perhaps Andy & Roger would allow Jason to contribute to the writing. He's certainly proven himself with The Grays and his solo work.
     
  4. Hypothetically...It would have to be the original four...real life although I doubt that Andy and Roger the main drivers of the band would ever be interested. Jason would probably never do it as he really wasn't allowed to write or sing lead in the band. I would be interested in seeing Jason sing lead and perform with Roger as Jellyfish.
     
  5. mrdon

    mrdon Senior Member

    This would be a dream come true if Andy and Roger would get together one more time.
     
  6. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    I saw them (or at least some of them) in a prior incarnation as Beatnik Beatch. I saw them a couple of times at BB, opening for...(I can't recall) in the Bay Area. They didn't incite that much enthusiasm at that time, and probably for good reason (the Beatnik Beatch albums are pretty spotty). I never saw Jellyfish, although I had the opportunity to do so. Probably my loss...

    Kwad
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  7. Jon Busey-Hunt

    Jon Busey-Hunt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minneapolis, MN
    Wow, I'm the only guy who voted for the Spilt Milk touring band?!

    I dunno -- I saw them live on that tour (with Redd Kross -- holy hanna, that was great) and they were phenomenal. Chris Manning wasn't much of a bassist, was he? And I get the feeling that Jason Falkner has his own gig a lot these days, he doesn't need no steeenking Sturmer no more!!

    Man, I *wish*. Hell, I'd settle for a Sturmer solo tour. Or a Sturmer solo ANYTHING that wasn't Him Producing A Different Band (as much as I like Puffy Ami Yumi!!)
     
    Groundhog713 and RickH like this.
  8. mick dillingham

    mick dillingham New Member

    Location:
    london england
    jellyfish have had their chips

    Jason and roger have been in a few band projects together since jellyfish....most notably TV Eye.....available in japan only which is their homage to 80s pop..but all orginal songs......andy sturmer would be the sticking point......I think you have about as much chance of Jellyfish reforming as you have The Grays (Jason and Jon Brions post jellyfish combo...who personally i think are a far superior band)
    Beatnik Beach were a poor band by anyones standards, at the time Andy and Roger were big fans of obscure SF band The Ophelias, they used to go see them live all the time...The Ophelias were doing the type of arrangements that Jellyfish did later but the Ophelias were an all together weirder band...i love them .....after jason walked out of Jellyfish they offered the job to Ophelias guitarist...David Immergluck
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  9. Royce

    Royce Senior Member

    I think I would go with either Andy, Roger, Jason, & Tim, or Andy, Roger, Jon (Brion), & Tim..Since we're wishing, the one thing that i would like to see/hear, is to have both "Bellybutton" and "Spilt Milk" remixed for surround sound..Wouldn't that be something? :)
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  10. Rosskolnikov

    Rosskolnikov Designated Cloud Yeller Thread Starter

    The thought occurred to me while listening to Roger Manning's solo CD today. The music is SO "Jellyfishy" (and given that a lot of Andy's production work has been as well), they ought to just get together and do something. There's no need for a major label, multi-million dollar, year-long tour thing, but rather a reunion, and album, and some spot dates. To make it fresh, they could try to integrate Falkner a little more into the sound/writing, which he clearly did well with Manning on a couple of projects.

    And it would be wonderful to hear Andy singing again.
     
    Groundhog713 and RickH like this.
  11. Rosskolnikov

    Rosskolnikov Designated Cloud Yeller Thread Starter

  12. ceddy10165

    ceddy10165 My life was saved by rock n roll

    Location:
    Avon, CT
    one of the best bands of their generation. over looked by most at the time, but never forgotten by those that got turned on to 'em.
     
  13. bhazen

    bhazen ANNOYING BEATLES FAN

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    I wish the Grays would reunite. One of the best (and of course, woefully obscure) albums of the 90's.
     
  14. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    I voted for the original group reuniting, but of course, I would take anything I could get that was Jellyfish-like.

    Saw them in 1990 opening for World Party, they were incredible. We had never heard of Jellyfish before. My friend and I bumped into Jason Falkner afterwards and told him that Andy Sturmer was a dead ringer for Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, vocally. Jason nodded and said that Andy would really appreciate that connection.
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  15. punkrok78

    punkrok78 Forum Resident

    any reformation would be good if it included a trip to Australia !!!
     
  16. willy

    willy hooga hagga hooga

    Andy, Roger and Jason. And the two cute Japanese girls from Puffy AmiYumi.
     
  17. mick dillingham

    mick dillingham New Member

    Location:
    london england
    the story Jason told me is that after he left Jellyfish mainly because he was not allowed the promised songwriting involvement and this following on from his unsatisfying time with the Three O'Clock (he loved that band and was over the moon to join them, wanted to make the best Three O'Clock album ever (and probably could have done) but they, being newly signed to Prince's Paisley Park label wanted to tailor the album to the label and Jason being seventeen and the new boy..they were not going to listen..they should have...their vision led to a duff ill concieved mess of an album) Jason never wanted to be part of another band. Then one day he meets this guy Jon Brion in a local cafe, Jon mentions he's hired a rehearsal space and had Dan McCaroll and Buddy Judge coming down and why didn't Jason join them for a jam?
    So they are having a good play and Jon pops off and phones someone at Columbia and says..."Guess who I've got here playing together?" and the person at Columbia replies ..."You're kidding we'll sign the band tomorrow!"
    So just like that Jason's now in a band that literally overnight are at the centre of a major label bidding war. The Grays Album Ro Sham Bo is for myself, a masterpiece, while not as influentual as Jellyfish proved to be, to me it is the benchmark album of the early nineties. Three great songwriters, four brilliant players. Unfortunately Falkner and Brion did not get on both personally and creatively. Both are major talents, but while Brion likes to go into a studio and see what happens on the day, Jason enters the studio with all the arrangements and ideas ready in his head.....they were never going to able to work together in the long term......halfway through the tour to promote the album and Brion had enough and was gone and that was that...a damn shame... Brion and Falkner have never worked together since (they are both on a susanne hoffs album but were never in the studio at the same time.) The Grays will never reform of that i am sure....
    It would be great to see Jellyfish return...with or without falkner (and if they did include Jason he would have to be an equal third of the band).....
    it would be great to have a Jellyfish concert (with Falkner,Imperial Drag and the Umajets in support)....people would go wild for it im sure
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  18. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    Can't happen...... Andy's too busy working on the new PUFFY AMI YUMI album. Love those girls! He's doing a killer job as their 'producer/songwriter/god-father'.
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  19. insidious meme

    insidious meme Forum Resident

    Location:
    So Cal
    Can't happen? Sure it can happen. Unlikely, but it can. I think the ball is in Sturmer's court to do so, but he has resisted ever since they broke up. His producing gig seems to satisfy him.

    I'd like the first formation if you twisted my arm, but pretty much any formation which has to include Sturmer and Manning will pretty much do. Everyone else that has played with them (Falkner, Smith, Brion, Dover...) can be replaced.
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  20. willy

    willy hooga hagga hooga

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB3bbdngYQM
     
  21. Scott in DC

    Scott in DC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    More, More!

    This is one band that I wish could have stayed together longer and put out more music. Their Bellybutton album was a strong album that I loved. With so many bands dragging on and on when they should call it quits Jellyfish is a band that burned out way too early.

    Scott
     
    Groundhog713 and RickH like this.
  22. DJMurphy

    DJMurphy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, USA
    Seeing J-fish live in Chgo at the Metro in support of Spilt Milk was truly one of the top 5 concerts of my life. However, I know how hard they drove themselves, and that they probably ended up fraying under the pressure of that perfectionism. Although it would be amazing to see the Spilt Milk touring band reunite, I honestly believe that as long as a Jellyfish reunion included Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning, that would suffice. In that sense, they're very much like Steely Dan (and the perfectionism).

    Would I ever see it happening? Not a snowball's chance in hell, based on all the very vague reports I've heard of the way things were left between Sturmer and Manning. Plus, I have grey-area recordings from the Spilt Milk tour, and you can hear that the screaming that Sturmer used as his singing style definitely took its toll on this particular late-in-the-tour stop. I know that time has a way of seasoning one's vocal cords, and his style of high-demand vocals for those two albums might not be possible 14 years after the fact. For that, he can most definitely be forgiven.

    Plus, think about it: do you really want to see them reunite? I'm sort of glad that the Clash never had the chance to reunite (although I'm still heartbroken that Joe Strummer died too soon), due to the fact that there's no way that they could have lived up to the expectations. Ditto (for me, at least) for Jellyfish, I guess. Of course, I realize that I'm saying this having had the chance to see them live at their arguable peak...

    And yes, the Grays' Ro Sham Bo is a masterpiece, only a stone's throw or so away from the majesty of the Jellyfish albums. To have seen them live must have been phenomenal, too. Does anyone here have the special acoustic version of "Very Best Years" that they recorded specially for Todd Rundgren's radio program The Difference? That was really a great version...
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  23. Rosskolnikov

    Rosskolnikov Designated Cloud Yeller Thread Starter

    Yes. For one thing, I'd really like to hear Sturmer's voice fronting a project again, and his writing connection with Roger Manning resulted in some special material. Roger's solo album certainly shows that he can and could still do ideas and arrangements in the Jellyfish style.

    It goes without saying that Sturmer might sing a little differently now than before . . . so be it.

    Roger Manning and Jason Falkner's albums have been so good that I'd probably just settle for a Sturmer-fronted project of any kind, but I believe that a Jellyfish reunion, even if for one album, would (like Steely Dan) result in good music.

    The Clash is a little different case. I think the punk movement was so closely tied to the social conditions and upheavals of late-70's Britain that for them to reform in a different context might not have worked. Jellyfish's music was much less political and hence somewhat more timeless. (That's not a value judgement of which is BETTER).
     
    Groundhog713 likes this.
  24. telliott

    telliott Senior Member

    Anything new in the Jellyfish camp in the last few years since that last post?

    Tim
     
  25. swedgin

    swedgin Forum Resident

    Location:
    Earth
    How I would love to source a copy of the boxset for something resembling a reasonable price.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine