Jackie O Motherfucker

Portland, OR-based improvisational weirdos Jackie-O Motherfucker filtered numerous musical genres (avant-garde, electronic music, folk, country, world music, spirituals, etc.) through their noisy, psychedelic scrape and grind. Formed by core members Tom Greenwood and Jef Brown, who both contribute to the band on a variety of instruments, Jackie-O Motherfucker also rely on the contributions of sax players John Flaming and Nester Bucket, drummer Jessie Carrot, guitarist Honey Owens, and multi-instrumentalist Andy Cvar. The band's output in the beginning was largely executed by the tiny Portland-based Imp Records, which issued three vinyl-only releases: S/T, Cross Pollinate, and Flat Fixed (which was a double LP). However, the turn of the century saw them gather some attention from well-respected corners of the indie world. Their first album, Fig. 5, was issued by Road Cone in the first months of 2000, with plans for a double LP being cooked up at the same time by Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label. Moore's guitar playing in Sonic Youth proved to be a major influence for the band and the noise-heavy Magick Fire Music and Wow! followed. From 2000 to 2005, Jackie-O Motherfucker and related band Nudge released several albums that took full advantage of studio overdubbing, including Liberation, Trick Doubt, Elaborate Devices for Filtering Crisis, and Change. Reverting from post-punk soundscapes to a rustic sound, the folky Flags of the Sacred Harp followed in 2005. The sprawling America Mystica came next in 2006, along with a few EPs; meanwhile, Honey Owens participated in Fontanelle and released solo albums Blood Is Clean and Naked Acid under the Valet moniker. After a move to the U.K. label Fire Records, the group's fifth live album, Blood of Life, was released in 2008. Two studio albums followed, 2009's Ballads of the Revolution and 2011's Earth Sound System. ~ Stacia Proefrock, Rovi