News ~ Jherek Bischoff

September 23, 2014

Jherek Bischoff launches Kickstarter, tours OZ with Missy Higgins

UPDATE NOVEMBER 4, 2014: The Kickstarter surpassed its goal by 50% reaching over $23,000, and triggering the release of an exclusive digital EP just for backers! Yay Jherek! Yay backers!

It's been over a year since we've brought you any Jherek Bischoff news. Which is not to say there hasn't been any. This versatile composer/producer/sideman/arranger is just so prolific he's hard to keep up with. We couldn't report on everything unless we turned www.brassland.org into a 24-7 Jherek Bischoff news service. (Come to think of it, for something like that experience you should check out his Twitter feed, or ours.)

Anyhoo, there are two pieces of particularly B...


July 10, 2013

Jherek Bischoff releases a video featuring David Byrne

Earlier this week, Pitchfork premiered Jherek Bischoff's new video. The song in question is “Eyes.” Remember it? It serves as the dynamic opening song on his 2012 album Composed and features the vocals and iconically strange lyrics of legendary pop innovator David Byrne, or DB as we like to call him. (Mostly because we feel awkward writing his name in full when we email various associates of his. It totes turns us into geeky fan boys and girls, and brings to mind that time we received an email from Caetano Veloso and were like "-----, whoa!" right before our minds exploded.)

Anyhoo, DB appears in the video alongside Bischoff amid trippy, blinking cuts of stringed instruments. So...


May 22, 2013

Jherek Bischoff featured on Fresh Air, adds fresh tour dates & tours his home

If Jherek Bischoff’s life were a movie, it would start out as the rock band version of "Life of Pi" and morph, through a process of musical inspiration and intense perseverance, into a love story between a ukulele and a string orchestra.

Intrigued? You should be.

Chances are there’s a lot you don’t know about this composer, producer, songwriter, and all around musical powerhouse. The details of his unusual biography were recently aired in an interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, where Bischoff gave an enlightening look into his surreal personal history (including a childhood spent on a sailboat playing an uncomfortable amount of Jimmy Buffett covers), the evo...


December 14, 2012

Jherek Bischoff invades NYC, Seattle, the Internet

It's been a big year for Mr. Jherek Bischoff, climaxing in a ton of high-profile activity this fall and winter. Let us count off some of the recent ways he has been rockin' his hometown, New York City and the world (wide web). (Speaking of rockin', is classicalin' a word? Maybe it should be?)

So, to recount all the ways Jherek has been classicalin'.

Maybe you caught Jherek in Amanda Palmer's "Do It Like A Rockstar" music video this past November? (Definitely rocking!) The video was filmed in Oklahoma City and you may have picked up on the psychedelic vibes contributed by Flaming Lips' frontman, Wayne Coyne who co-directed the clip with George Sal...


October 19, 2012

Bischoff tours, releases instrumentals, writes about "volunteer" musicians

Well folks, Jherek Bischoff is headed back on the road again, manning the bass rig & music director duties for Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra. (He'll also provide lovely opening sets to most shows.) The tour kicks off in London on October 23, traverses Europe until November 4th and then returns to America for awhile. Next his own jams will take the spotlight in a pair of December shows in Seattle & New York. Do you want us to cut to the chase with details? Well, uh, okay then: look here.

If you're feeling leisurely, though, we're happy to explain more in a narrative-oriented, hype-laden, multi-media format. Oooh, exciting...

Well, first the hype: Sinc...


July 12, 2012

Jherek Bischoff tours with Amanda Palmer, here & abroad

If it seems like Jherek Bischoff has been touring nonstop, it's because he has. And guess what? More tour dates are coming this fall!

Jherek will be joining Amanda Palmer as part of the Grand Theft Orchestra for a long list of U.S., Canadian, and European shows that will start in September and continue through November. And that's not all. If you happen to be a kick ass string player these dates could feature YOU. We'll let Amanda take it from here in this excerpt from her newsletter announcing the dates:

"Grand Theft bassist and arranger/composer JHEREK BISCHOFF will be giving us a dose of BEAUTIFUL string quartet music off his newly released album 'Compose...


June 5, 2012

Jherek Bischoff releases album, tours with Amanda Palmer

Jherek Bischoff's Composed drops today so dust off your record players, clear out your iPods, fire up your computers, and take those ratty old mix CDs out of the car to make some room. (Does anyone still have CD players? Or cars?) What a wonderful day Tuesday June 5th is! That is, unless you live outside of North America in which case maybe you started enjoying the record yesterday and Monday June 4th is looking pretty awesome, too.

We know you've been counting down the days to this joyous moment! Sadly, Jherek hasn't had any time to savor his days. He's been too damn busy taking part in Amanda Palmer's Grand Theft Orchestra. Maybe you've heard about his invo...


March 27, 2012

Jherek Bischoff to release Composed record on Brassland

You've started to hear the name Jherek Bischoff around these parts (and by these parts, we mean the Brassland site), but allow us to take a moment to refresh your collective memories. The songwriter, producer, performer and composer has been called a “pop polymath” (The New York Times), a “Seattle phenom” (The New Yorker), and “the missing link between the sombre undertones of Ennio Morricone and the unpredictability of John Cale" (NME). We're trying not to get too braggy over here, but we are proud to be releasing this music and excited to finally announce the June 5th release date of his new album, Composed!

You can download a track from the first "single" right now:
"...


February 21, 2012

Jherek Bischoff Opens Ecstatic Music Festival

We're super proud of Jherek Bischoff, one of the new additions to our Brassland family! Jherek ringled the opening event of the Ecstatic Music Festival held earlier this at Merkin Concert Hall in NYC. Humble as he is, Jherek only took up a small portion of the stage, giving over the rest to the Wordless Music Orchestra and a string of marquee guest vocalists who kind of made our heads spin. Featured on the microphone throughout the night were David Byrne, Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think), Zac Pennington (aka Parenthetical Girls), Carla Bozulich (many cool bands!), Charlie Looker, singer/songwriter Mirah Zeitlyn, Jherek's former Dead Science teammate Sam Mickens, and a duo of People Ge...