Jack Shriner is a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter originally from Milwaukee, WI. Jack recorded For Here Or To Go, his full-length debut, on a laptop computer while living in Portland, Oregon. After a nationwide tour playing guitar with Portland band The Scientifics, Jack moved back to his hometown and is currently playing shows in Milwaukee and Chicago.
Jack’s music exhibits a mixture of influences: the swirling dream-pop of Slowdive, the bedroom folk of Mark Kozelek, the ambient experimentation of Fripp/Eno, and even the shameless grandiosity of mid-70s Genesis. The musical adventurism of For Here Or To Go is bolstered by a personal lyrical style. Jack explores his experiences and relationships in the kind of detail that aims to evoke the free-associative play of the subconscious. Indeed, the writing process for many of the songs involved Jack examining closely the stories and melodies that came to him in dreams.
Nowhere is this approach more apparent than in the vivid dreamscape “Hanging Out Hars” (track 7). See also the galloping, cathartic suite “The Picture”/“Smokestack Soliloquy” (tracks 4 and 5), and the gently perplexing “Static Speaker” (track 11), one of two songs co-written by and performed with Tell-All Records artist Liam Singer. Quieter acoustic numbers like “The Overcast Song” and “(It’s) Your Spin” (tracks 12 and 13) endeavor to encapsulate the crisp insights of the morning after.
___________________________
Upcoming shows:
With Chicago band National Tryst
Bremen Café / February, 12 2006 / 8:00pm
901 E. Clarke Street, Milwaukee, WI 53212
