Jakob is a
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
post-rock
Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...
band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
*Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
, based in the
Hawkes Bay
Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...
city of
Napier.
The band consists of guitarist Jeff Boyle, bassist Maurice Beckett, and drummer Jason Johnston.
They have been compared to such bands as
Mogwai
Mogwai () are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite (guitar, vocals), Barry Burns (guitar, piano, synthesizer, vocals), Dominic Aitchison (bass guitar), and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogw ...
,
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
, and
High Dependency Unit, though they largely eschew any vocals or samples in their songs.
History
The band formed in July 1998, and began by opening for
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
bands
Salmonella Dub
Salmonella Dub is a dub/ drum n bass/reggae/ roots band from New Zealand. The band was formed in 1992 by Andrew Penman, Dave Deakins, and Mark Tyler. The band has toured extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, including the UK ...
and
Pitch Black at the local
pub
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...
O'Flaherty's. They toured extensively throughout 1999, releasing that same year a
self-titled EP recorded with David Holmes at Napier's Venn Production Studios. The year 2000 brought a gig at The Event New Years party in
Napier, and the 7" single ''
Erfo'', a limited release on the Crawlspace Records label.
Jakob returned to Venn Studios in March 2001 to record their debut album with engineer David Holmes (also known from the band ''
Kerretta
Kerretta is an experimental rock band from Auckland, New Zealand. The band consists of bass player William Waters; drummer H.Walker; and guitarist David Holmes. They have mostly recorded instrumentals.
History
Kerretta formed in mid-2005, combin ...
''). ''
Subsets of Sets'' was released April 2002 through New Zealand's Midium Records to good reviews and a nomination at the
bNet independent music awards. Jakob continued touring with artists such as
HDU and fellow Midium artists Avotor and Meterman, as well as playing at the 2002
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...
.
A period of inactivity followed, lasting between six and eight months. The band didn't play together during that time, and for two months didn't even see each other. They regrouped in January 2003 with ideas for new songs, and spent a week at The Church studio with David Holmes. This session was ultimately scrapped, but after more rehearsal final versions of the songs were recorded over two days in March. ''
Cale:Drew'', their second full-length album, was released in August 2003 and garnered Jakob another
bNet
''BNET'' was an online magazine dedicated to issues of business management.
It was owned by CBS Interactive and was a part of its business portfolio alongside ZDNet, TechRepublic, SmartPlanet
SmartPlanet was an online magazine that cover ...
nomination.
International touring followed in 2004, to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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(where they played at studio radio station WXRT),
Denmark
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, and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. They were well received at every venue, and released a 7" single, ''
Semaphore'', in Europe. Also that year, they released the one-track mini-album ''
Dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
'', and played a 25-minute set at Radio New Zealand's Helen Young Studios (consisting of the songs Laburnum, Semaphore, Nice Day for an Earthquake, and Jimmy Hoffa).
2005 saw more international touring by Jakob, with the band playing at
South by Southwest
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...
in March, and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in September (in support of the release of ''
Cale:Drew'' there) and again in late October (with Australian band
Cog). It also saw the release of their ''
Diffusion
Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...
'' 7" and ''Coalescence'', a 12" compilation from Midium Records, featuring a track by Jakob.
Jakob played concerts all through New Zealand in August 2006 as part of the
A Low Hum
A Low Hum is the ongoing project founded by photographer and music impresario Blink (born Ian Jorgensen), and is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Under the umbrella A LOW HUM, Blink organises tours, releases records, makes music videos, organis ...
tour, and released their third album ''
Solace
Consolation, consolement, and solace are terms referring to psychological comfort given to someone who has suffered severe, upsetting loss, such as the death of a loved one. It is typically provided by expressing shared regret for that loss and ...
'' in September 2006.
In April 2008 Jakob toured Europe with
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
and The Austerity Program, and Australia with
Cog. They also completed a US tour in the second half of 2008, once again with ISIS.
During 2008 and 2009 members Jeff Boyle and Maurice Beckett worked on other projects. Maurice with his solo project Desbot, and Jeff with a project entitled Mean with H. Walker from Avotor and Kerretta. The debut Mean LP entitled "Knowing" was released in December 2012.
In March 2010, Jakob announced a four-date April tour of NZ, heading in May and June to the US West Coast to support Isis' tour once again.
In January 2011, they supported
Tool
A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...
on their Australian tour.
On 29 April 2013, it was announced via the band's
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
page that they were to join Tool again as support act for their
Vector Arena
Spark Arena (also known as Auckland City Arena, and formerly as Vector Arena) is a multipurpose arena in Auckland, New Zealand. The venue is located at Quay Park, Parnell, very close to Britomart Transport Centre and The Strand Station. The ar ...
shows.
In October 2013, Jakob featured on the soundtrack for the surf documentary Waverider by Gareth Davies and RedYeti Films, directed by Karl Lear, winner of Best Picture (2013) in New Zealand and Best Picture (2014) in Hawaii.
In January 2015, they played at
St Jerome's Laneway Festival in Auckland.
They also went on to support
Royal Blood
A royal descent is a genealogy, genealogical Kinship and descent, line of descent from a past or present monarch.
Both geneticists and genealogists have attempted to estimate the percentage of living people with royal descent. From a genetic ...
at the Wellington Laneway sideshow.
On 15 October 2022, bassist Maurice Beckett announced via Jakob's
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
page that they would be heading into the studio to record a yet unnamed sixth album, beginning in January 2023.
Discography
Albums
*''Jakob'' (1999)
*''
Subsets of Sets'' (2001)
*''
Cale:Drew'' (2003)
*''
Solace
Consolation, consolement, and solace are terms referring to psychological comfort given to someone who has suffered severe, upsetting loss, such as the death of a loved one. It is typically provided by expressing shared regret for that loss and ...
'' (2006)
*''
Sines
Sines () is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The municipality, divided into two parishes, has around 14,214 inhabitants (2021) in an area of . Sines holds an important oil refinery and several petrochemical industries. It is also a popular ...
'' (2014)
EPs
*''
Dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
''² (2004)
Featured
*"Method", track on ''Coalescence'' compilation (2005)
*"Semaphore (demo)" and "Pneumonic (Avotor remix)", tracks on ''A Flip and Two Twisters'' compilation (2007)
*"Oran Mor (remix)" Remix and reworked by Klute and features on the limited to 300 copies 12" vinyl ''Effectuation'' compilation (2008)
Singles
*"Erfo²" (2000)
*"Drive Here and Then" (2001)
*"I'm on Your Side" (2001)
*"Nice Day For an Earthquake" (2001)
*"A Moment From Different Angles" (2001)
*"I was Hidden" (2003)
*
"Semaphore" (2004)
*"The Diffusion of Our Inherent Situation" (2005)
*"Malachite" (2006)
*"Pneumonic" (2006)
*"Blind Them with Science" (2014)
¹limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies
²limited edition of 200 copies
Awards
Jakob have been nominated for a number of New Zealand awards:
bNet Awards (Independent)
* 2001 – Best New Artist, Best Rock Album, Best Live Act
* 2002 – Best Album, for Subsets of Sets; Best Rock/Pop Release; Best Independent Release; Best New Act
* 2004 – Best Rock Release, for Cale:Drew
* 2005 – Best Live Act
Jakob played live at the 2001 bNet Awards.
References
External links
jakob.co.nzOfficial Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jakob
New Zealand post-rock groups
Musical groups established in 1998