The Silent Ballet reviews The Samuel Jackson Five

The Silent Ballet reviews the new self-titled album from Norwegian postrockers The Samuel Jackson Five: http://thesilentballet.com/reviews/2012/04/the-samuel-jackson-five-the-samuel-jackson-five

The Samuel Jackson Five - Electric crayons

New sounds from Norway's The Samuel Jackson Five featuring guest vox from Thomas Bratlie of Rumble in Rhodos and clarinet action from Jørgen Sissyfus Skjulstad (Center of the Universe). RIYL Scraps of Tape.

New SJ5 album in April

Norwegian postrock act The Samuel Jackson Five have announced that their new self-titled album, their fourth overall, will be released on April 27 via Denovali Records. This will mark the first time the band will be heard on record with vocals, as the new album will feature songs sung by guests such as Truls Heggero (Lukestar, Truls and the Trees), Pål Angelskår (Minor Majority) and Thomas Bratlie (Rumble in Rhodos), in addition to new band member Jonny "the Captain" Knutsen. Samples soon?

SJ5 on tour

Norway's The Samuel Jackson Five are heading out on tour in April:

04/05 - KB18, Kopenhagen (DK)
04/06 - UJZ Korn, Hannover (GER)
04/07 - L'an Vert, Liege (BEL)
04/08 - Dunk Festival, Zottegem (BEL)
04/09 - Le Caveau du Sauvoy, Nancy (FRA)
04/11 - Cactus Muziekcentrum, Brügge (BEL)
04/12 - Kulturpalast, Wiesbaden (GER)
04/13 - Subway To Peter, Chemnitz (GER)
04/14 - AZ Conni, Dresden (GER)
04/15 - Schokoladen, Berlin (GER)
04/16 - DOM, Lodz (POL)
04/17 - Hydrozgadka, Warsaw (POL)
04/18 - Tekturafest, Lublin (POL)
04/19 - Khmilnyy Dim Roberta Domsa, Lviv (UKR)
04/20 - Underground Music Hall, Kyiv (UKR)
04/22 - Irish & Music Pub, Cluj Nopoca (RO)
04/23 - CK13, Novi Sad (SRB)
04/26 - Sonic Ballroom, Köln (GER)
04/27 - Christuskirche, Bochum (GER)
04/28 - Doornroosje-Merleyn, Nijmegen (NL)

The Samuel Jackson Five to release vinyl box

Denovali Records will be doing a 3xLP boxset for Norwegian instrumental postrock act The Samuel Jackson Five that will include the band's three albums with new artwork. No release date yet, but expect preorders around January/February.

Two new songs from The Samuel Jackson Five

Norwegian postrockers The Samuel Jackson Five have uploading a couple new-ish tracks to myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thesamueljacksonfive
One is "...And then we met the locals", their contribution to the Metronomicon Audio 4.0 compilation that will be out in January and the other is an old live take from 2004 that I presume is more or less, previously unheard.

The Samuel Jackson Five contemplating a new release

Norwegian postrock act The Samuel Jackson Five are in talks with two labels to do a joint vinyl release compilation various previously unreleased material, live tracks and remixes. No confirmation of anything yet, but I'll try to keep you posted.

Top 10s for 2008: Niklas Åström (And the Sound)

Norwegian postrockers The Samuel Jackson Five are the band of the week at The Silent Ballet: http://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Articles/tabid/55/ctl/Details/mid/412/ItemID/1896/Default.aspx

Norwegian postrockers The Samuel Jackson Five are wrapping up work on their new album and have set a October 27 release date. Read more: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=33944834&blogID=425862544

Norwegian postrockers The Samuel Jackson Five are off to the mountains of Valdres this weekend to lay down basic tracks for their new album.

Norwegian postrock act The Samuel Jackson Five has set October 20 as the release date for their third album. The band also plans to tour Northern Europe starting on October 24 and is entertaining offers for places to play.

Sandviken-based noisemakers Aerial report that they are just about done with their new record which they describe as a seven-track/four-chapter "intense and spectacular work of art." No word on a release date yet, but once again Stefan Aronsson of FAP (see my recent post on them here) is producing/engineering. Go see them on tour in Germany:

10/07 - AJZ Kita, Rostock
10/08 - tba
10/09 - tba
10/10 - Astrastube, Hamburg
10/10 - Kulturbunker Mühlheim, Köln
10/11 - tba
10/12 - Magnet, Berlin w/The Samuel Jackson Five
10/13 - AZ Conni, Dresden w/The Samuel Jackson Five

The Samuel Jackson Five
Easily misunderstood
Honest Abe

I think instrumental rock bands are flourishing right now as I have heard more of them in the past few months than I have in the past few years. Past the excesses of many post-rock bands, it seem that rocking out in a simpler manner is getting more popular. In the case of Samuel Jackson Five, they take familiar influences like Shellac and Don Caballero but infuse it with much more pop and indie sensibilities than any of the other instrumental bands I have heard lately. They sound almost like 70's prog-rock in many places. If there is one thing I don't particularly like is that the record is way overproduced.
- Simon Thibaudeau

MP3: The Samuel Jackson Five - No name

Did you see that list of the top instrumental/post-rock albums over at Decoy Music? Claiming the #1 spot is a band from Norway cleverly named Samuel Jackson Five. I had seen their name in passing before, but I had no idea what they sounded like so I immediately went out and got a copy of their record "Easily misunderstood". I'm not the biggest post-rock/instrumental aficionado, so I'm not exactly qualified to state whether or not the album deserves the #1 ranking, but I do like what I hear: looping, hypnotic riffs, loud epic passages and a pronounced Scandinavian sense of melody. Some of the tracks remind me a bit of Finnish post-rockers Magyar Posse but then again, on tracks like the one I've posted today, you'll hear that SJ5 takes the "rock" part of the genre name much more seriously. It starts out quiet, but right around 2:30 they crank it up and kick out the jams.

The Samuel Jackson Five - No name