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Volume CXXXII, Number 13 |
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Hey, Jude performs
MATT LAJOIE
STAFF WRITER
Jude Christodal is a musician with a sense of humor. "Me try write good songs," he says, via his Maverick Records website. And when you're trying to make a dent in today's corporate-minded music scene, a sense of humor is an important thing to have.
Working for years in Los Angeles through an endless stream of meaningless jobs, Jude's fate as a musician was sealed when he entered a small studio in 1997 with only four completed songs. What resulted were the twelve tracks that made up his debut album, 430 N. Harper Ave., It features acoustic recordings and live performances of many songs that have become Jude standards (including "Out of LA," "You Mama You," and "Cammie"-the song that would become "I Do").
With a growing Los Angeles fan-base behind him, Jude signed to Maverick Records in 1997, but before his album No One is Really Beautiful was released in 1998 he got another significant boost. Asked to contribute a song for the soundtrack to the movie City of Angels, Jude recorded "I Know"-a hauntingly beautiful song that found its way on the multi-platinum soundtrack amongst such superstars as Alanis Morissette, U2, Eric Clapton, and the Goo Goo Dolls.
With the success of the City of Angels soundtrack supporting him, Jude finished recording No One is Really Beautiful-an album that vastly expanded on the folk/blues/pop sound of his debut.
Exemplifying this new sound was the single "Rick James," a funk/rock song that received notable airplay on alternative and college radio, and "She Gets the Feeling," a song that showed a definite hip-hop influence.
A few songs from Harper Ave. were also included on the album, as well as the pop/rock single "I'm Sorry Now," which firmly centered No One as a singer/songwriter album.
After critical success and tours with Ben Folds Five, Dido, and Chris Isaak, Jude returned to the studio and in 2001 released King of Yesterday, an album that was named the third best pop album of the year by Amazon.com (behind only mainstream superstars Train and N'SYNC). The album found Jude moving to more of a "radio friendly" sound than ever before, but still retaining the unique sound inherent in his songwriting.
This individuality can largely be attributed to his lyrics-poetic, intelligent, clever, and honest-which blow away the generic, heartless lyrics typically associated with pop music.
Jude's brilliant voice (it moves effortlessly in and out of falsetto) and folk-tinged acoustic guitar playing are still the foundation of his sound. This is the stripped-down setting in which Jude will perform Saturday night (February 1) at Bowdoin.
The show is in Sargent Gym and will begin at 8:00 p.m. with acoustic-singer/songwriter Mike Mathien.
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