With Donavon Frankenreiter 7/20 - 8/11.

With Joshua Radin 9/09 - 9/26.

July 20 -- NYC
July 21 -- Brooklyn, NY
July 22 -- Dewey Beach, DE
July 23 -- NYC
July 24 -- Asbury Park, NJ
July 25 -- Ithaca, NY
July 27 -- Portland, ME
July 28 -- Boston, MA
July 29 -- Nantucket, MA
July 30 -- Nantucket, MA
July 31 -- Wellfleet, MA
August 3 -- Northampton, MA
August 5 -- Annapolis, MD
August 6 -- Philadelphia, PA
August 8 -- Vienna, VA
August 9 -- Wilmington, NC
August 10 -- Charleston, SC
August 11 -- Jacksonville, FL
August 16 -- Asheville, NC
September 9 -- Norfolk, VA
September 11 -- Albany, NY
September 12 -- New Haven, CT
September 13 -- South Burlington, VT
September 15 -- Montreal, QC
September 16 -- Toronto, ON
September 18 -- Pittsburgh, PA
September 19 -- Cleveland, OH
September 20 -- Columbus, OH
September 22 -- Indianapolis, IN
September 23 -- Detroit, MI
September 24 -- Chicago, IL
September 25 -- Minneapolis, MN
September 26 -- Madison, WI

ALL TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW!

Check www.garyjules.com for venue and ticket info.

Hi everyone –
The inclusion of a version of Tears For Fears’ Mad World on American Idol last night has drawn a lot of attention in the last 24 hours.
As grateful as I am for the interest in the song and for the folks who have said such nice things about me, I feel like I need to clear up again, and hopefully for the last time, a few points about the version of the song that my friend Mike Andrews and I did for Mike’s original ‘Donnie Darko’ score in 2001 — mostly because it makes me very uncomfortable to have people give me credit for stuff I didn’t do.
I don’t know why the story gets changed around, but it does, and it’s not fair for the other folks involved. I’m sure that the mistakes are not intentionally vicious or even purposeful most times, but inaccuracies cause problems for everyone, including me — and they are totally unnecessary. I think we’re all able to understand a slightly more nuanced tale now and again, right?
Basically, the story (again) as I know it is this . . .
I am the SINGER of the ‘Donnie Darko’ version of Mad World, and that is all. I didn’t write it — it was written by Roland Orzabal and originally sung by Curt Smith, who are collectively known as Tears For Fears. Mike Andrews and I first heard the song on the brilliant Tears For Fears album “The Hurting”, one of our favorites in highschool and since.
Further, it wasn’t my idea to do the song. It isn’t my recording or my arrangement. It was NOT recorded for my album “Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets”. Our version was originally recorded as an end-piece to Mikes’ score for the movie ‘Donnie Darko’ (though in the theatrical edit it ended up playing in the film itself). I was allowed to put it on ‘Snakeoil’ because at the time we had no idea if the movie was ever really going to get released, and we thought it was cool — another song that Mike and I did together that we thought was cool.
To be perfectly clear: The sound of our Mad World, like the rest of the original music in ‘Darko’, was born in Mike’s brain alone. The arrangement — the simple, plodding, muted piano, the cellos, the tone, the emptiness, the beauty of it. Even the effect on my voice when it says Mad World. All of those decisions were his. The world that my voice lives in on that recording was created solely by Mike.
Some details, again for the sake of clarity:
Mike is one of my oldest and closest friends. We’ve been making music together since we were kids. So while I was mixing tracks from my album “Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets” (which Mike and I also made together) at another friends’ house, Mike was working all day every day on the score for ‘Donnie Darko’. I would come by his house and play him the mixes I was working on, he would play me new pieces from the ‘Darko’ score.
For the end of the project Mike decided that he wanted to do an 80’s cover (since ‘Donnie Darko’ was set in the 80’s) but in the very spooky and identifiable style of his score music from the film — to marry a piece of the 80’s to the modern score.
Listen to Mad World and then listen to the rest of my music — super different. Listen to Mad World and Mike’s own records — not quite as different, but still different. Listen to Mad World and the rest of Mike’s ‘Donnie Darko’ score — EXACTLY THE SAME!!
Point is, Mike chose Mad World for the end of ‘Donnie Darko’ . . . and on what turned out to be one of the most fateful days of my life, he called and asked me to come and sing it. I don’t know why, but he did.
So I’m the singer, and because of that I get a lot of credit — some warranted, some not. In reality, if it weren’t for Mike, that version wouldn’t exist, period. There would not have been a Mad World in ‘Donnie Darko’, on the “Gears of War” ads, or on “American Idol”.
And it’s not just Mike, the song has become popular for a lot of different reasons:
– The folks at Everloving Records (Andy Factor and Wayne Greene specifically) have worked very hard at tremendous expense to get the score album out into the world and to try and protect those of us who are intimately involved with it — and have dealt with an immense, nearly criminal, amount of bullshit for their trouble.
– Richard Kelly’s ‘Donnie Darko’ was released in the UK and very well received, and it became a cult phenomenon here in the US, which drove the song further and further into the public consciousness.
– I myself have been all over the world singing and talking about the song on the radio, TV, and the internet.
But mostly, I think people just reacted to the song, and the way that it’s perfectly framed so that the essential and undeniable truth of the song arrives unencumbered by the music that supports it. It makes people FEEL something. That has something to do with Roland’s words and melody, it has to do with my voice and delivery, and it also has equally if not more to do with the choices that Mike made for how to present whole thing. That fact was tested and proven again last night when Adam Lambert sang the song his own way with Mike’s arrangement (basically), and 30 million people loved it.
OK, winding up: we have tried very hard and been through a lot in the last 8 or 9 years to have people understand the truth of where our version came from because it’s very much who we are as friends and as individuals. It’s important. Important to us personally, and important for anyone who wants to be able to live in a creative community where you can work with people you love, make a living, and not have to worry about inadvertently fucking your friends over to make the story easier to swallow.
We can all understand complicated stories . . . especially when they’re true.
Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for listening.
GJ

Thanks to everyone who’s written or called after American Idol contestant Adam Lambert sang the Gary Jules/ Michael Andrews arrangement of “Mad World” last night. The response has been overwhelming.

Gary’s latest ‘BEAUTIFUL‘ appears this week (FRIDAY APRIL 10TH) on the season finale of NBC’s “Friday Night Lights”.

To hear more Gary Jules music, please visit www.myspace.com/garyjules.

To purchase cd’s or download music go to http://cdbaby.com/found?allsearch=gary+jules&submit=

To see the official Gary Jules/ Michael Andrews ‘Mad World’ video, directed by Michel Gondry go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4.

Click HERE too see the original Tears For Fears video.

9pm: Holly Conlan
10pm: Gary Jules and the Group Rules
11pm: Brett Dennen

One of Rolling Stone's "Artists to Watch 2008", John Mayer's favorite giant redhead, and a Hotel Cafe regular turned supernova. Check it out. www.hotelcafe.com for tix/info.

Hey Folks . . .

Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to put out a new album in November called "BIRD.".

Some of the songs are already spinning on Radio Free Hollywood — KCRW that is, ushered spaceward by Nic Harcourt and Ariana Morgenstern, five star generals of of the airwaves in the blood-pumping heart of the Los Angeles underground. Call in to request your fave (track list below, and yes, there are radio edits if the song has cuss words in it).

Bird will be the first release for Gary Jules and the Group Rules — Al Sgro, Heather Brown-Dodge, Adam Grace, Ben Peeler, Ed Maxwell, and Will Golden — with appearances by Pedestrian's Joel Shearer, Jason "Pip" Pipkin, and Gabriel Mann. There will also be a duet, "Been A Long Time", with my good friend and long suffering tour partner Jim Bianco.

Most of the songs come from the early days of the Hotel Cafe where the band and I played every Tuesday Night (and hung out every other night) . . . we even rehearsed there at the time. The current track list looks like this, for those of you who are into that kind of thing:

Beautiful
Familiar
The Road Beside the Highway
Over Water Underground
Ghosts in the Cotton
Goodnight Billie
Been A Long Time (w/ the Great J Bizzle)
Bird/ Little Greenie
The Old Days Are Gone
(??????????)

I'll be coming to LA soon to get the band together and do radio (KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic), TV, and hopefully a series of weekly live shows (old school style) somewhere in H-wood, with little jaunts to SF, SD, and maybe other west coast cities. Will probably tour the east coast early in the new year — probably right after Valentine's Day.

I'd love to have the whole band out on the road nationally . . . but not sure if we'll be able to swing it, what with the cost of breathing these days. Also, since the coup, it may not be safe to risk the highways and byways of the new military state with all that free-world music equipment in the trailer . . . we've already been got once. He he.
We are trying to work it out so that Holly Conlan (www.hollyconlan.com, www.myspace.com/hollyconlan), a fabulous new-blood singer-songwriter from the Hotel Cafe tribe (and the brand new wife of our Al Sgro) can open the shows on the east coast tour at least — as Holly has been indoctrinated as the newest touring member of the Group Rules. You know, family affair, yada yada.

One last thing, my friend Dominique is organizing a Gary Jules Street Team for the album release. Free records, posters, tickets, etc. in exchange for helping to to get the word out. Word of mouth, word of myspace, word of facebook, word of BBC 1 — however you work it, we're down. D's email is dzzydzzyd@aol.com. Thanks so much in advance. Can't tell you how much I appreciate the support.
Hope to see you all soon . . . more news to follow. Questions welcome.

best, gj

Feet on the dashboard
Head on the window
Moon on a desert tree
I will, I will
I will stand in your light again

Heard me a memory
Out on the avenue
Where people get
What they think they need
Sound of a symphony
Up from the gutter
The tattooed confessions
Of my last good deed
I will, I will
I will sing you the road song blues
Someday
I will sing you the road song blues

Free are the lonely ones
And lonely is as lonely does
Far away from the warm street lights
I never shine like the way they shine
Maybe one day but tonight

It's another bed and another TV
In another hotel room
I will, I will
I will sleep by your side again

I will, I will
I will sing you the road song blues
I will, I will
I will sing you the road song blues
Someday
I will sing you the road song blues

The new WWW.GARYJULES.COM launched last night.

News, tour dates, pics, video clips, journal, forum . . . a brand new merch page w/ t-shirts and posters. Designed by Josh Hassin (www.joshhassin.com) who did the 'Airplane' album cover. COME CHECK IT OUT!!

TICKET GIVEAWAY FOR MAILING LIST MEMBERS:

Sometime next week both GJ.com and GJ/myspace will each give away a pair of tickets to see Gary Jules with TEARS FOR FEARS in Costa Mesa, California on July 29th. ONLY MAILING LIST MEMBERS WILL BE ELIGIBLE, SO SIGN-UP NOW at www.garyjules.com.

GJ WILL BE ON THE ROAD IN THE US W/ JIM BIANCO BEGINNING JULY 1ST IN BROOKLYN, NYC!! HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL SOON.