as many of you are aware, Jon has developed tendinitis and will be taking an indefinite break from his weekly Largo shows. this is devastating news for so many of us... but let's all keep hoping for a speedy recovery.

for more information, please visit: http://www.myspace.com/jonbriontendinitisreport

***UPDATE: Jon has been appearing at Largo at random.. check the Largo Calendar for these rare appearances!

Lost in the Music
By STEPHEN RODRICK

A few moments before his regular Friday-night show at Largo, a club in Los Angeles, Jon Brion tries to conjure a catchy name for the music he loves. As a producer, Brion has collaborated with Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and Rufus Wainwright, constructing eccentric albums that evoke the Beatles, Aaron Copland and a pawnshop band.

''If it had a label, it could help,'' Brion says. He is almost 40,
''Look what 'alt-country' did for Lucinda Williams and Wilco.'' Sipping a Guinness, Brion comes up with one. ''How about 'unpopular pop'?'' he asks. He takes another sip of his beer and turns glum. ''God, that's too depressing.''

Unpopular pop is a new name but not a new genre. Even when Motown and the Beatles ruled the charts, perfect pop songs -- defined by liner-note-reading geeks as intricate rhymed verse accompanied by a melody that emotionally underscores the words -- often didn't match the sales of, say, ''Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.'' The Beach Boys' ''Pet Sounds'' took 34 years to go platinum. Big Star, the most influential unpopular pop band in America, couldn't get its records distributed. Except for the novelty hits ''Short People'' and ''I Love L.A.,'' Randy Newman, lauded as one of the country's treasured songwriters, released a half-dozen ''pop'' albums in the 60's and 70's that barely earned back their advances.

Like Newman, Brion comes from a family of musicians who share a reverential appreciation for Americana music. His songs evoke images of a bygone era: a carnival organ on one track, a melancholy woodwind section on another. And like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Brion has a savantlike ability to process melodies and turn them inside out. Sam Jones, who directed the Wilco documentary ''I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,'' and is raising money for a Brion film, plays a musical game with Brion. He leaves a stretch of music by Glenn Gould on Brion's answering machine. Brion calls right back playing the piece note for note. It is talent like this that has helped make Brion a Phil Spector of unpopular pop.

Occasionally, like Newman, Wilson or Big Star's Alex Chilton, Brion has managed to make popular pop. Using a screwdriver instead of a slide, Brion created the distorted guitar lead on the Wallflowers' ''One Headlight,'' a single that propelled the band to multiplatinum success in 1997. The session lasted less than an hour, and Brion nailed it on the first take. Normally, he declines lengthier commercial commitments. His manager fields calls from industry heavyweights like Clive Davis requesting Brion to produce his latest ingenue. Brion always says no.

''If the songs aren't great, I can't do it,'' Brion explains. ''I live with these songs. They're moving through my head constantly, even when I don't want them to. If they're bad, I'm throwing myself out a window after 48 hours.''

Recording studios are dreary places: bunkers filled with wires, smudged glass partitions and ashtrays. The Paramour, where Brion is at work, is not like that. Nestled in the Los Angeles hills, the grounds resemble Norma Desmond's spread. There is an ominous iron gate, an ancient lap pool illuminated by torches at night and a garishly decorated ballroom.
Down one dark hallway, music can be heard. There are red walls, a fireplace, a Scrabble board and left-over Cuban pastries gnawed by Charlie, the Paramour's half-wolf, half-German shepherd. A Hawaiian guitar rests against some Chinese gongs. In front of a Beatles-era E.M.I. console, an Apple computer displays a screen saver of David Bowie, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp at Bowie's ''Low'' sessions.

It's 1 p.m., and Jon Brion is still in his pajamas and slippers. For the past three months, Brion, Tom Biller, an engineer, and the singer Fiona Apple have been living at the Paramour. Right now, Brion is noodling at a Casio keyboard, playing along to a mix of Apple's ''Oh Well.'' ''I cried the first time I heard her play this,'' Brion says. ''We were at Ocean Way, Sinatra's old studio, and I just put my head down on the table and cried.''

As ''Oh Well'' plays repeatedly, Brion tries to conceive an arrangement that won't disturb the power of Apple's vocals. He says he thinks her delivery on the current version might be too slow for the anger of the words. To help, Brion has written out the lyrics in color-coded fashion on two giant pieces of white paper. Blue represents sad passages, red anger and green the resignation of Apple's whispering ''Oh, well'' in the last line.

''There's a space between this line and that line, and it's this continual sort of push and pull,'' Brion says. ''If she's not singing, I offer something to carry the listener through to the next moment where she returns.''
Apple's first release, fueled by her ethereal vocals and a video with her in her underwear, sold three million copies. Brion played on it, and they became close friends. After a rambling acceptance speech at the MTV awards, Apple absorbed a media assault. In 1999, she recorded the follow-up, ''When the Pawn . . . '' -- the full title stretches to 90 words -- which Brion produced and played most of the instruments on. It featured a hybrid of hip-hop beats and Brion's skewed instrumentation. Like most Brion-produced projects, it was hailed by critics. And like most Brion-produced projects, it was a commercial disappointment, selling fewer than a million copies.

Apple contemplated never recording another album. Then, in the spring of 2002, Brion and Apple met for their weekly lunch. Brion had recently been ejected from a five-year relationship with the comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub. Making matters worse, the breakup occurred while he was scoring Paul Thomas Anderson's ''Punch-Drunk Love.'' Rajskub had a large role in the film, and Brion spent hours watching his ex on celluloid. Now finished with the score, he was at loose ends.

''Please, please make another album,'' Brion begged Apple. ''I need work that can save me.''

Apple agreed, and Brion went to Apple's label, Sony Music, with strict stipulations. There would be no deadline. If a Sony rep wanted to check on progress, he would have to fly to Los Angeles. Brion requested renting a wing of the Paramour rather than recording at a conventional studio. The label agreed.

In an era of industry bloodletting, Sony's acquiescence to Brion's demands demonstrates how highly respected Brion is in the industry. In addition to his production work, Brion scored Anderson's last two films, ''Magnolia'' (for which he also produced some of Aimee Mann's career-making tracks) and ''Punch-Drunk Love.'' For the latter, he helped the filmmaker in unusual ways. In an early scene, Anderson was having difficulty communicating the emotion he wanted Adam Sandler to bring to his role. He asked Brion to come down to the set. The next morning, Brion returned with a 10-minute percussion track that captured the manic anger of Barry Egan, Sandler's character. Anderson had his star listen to the track repeatedly through headphones. Sandler got it, and filming resumed.

At the Paramour, the days effortlessly merge like the unchanging Southern California weather. Nine months after Apple played the first five songs for Brion, the album is maybe half-done. In the morning, Brion draws or works on his own songs. In the afternoon, he fiddles with backing tracks. Maybe around midnight, Apple will appear in sweats and bunny-rabbit slippers and record vocals for an hour.

''Jon's put in hundreds of more hours,'' Apple said one sunny afternoon on the lawn. ''If I could, I'd release this as a Jon Brion-Fiona Apple record. I keep borrowing his socks. He thinks it's because I don't have my own socks. It's because I want to be Jon Brion.''

Brion is contemplating the abandonment of all his ancillary projects so he can concentrate on his own material. Which is either brave or quixotic. Brion's only solo record was rejected by an Atlantic Records subsidiary and sold just a few thousand copies. Still, songs he has written with Mann, Evan Dando and Eels are the equal to anything they've done on their own. Every Friday night, Brion plays a sold-out show at Largo, whose guests vary from Rickie Lee Jones to Pink. He mixes Kinks and Costello songs with his own compositions. Regular attendees argue that Brion's songs compare
favorably.

''Jon has at least 10 albums' worth of material,'' says Mann, a longtime collaborator and a former girlfriend. ''He blends the mood of the melody and the mood of the words in a way that no one else can do.'' She sighs. ''And he writes them so quickly.''

And yet Brion has released only one new song in the past four years, a track called ''Here We Go,'' a wedding song for a second marriage, on the ''Punch-Drunk Love'' soundtrack. If the song hadn't been dropped from the film, it might have earned an Academy Award nomination. ''Why finish a song when you can start a new one?'' Brion says with a laugh. ''I picked the hardest art form with the least amount of respect. The economy of language you need to get emotion across is so hard. You have to find rhymed verse, then match it with a melody. And then it's dismissed just as 'a pop song.' It is so sad.''

Brion can't let go of his songs. Or the songs of his disciples. For more than a week, Brion toyed with Apple's ''Oh Well.'' He spent one night moving equipment to his study at the Paramour to record a guitar part. ''The acoustics will pick up the reverb differently,'' he explains. The next day, Brion discarded the guitar. Then he laid down another basic track with himself on drums. He wasn't happy with the result. ''It sounded like a metal ballad,'' Brion says. ''I fired myself.'' A call was placed to the legendary session drummer Jim Keltner.

''The song is missing 'it,''' Brion says. ''Right now, I don't know what 'it' is. When you find it, everyone's physiology in the room changes. 'It' is a real, ephemeral thing.''

It's not uncommon to hear ''it'' on a Jon Brion-produced song many years after buying the album. More than a decade has passed since I first listened to Aimee Mann's ''I've Had It,'' from her 1993 album, ''Whatever,'' Brion's first major production. The subject of the song, as is often the case with Mann, is the music industry. The troops gather for a pointless New York gig as Mann muses that her chance at the brass ring may have passed. On perhaps the 400th listen, I pick up a ticking clock that moves from left to right in your headphones and underscores the fatalism of the lyrics. When Mann sings ''And Dan came in from Jersey,'' Brion plays the opening bars to Springsteen's ''Born to Run'' on a glockenspiel.

When he was 5, Brion wrote ''I am Jon Brion. I am a musician'' on a piece of paper. A few years later, his mother, LaRue, a club singer while in college, bought him his first Fats Waller record. Brion's father, Keith, was director of Yale University's concert and marching bands, and his parents introduced their son at age 13 to the jazz musicians Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell, who were known equally for their playing and for their jazz evangelism tours to China and Russia.

As he grew older, Brion refused to do any schoolwork other than music. The school district placed him in special-education classes with mildly retarded and emotionally disturbed teenagers. ''I was in with a kid who had seen both her parents killed in front of her,'' Brion recalls. On Brion's 17th birthday, his father signed the release papers, and Brion dropped out of high school.

At a recent Largo show, Brion began by laying down a drum track and looping it. He did the same with a jaunty piano part. He then picked up an electric guitar. He closed his eyes and resembled the kid from ''Tommy'' as he played a crunchy guitar part. Finally, he performed ''I Was Happy With You,'' a new song, picking through a melody that captures the post-anger wistful stage of heartbreak.

The next day, Brion told me that he has written a dozen new songs about his breakup. ''I'm trying to approach them from a realistic point of view,'' he said. ''I want songs that suggest, O.K., maybe it was 60 percent your fault, but I was there, too. Those songs aren't being written.''

Another day, I heard ''Citgo Sign,'' which was recorded in 1991 and would not be out of place in a musical. ''That may be my best album's worth of material,'' Brion said. He also has notions of turning a batch of songs written since 1995 into ''an Internet-only EP.'' When I mentioned this to Mark Flanagan, his manager, he laughed: ''You realize, that's not going to happen.''

Brion's inability to release his own songs is a hushed subject of conversation among his friends and musicians. When I asked Mann, she began: ''I think he has a hard time saying anything is finished whether he's producing or doing his own songs. Jon's a perfectionist.'' She hesitated and stopped. ''I'm not going to say any more.''

Part of Brion's procrastination is an inability to say no. ''Whenever I get a message from another musician, I know it's because they want something,'' Brion says. ''They want me to play on a track or produce. It's never just to say hi.''

His point was made when Grant Lee Phillips stopped by the Paramour for advice on his next album. They talked for an hour, and Brion grew increasingly animated. ''You must have a great drummer -- he captures the mood of the song,'' Brion advised. ''You have a bad drummer, you're going to be spending days trying to find that mood.'' Then, Phillips sheepishly asked, ''Hey, do you want to captain this ship?'' Brion said yes (though Phillips later proceeded without him).

''There's a thing called a heat sink,'' Brion says. ''It's a piece of metal attached to a machine. It draws heat away and keeps it from blowing up. That's what I do as a producer. It's up to me to let the artist know things are O.K. I'm the one who has to go home with the stomachache.''

Brion plays the role well. Last year, while he was producing an album for an alt-country songwriter named Rhett Miller, a real-estate agent showed up at the studio. He needed a signature finalizing the sale of the house Brion and Rajskub jointly owned. Brion excused himself, went to the bathroom and cried. Five minutes later, he was singing backing vocals on one of Miller's love songs.

Sessions with Rufus Wainwright, a talented and flamboyant piano pop singer, were turbulent. It was only the pleading of DreamWorks Records' co-chairman Lenny Waronker that kept Brion from leaving. ''Rufus had all these beautiful songs, but every time the vocals would kick in, he'd write some complicated keyboard part so you couldn't hear them,'' Brion says. ''He wasn't interested in listening to ideas about simplifying the arrangement.''

In 2000, Brion collaborated with David Byrne. Those who heard the Brion-produced songs said they were the best Byrne had done since the Talking Heads. Byrne rejected them by fax.

I ask Brion if he has considered hiring a producer for his own work. He answers in a sad voice. ''I don't have a heat sink for myself,'' he says. ''I don't have anyone who can tell me, 'This is good, this is a great song, let it go.' With my songs, I go home with the stomachache.''

A month later, I met up with Brion at Abbey Road Studios in London, where he was recording orchestration for Apple. He was exhausted from testing every microphone in its storied collection, cataloguing each of their shortcomings. ''If I reach a point where I want a voice to sound a little fuzzy, I'll know which microphone to use,'' Brion said.

In Studio 2, Brion sat behind an old piano and doodled a section from ''Here We Go,'' which was recorded there. ''I just had the major chords, and I knew I wanted to write a song that said, Even though my heart had just been broken, I'm not going to be cynical about love,'' Brion said. I remarked that the piano sounded like the one from ''Fool on the Hill.'' His eyes lighted up. ''Because it is!'' he said.

The next day, a full orchestra arrived, with ''Oh Well'' first up. Brion had Apple do another vocal take on which she almost growled the lyrics. He asked the violinist, Eric Gorfain, to add an arrangement. After listening to a rough mix, he offered only a little criticism. ''Don't place too much activity around her voice,'' Brion said. ''There's nice tension in the second verse, but tension is activity that draws away from her voice, so we have to lose it.''

The next day, Brion led the orchestra through ''Oh Well'' for two hours. Midway through, Apple arrived. Painfully shy, she sat on the floor, covering her eyes and peeking through fingers as Brion conducted. Eyes closed, he entered a blissful state. When the music stopped, he flashed a beatific grin. ''I don't think I have ever seen a human being look happier,'' Apple said.
Later that night, Brion, trying to relax with a beer, was still frustrated with the song. ''I can't figure it out,'' he said. ''It just isn't all there. Every album has a problem child. Maybe I want it to be a lawyer, when it wants to be a painter.''

Eventually, Apple's release date was pushed back from September to February. If that date holds, it will be 20 months from the time Apple played the first songs for Brion, or roughly 60 days per song. A month after the Abbey Road session, Brion told me he was done producing for the foreseeable future and will concentrate on his own songs. He even bought a powder blue van for touring. Of course, this means that songs will have to be released. For three months, Brion promised to send me demos of his new songs. They never arrived. In a final effort, I made an impromptu trip to Los Angeles. At Largo, Brion handed me a CD of seven demos. He looked miserable. The next day, I told him how much I liked them. He still seemed morose. ''When the album comes out, these songs are going to be ruined for you,'' Brion said. ''You're not going to be able to really hear the final versions." He grinned. ''If there ever are final versions." 

Jon Brion Credits
(from Allmusic.com)

1993		Here's to the Losers	Love Jones		Synthesizer, Keyboards, Organ (Hammond), Vibraphone, Chamberlain, Fender Rhodes
1993		I Should've Known [single]	Aimee Mann		Producer
1993		In Thrall	Murray Attaway		Bass, Guitar, Piano, Mellotron, Vibraphone
1993		Spilt Milk	Jellyfish		Guitar
1993		Tuesdays Are Forever	D.D. Wood		Harmonium
1993		Whatever	Aimee Mann		Organ, Bass, Arranger, Drums, Glockenspiel, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Tambourine, Vocals, Multi Instruments, Producer, Mellotron, Chamberlain, Woodwind Arrangement, Drum Fills
1994		Love Spit Love	Love Spit Love		Chamberlain, String Arrangements, Optigan, Piano Arrangement
1994		Ro Sham Bo	The Grays		Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
1994		Save Me	Aimee Mann		Vocals (bckgr)
1994		That's Just What You Are	Aimee Mann		Producer
1995		For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson	Various Artists		Producer
1995		I Don't Know Why I Act This Way	Jude Cole		Organ, Guitar, Calliope, HarmoniumChamberlain, Wurlitzer
1995		I'm With Stupid	Aimee Mann		Guitar (Acoustic), Bass, Guitar, Harmonica, Percussion, Cello, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Vocals (bckgr), Handclapping, Producer, Mixing, Bass Harmonica
1995		Powerful Pain Relief	Love Jones		Piano, Organ (Hammond), Chamberlain, Korg Synthesizer, Fender Rhodes
1995		Sing Hollies in Reverse	Various Artists		Guitar, Piano, Drums, Vocals, Producer, Performer, Chamberlain, Mixing
1996		Beautiful Freak	Eels		Guitar, Trombone, Producer, Engineer, Chamberlain
1996		Braver Newer World	Jimmie Dale Gilmore		Bass, GuitarOptigan
1996		Bringing Down the Horse	The Wallflowers
1996		Buy-Product 2: Brief Encounters	Various Artists		Producer
1996		Come and Get It: A Tribute to Badfinger	Various Artists		Vocals, Multi Instruments, Producer
1996		Omnipop	Sam Phillips		Bass, Guitar, Piano, Drums, NoiseChamberlain
1996		Phantom Blues	Taj Mahal		Guitar, Chamberlain
1996		Prettier Than You	Brian Stevens		Guitar, Clavinet
1996		Shine Like You	The Scott Thomas Band		Piano, Fender Rhodes
1996		Susanna Hoffs	Susanna Hoffs		Bass, Guitar, Percussion, Drums, Keyboards
1996		Sweet Relief II	Various Artists		Vibraphone, Optigan
1996		This Can't Be Life	Wild Colonials		Organ, Guitar, Chamberlain
1996		Tidal	Fiona Apple		Guitar, Piano, Harp, Marimba, Vibraphone, Chamberlain, Dulcitone, Optigan, Tack Piano
1997		10 Cent Wings	Jonatha Brooke		Guitar
1997		Daisy	Dog's Eye View
1997		Eighteen Over Me	Garrison Starr		Organ, Vibraphone
1997		Fare Well	Uma		Guitar, Chamberlain
1997		Lincoln	Lincoln		Guitar, Keyboards
1997		Little Head	John Hiatt		Vibraphone, Chamberlain
1997		Megiddo	Lauren Hoffman		Multi Instruments
1997		Million Dollar Movie	Andrew		Songwriter, Harmonium, Keyboards, Piano (Grand)
1997		Mommyheads	The Mommyheads		Chamberlain
1997		Poptopia! Power Pop Classics of the '90s	Various Artists		Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
1997		Shaken & Stirred [UK]	David Arnold		Guitar, Harmonium, Sitar
1997		Shaken & Stirred	David Arnold		Guitar, Harmonium, Sitar
1998		1998 Grammy Nominees	Various Artists		Chamberlain
1998		Burning the Daze	Marc Cohn		Harmonium
1998		Electro-Shock Blues	Eels		Organ, Chamberlain
1998		Got No Shadow	Mary Lou Lord		HarmoniumChamberlain
1998		Jubilee	Grant Lee Buffalo		Organ, Piano, Vibraphone, Chamberlain, Organ (Pump), Optigan, Tack Piano
1998		Pleasantville [Original Soundtrack]	Original Soundtrack		Producer, Vibraphone, Chamberlain, Mixing
1998		Rufus Wainwright	Rufus Wainwright		Producer
1998		Sliding Doors	Original Soundtrack		Producer
1998		Songs from the Pipe	Surfers		Guitar, Vocals (bckgr)
1998		Welcome to Woop Woop	Original Soundtrack		Producer
1998		XO	Elliott Smith		Chamberlain
1999		After the Party	The Push Stars		Guitar
1999		Breakdown	Melissa Etheridge		Guitar
1999		Cruel Intentions	Original Soundtrack		Producer

Jon Brion Credits Cont... (Part II)

1999		Fast As You Can	Fiona Apple		Producer, Engineer, Instrumentation
1999		Imaginate	Taxiride		Chamberlain
1999		Jewels for Sophia	Robyn Hitchcock		Organ, Bass, Percussion, Drums, Vocals, Producer, Engineer, Chamberlain, Key Bass
1999		On How Life Is	Macy Gray		Synthesizer, Guitar, Piano, Marimba, Chamberlain, Orchestra Bells
1999		Rufus Wainwright [Japan Bonus Tracks]	Rufus Wainwright		Producer, Engineer
1999		Viva Noel: Q Division Christmas	Various Artists		Organ, Guitar, Drums
1999		When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a Kin	Fiona Apple		Producer, Mixing
1999		Wishbone	Eleni Mandell		Bass, Guitar, Piano, Celeste, Organ (Hammond), Mellotron, Chamberlain, Talk Box, Optigan, Guitar (Baritone)
1999		Word of Mouth Parade	Gus		Guitar, Mandolin, Keyboards
1999		Zero Zero Zero: The Best of Sam Phillips	Sam Phillips		Bass, Guitar, Chamberlain
2000		Bachelor No. 2	Aimee Mann		Drums, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Vocals (bckgr), Producer
2000		Beautiful Story	Andrew		Harmonium, Piano (Grand)
2000		Breach	The Wallflowers		Musician
2000		End of Bliss	Wonderland		Musician
2000		Figure 8 [Japan Bonus Tracks]	Elliott Smith		Vocals (bckgr)
2000		Figure 8	Elliott Smith		Vocals (bckgr)
2000		From There to Here	John Oszajca		Guitar
2000		Grammy Nominees 2000	Various Artists		Vibraphone
2000		Paper Bag	Fiona Apple		Producer
2000		Reel Life, Vol. 1	Wild Colonials		Organ
2000		Star For Bram	Robyn Hitchcock		Bass, Guitar, Piano, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Producer, Engineer, Overdubs, Harmony Vocals, Mixing, Key Bass
2000		Teddy Thompson	Teddy Thompson		Guitar
2000		Tonight and the Rest of My Life	Nina Gordon		Organ, Bass, Guitar, Pedal Steel, Chamberlain
2000		Two Lips	Dan Castellaneta		Guitar, Saxophone, Slide Guitar
2000		Ultimate Collection	Aimee Mann		Guitar, Percussion, Cello, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Vocals (bckgr), Harmony Vocals, Bass (Acoustic), Gu
2001		Herethereafter	Miranda Lee Richards		Bass, Guitar, Bells, Producer, Engineer, Chamberlain, Marxophone, Optigan
2001		Keeping the Dream Alive: Race to Erase M.S.	Various Artists		Guitar, Piano, Orchestra Bells
2001		Meaningless	Jon Brion		Bass, Guitar, Vocals
2001		Shrek	Original Soundtrack		Producer
2001		Storm Hymnal: Gems from the Vault of Grant Lee Buffal	Grant Lee Buffalo		Piano, Vibraphone, Organ (Pump), Guest Appearance
2001		Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute	Various Artists		Bass
2001		Trust No One	Dave Navarro		Guitar, Voices, Introduction, Ring Modulator, Slide Bass
2001		Tweekend	The Crystal Method		Vocals, Producer, Chamberlain, Wurlitzer
2002		About a Boy	Badly Drawn Boy		Bass, Voices, Vibraphone, Chamberlain, Fuzz Guitar
2002		Alice Peacock	Alice Peacock		Guitar (Electric), Organ (Hammond)
2002		Between Us: A Benefit for Internos	Various Artists		Producer
2002		Have You Fed the Fish?	Badly Drawn Boy		Bass, Conductor, Guitar (Electric), Chamberlain, String Arrangements, Soloist, Fuzz Guitar, Casio
2002		Instigator	Rhett Miller		Guitar (Acoustic), Bass, Dobro, Piano, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Organ (Hammond), Vocals (bckgr), Producer, Vibraphone, Vocal Coach, Piano (Upright), Guitar (Baritone)
2002		Kissin' Time [EMI]	Marianne Faithfull		Celeste, Drums, Chamberlain, Organ (Pump)
2002		Kissin' Time [Hut]	Marianne Faithfull		Celeste, Drums, Keyboards, Chamberlain, Organ (Pump)
2002		Largo	Brad Mehldau		Guitar, Producer, Chamberlain, Mixing, Guitar Synth, Prepared Piano
2002		Last DJ [Bonus DVD]	Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers		Arranger, Conductor
2002		Last DJ	Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers		Conductor, Orchestral Arrangements
2002		No Fear	Abra Moore		Bass, Guitar, Drums, Keyboards
2002		OK Go	OK Go		Musician
2002		Punch-Drunk Love	Original Soundtrack		Producer, Remixing, Mixing, Instrumentation

Jon Brion Credits (part III)

2002		Restless Night	Julianna Raye		Piano
2002		Robyn Sings	Robyn Hitchcock		Guitar
2002		Tweekend [Australian Bonus CD]	The Crystal Method		Vocals, Producer
2002		When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a Kin	Fiona Apple		Producer, Mixing
2003		26 Miles	Sean Watkins		Organ, Guitar, Organ (Hammond), Chamberlain, Piano (Upright)
2003		Amorama	Erica García		Guitar, Keyboards, Sampling
2003		Baby I'm Bored	Evan Dando		Vocals, Producer, Marxophone, Instrumentation
2003		Blondes Prefer the Gentlemen	The Gentlemen		Mellotron, Chamberlain
2003		Christmas Calling	Various Artists		Producer
2003		Have You Fed the Fish? [Japan Bonus Track/Bonus CD]	Badly Drawn Boy		Bass, Strings, Conductor, Guitar (Electric), Chamberlain, String Arrangements, Soloist, Fuzz Guitar, Casio
2003		Hit	Peter Gabriel		Mandolin, Chamberlain, Treated Piano
2003		Imaginate/Garage Mahal	Taxiride		Keyboards, Chamberlain
2003		Live at the Olympic: The Last DJ and More [Bonus CD]	Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers		Conductor
2003		Lost in Space [Bonus Disc]	Aimee Mann		Bass, Percussion, Marimba, Producer, Vibraphone, Chamberlain
2003		Luxor	Robyn Hitchcock		Keyboards
2003		Return to Planet Earth	Kim Fox		Guitar, Celeste, Ukulele, Slide Guitar
2003		Thirteenth Step	A Perfect Circle		Instrumentation
2003		To Whom It May Concern	Lisa Marie Presley		Guitar
2003		Too Much Time on Our Hands: A Styx Tribute Album	Various Artists		Organ (Hammond)
2004		Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	Original Soundtrack		Vocals, Producer, Mixing
2004		Everyone Is Here	The Finn Brothers		Organ, Guitar (Acoustic), Banjo, Guitar, Percussion, Drums, Guitar (Electric), Harmonium, Guitar (12 String), ProducerPercussion Programming, Drum Fills
2004		From a Basement on the Hill	Elliott Smith		Engineer
2004		Giant Pin	Nels Cline Singers		Celeste, Harmonium, Sampling, Chamberlain
2004		I Heart Huckabees	Jon Brion		Producer, Author, Mixing, Vocal Producer
2004		Legion of Boom [Bonus Tracks]	The Crystal Method		Guitar
2004		Legion of Boom	The Crystal Method		Guitar
2004		Restless Night [Bonus Track]	Julianna Raye		Piano
2004		Strange Mess of Flowers	Davíd Garza		Keyboards
2004		Virginia Creeper	Grant Lee Phillips		Ukulele, Group Member
2005		Extraordinary Machine [DualDisc]	Fiona Apple		Bass, Marimba, Producer, Orchestral Arrangements
2005		Extraordinary Machine	Fiona Apple		Bass, Marimba, Producer, Orchestral Arrangements
2005		Fate Is the Hunter	Kate Earl		Organ (Hammond)
2005		Fires	Nerina Pallot		Guitar, Keyboards
2005		Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen	Various Artists		Producer, Mixing
2005		Late Registration [Clean]	Kanye West		Producer, Executive Producer, String Arrangements, Brass Arrangement
2005		Late Registration	Kanye West		Producer, Executive Producer, String Arrangements, Brass Arrangement
2005		Now, Vol. 62 [UK]	Various Artists		Producer
2005		Self Help Serenade	Marjorie Fair		Bass, Piano, Drums, Mellotron, Sounds, Tack Piano
2005		What I Mean to Say Is Goodbye	Tom Brosseau		Guitar
2005		Winter Pays for Summer	Glen Phillips		Guitar, Toy Piano
		Mojo Machine Turns You On	Various Artists		Producer
		Put Another Date On Life	Solin		Drums