Jackson 8 rolls out its new CD -- and the musicians might roll off to other bands

By Malcolm Mayhew
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Weekly roundup of local music notes:

Hate it when this happens: Sometimes a band's CD release party could also be its swan song.

Such is the case for Jackson 8, a Denton-based, kinda-punk/kinda-pop quartet with a new CD, Mystery Tank, and a potential date with demise. One of the band's two singers, Dwayne Ray, says this could very well be it -- hello and goodbye.

"We're not saying this is our final show, because you never know what'll happen," he says. "But we're not really together anymore. We're all in other bands now, and one of us doesn't want to do this anymore."

Too bad. Judging from a batch of songs from Mystery Tank that the band has up on its myspace.com page, J8 is on to something: a little bit Ramones, a little bit '60s-pop, a whole lot of fun -- the kind of breezy, pretense-free music that's in short supply around here.

"We used to say it was good-time rock 'n' roll," Ray says. "Then we were playing a show in California one time, and they thought we had said it was old-time rock and roll, and we kinda got in trouble because we weren't playing classic rock. That was pretty funny."

The band, made up of Ray, his fiancee and keyboardist (and Denton Record-Chronicle music critic) Mariel Tam, and married couple Josh (on drums) and Nazli Prisk (on bass), has actually been around for quite some time, since 2001. In 2002, they put out Who Said It Gots To Be Good, a seven-song, 7-inch record.

Since then, the band members have picked up with or formed other bands -- the Beatdown and Landrest (also celebrating the arrival of a CD) among them -- all the while working on Mystery Tank, named after a gas tank in their van for which the gauge doesn't work.

"We're still going to send this record out to labels and whoever, and see what happens," Ray says. "If something happens with it, then obviously we'll think twice about breaking up."

Jackson 8 and Landrest perform Friday at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton. Cover's $5.
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Electro-retro outfit Black Tie Dynasty will be at the Aardvark on Friday, gearing up for the upcoming release of its new CD, Movements.

Malcolm Mayhew, (817) 390-7713 mmayhew@star-telegram.com