Producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion grew up in a musi… Read Full Bio ↴Producer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion grew up in a musical family: his father was director of the Yale concert and marching bands, his mother sang in jazz bands, and his siblings, Randy (a conductor/arranger in L.A.) and Laurie (a violinist), were both avid music students. Young Jon didn't deal with instruction or practice well, but his natural affinity for improvisation and melody more than made up for his impatience. Unwilling to conform to the conventional school system, Brion attended special education class at Hamden High School in New Haven, CT, and the day he turned 17, he left school for good. Moving to Boston in 1987, the young musician formed many bonds that he would keep long into his professional career, including producer Mike Denneen (owner of Q Division, Boston's premier studio and record label) and 'Til Tuesday vocalist Aimee Mann. Also while there, Brion tuned his improvisational musical abilities: "I used to watch TV with an unplugged electric guitar, on the couch, and commercials would come on and I'd try to play along. It was one of the prime things I concerned myself with for several years, getting to the point where if I heard it, I could play it. Then I started working on getting my brain to do multiple things at once. And having my hands translate them." This proficiency led to increasingly frequent studio work on the West Coast, eventually resulting in his move to L.A. While in California, he and Jellyfish guitarist Jason Falkner formed the Grays, an underground superstar group which released the 1994 album Ro Sham Bo, before quickly fading as the other members (Falkner, Dan McCarroll, and Buddy Judge) went on to individual musical success. Throughout the '90s, Brion found himself increasingly in demand in the studio, producing and collaborating on albums by Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright, David Byrne, and the Eels and soundtracks including the Grammy-nominated Magnolia.
Recently, Brion experimented Hip-Hop style as producer on Kanye West last album, "Late Registration". The result is brilliant, with real-life instruments mashed up with heavy beats. To complete this mutation, Kanye West did a live recording of his record at the mythic Abbey Road Studio, Jon Brion being the missing link between Hip Hop and The Beatles pop music.

In addition to his prolific studio work, he also has held a long-term position as "the house band" Friday nights at the high-profile Hollywood nightclub Largo. At his live shows, the crowd can expect anything from guest appearances by Aimee Mann, Michael Stipe, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett, or Grant Lee Phillips, and Brion is infamous for making up songs on the spot (often from titles shouted from the audience). He also is beloved for his quirky cover versions of songs by Cheap Trick, the Beatles, and Cole Porter, proudly likening his on-stage antics to "spraying musical Raid on the classics, until each dying song flips on its back and wiggles its little musical legs in surrender." Whatever music he was involved in, his eclectic touch undeniably shaped the sound of many progressive alternative musicians throughout the '90s.

Sex Based Decision Making
Jon Brion Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by Jon Brion:

31 Knock Yourself Out It's something unattainable That you can't live without And …
Beck / Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes Change your heart Look around you Change your heart It will …
Dead To The World Are you dead to the world? It appears that you might…
Didn It was happy at the start When you offered me the…
Didn�t Think It Would Turn Out Bad It was happy at the start When you offered me the…
Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime Change your heart Look around you Change your heart It will …
Get What It I may be slower than some folks But I always make…
Gotta Start Somewhere I might not have anything to offer you I might not…
He Needs Me He needs me He doesn't know it, But he needs me And so…

Her Ghost Her ghost is six or so feet tall And the lights…
Here We Go You've gotta hope that there's someone for you As strange as…
Hook It should be boredom by now I know the tricks of…
I Although she's none the wiser Although we've barely met I …
I Believe She's Lying Although she's none the wiser Although we've barely met I ca…
It I may be slower than some folks But I always make…
Knock Yourself Out It's something unattainable That you can't live without And …
Little Person I'm just a little person, One person in a sea Of many…
Meaningless Oil tankers in the National Guard I came to meet you,…
Over Our Heads So what you're never understood Big deal you're doomed to di…
Revolving Door You slit your own throat You won't be around for long Though…
Revolving Doors You slit your own throat You won't be around for long Thou…
Ruin My Day I know it's today so I guess you could say…
Same Mistakes I got tired, I killed it through and through I don't…
Schenectady There's a place I long to be A certain town that's…
String That Tie To You From the wrinkles on my forehead To the mud upon my…
Strings That Tie You From the wrinkles on my forehead To the mud upon my…
Trouble Here's the face of trouble It's the face I wear And it…
Voices Hey it's me again Plain to see again Please can I see…
Walking Through Walls I'm standing up straight I'm standing up tall I've no time t…
You From the wrinkles on my forehead To the mud upon my…

You Learn Bastante tiempo atrás Había un gran volcán Qué vivía allá, s…

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