The songs comprising Sunshower—produced by the band and noted engineer Chris Ribando (The Black Crowes, Priestbird, Mary J. Blige)—blend contemporary styles with a myriad of classic influences, from Dylan and The Beatles to Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac to The Police and Talking Heads. But you wouldn’t immediately hear them. The band has a knack for combining all of those influences into something utterly vital and wholly their own, as they’ve done on first single “Flaming Arrow,” a shimmering, ringing acoustic folk tune shot through with a bumping bassline and New Orleans inspired drum groove.
Sunshower dazzles on tracks like the dancefloor-friendly “Simple Stones,” filled with handclaps and soulful economic riffing that boasts a bass line for the ages while blending ‘80s Stones and MGMT. The epic opener “Volcano” melds The Beach Boys with The Flaming Lips, while delivering one of the disc’s best choruses. If Ishibashi conjures The Shins on “Find Me a Place,” he drops vintage, finger-picking folk on disc-closer “People in the Mountain.” As guitarist Zac Colwell puts it: “We can sound like Simon & Garfunkel, The Kooks, or even from a webisode of Yacht Rock.”
If they had their way, listeners would ingest each track on Sunshower as they would a new chapter in a never-boring book. Says singer/multi-instrumentalist K Ishibashi, “We approach every song like, ‘Will people be able to listen to this over and over again?’ ”
“Each song is like a little world,” adds Colwell. “We’re the same four guys playing the music on each track, but we just like to get way down in there and explore that little world.”
What K Ishibashi (lead vocals), Zac Colwell (lead guitar), Dave Heilman (drums) and Pat Dougherty (bass) have created as a result is a hook-heavy album tailor-made for our ADD times. And that mix-it-up mentality suits the band, as its songs are written by either Colwell or Ishibashi, each of whom have opposing approaches to lyric and melody.
“K leaves things a little more open for the listener,” says Colwell, who also plays keyboards and flute and adds backing vocals. “I consciously try to have a little narrative, and tell a story.” Counters Ishibashi, who plays guitar and violin in addition to singing lead on Sunshower: “His songs are pretty dark. I write bright, fun stuff, a lot of it stemming from one really big emotional experience. I’m more analytical, more left brain, he’s more right.”
“If there’s a theme to the album, it would definitely be bittersweetness,” Colwell continues.
“There’s definitely some humor, playfulness, but there’s also this twenty-something, we-have-to-temper-our-excitement sort of thing, especially being New Yorkers. Our elation is always checked, and some of the lyrics reflect that.” Bittersweet can be contradictory in terms, but in this case, these four unique personalities colorfully complement one another.
Although officially formed in 2003, the seeds for Jupiter One were planted in 2000 when Austin native Colwell and Ishibashi (raised in Virginia) met while working as touring musicians with a traveling circus, the Barnum Kaleidoscope. Bonding over their love for all music from soul to classical Indian, the duo began performing instrumental music in New York in the early 2000s, gradually working their way toward pop music incorporating vocals, and gigs at Pianos, Arlene’s Grocery and other reputable venues around Manhattan. “We noticed that once we started singing, girls started coming to shows,” laughs Colwell.
A former member of the popular STOMP performance collective, New Jersey-born drummer Heilman, caught an early incarnation of Jupiter One at a now-defunct bar in New York’s Lower East Side. “There was a unique, analog keyboard sound, something you don’t really hear anymore, especially then, in 2004,” he says, “and it just created this incredible sense of nostalgia. It made me feel like the band’s music was already history. It totally felt classic, and it made me sit up on the edge of my seat.” The current incarnation of the band coalesced with the addition of Delaware-raised bassist Pat Dougherty.
Taking its name from the spaceship in the ‘60s television show Lost in Space, Jupiter One made its recorded debut in 2005 with a self-titled EP, three songs from which made the transition—albeit in re-recorded form—to the group’s official self-titled debut album. The songs on Jupiter One scored the band a slew of high-level song-placements in TV and film projects (including the upcoming indie film Broken Windows, MLB Opening Day ‘09, NASCAR Talladega Race ’09 NBC’s Heroes Tribute, and the Sci-Fi channel’s Flash Gordon), as well as a number of video games (Madden NFL ’08, NHL ’08, etc.), and commercials (Payless‘09, Mazda ‘08).
Behind the new wave-inspired Jupiter One, the band members—having quit their day jobs—criss-crossed the States, building a fan base and surviving on Subway’s five-dollar footlong special, laughs Heilman. “We spent 14 months sluggin’ it out in the clubs,” he says. “We did not want to be some sort of boring web sensation. We wanted to meet our fans face to face.” And the work has paid off. “It’s definitely a show we’ve put time into, so it’s not just four guys playing a song, it’s supposed to be a spectacle,” says Colwell.
With producer/engineer Ribando at the controls, Sunshower embraces warmer, analog sounds and vintage recording techniques. “It’s the sound of the four of us playing together, rather than layering in the studio,” says Colwell. “Instead of piecemeal, it’s the way we actually sound live.”
Forgetting the sound for a minute, and thinking about the songs, Ishibashi adds: “We just want people to internalize them. We want Sunshower to be a journey.”
Moon Won't Turn
Jupiter One Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
No matter how hard I stare
And the dead won't rise
No matter how much I love surprises
And the couch won't walk.
And the windows will never talk.
And the moon won't turn...
Gravity
Keeps me from flying to you
And the world won't wait
Don't bother to check the time
And the streets won't burn
No matter how fast you take the turns
And I can't stop time.
The reluctance is in the rhyme.
And the moon wont turn...
Gravity
Keeps me from flying to you
Gravity keeps me from doing most of the things I like to do
In my head she'll be falling
So we walk back up to the beginning and do it again
In my bed sometimes I feel like I'm falling
But it's feet overhead
Six feet
Over my head
Did I ask?
Did you believe?
Delilah...
Did you believe?
And the moon won't turn
No matter how hard I stare
And the dead won't rise
No matter how much I love surprises
And the couch won't walk.
And the windows will never talk.
And the moon won't turn...
In my head she'll be falling
So we walk back up to the beginning and do it again
In my bed sometimes I feel like I'm falling
But it's feet overhead
Six feet
Over my head
Did I ask?
Did you believe?
Delilah...
Did you believe?
Did I ask?
Did you believe?
Delilah...
Did you believe?
Did I ask?
The lyrics of Jupiter One's song "Moon Won't Turn" explore the theme of feeling stuck in a world where things don't go the way we want them to. The first stanza discusses the frustration of trying to will the moon to turn and make something happen, but realizing that it is impossible. It also alludes to the disappointment of realizing that things we hope to happen, like the dead rising or inanimate objects coming to life, will never come to pass.
The second stanza delves into a similar vein, highlighting the limitations imposed by gravity and the idea that time inevitably marches forward. The line "The reluctance is in the rhyme" suggests a feeling of being trapped in the natural order of things. The bridge emphasizes the idea that in our own minds, we have a sense of control and possibility, but it is often only a fantasy.
Overall, "Moon Won't Turn" offers a commentary on the human experience of feeling powerless in the face of forces beyond our control. While it doesn't necessarily provide a solution or response to this feeling, it offers a relatable and melancholic perspective.
Line by Line Meaning
And the moon won't turn
No matter how much I try, some things cannot be changed
No matter how hard I stare
Even if I keep looking at it, it won't change
And the dead won't rise
No matter how hard I wish for it, some things cannot be brought back to life
No matter how much I love surprises
Even if I try to surprise someone, it won't change the fact that some things cannot be undone
And the couch won't walk.
Even in my imagination, some things are not possible
And the windows will never talk.
No matter how much I wish for it, some things are just not possible
Gravity
The force that keeps us tied to this earth
Keeps me from flying to you
The physical barriers of this world prevent me from being where I want to be
And the world won't wait
Even if I delay, time will not stop for me
Don't bother to check the time
It won't change the fact that time is still moving forward
And the streets won't burn
No matter how reckless I am, the world will not change for me
No matter how fast you take the turns
Even if I try to change my surroundings, some things will remain the same
And I can't stop time.
No matter how much I want to slow things down, time will keep moving forward
The reluctance is in the rhyme.
Some things cannot be expressed even through words
Gravity keeps me from doing most of the things I like to do
The limitations of this world prevent me from doing what I want
In my head she'll be falling
In my imagination, I have the power to change things
So we walk back up to the beginning and do it again
Sometimes we have to start over to make things right
But it's feet overhead
In reality, things are not always as they seem
Six feet
The depth at which we bury our dead
Over my head
But sometimes the weight of the world feels like it's crushing me
Did I ask?
Was this something that I wanted?
Did you believe?
Did you understand what I was trying to say?
Delilah...
A name that represents the one who was misunderstood
Did you believe?
Did you really understand?
Did I ask?
Was this something I really wanted?
Contributed by Hunter F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@x77benoit
this is one of those rare albums where every track is good and compliments itself ... YET goes unnoticed
@unknown3333333333333
This is a cool song with a wicked beat thanks for the upload =)
@Chanuel
2:28 to 3:00 - The breakdown is so sic
@Isasinbela
Why they don't exist anymore? T.T
@ajconlin8525
Unsuccessful. Big shame
@Hugo04CrMdz
Who in 2021 February 9?
@AnonymousGamer-ut5nz
May 2021
@TwinkieTerror
Today
@de1168
2022 april 11th
@kay1074
2022 October 18th