Jon Hardy & The Public – Make Me Like Gold

It’s gotta be Americana; it’s got a flag on the cover. But…what is it? And who are these people?

Jon Hardy & the Public seem to be a real band, based somewhere around St. Louis. They don’t play very often because, well, there are a lot of bands based out there in the midwest, and they’re just one of them. They have a website (www.jonhardy.com), from which you can buy this CD for eleven dollars, including postage.

I recommend you do that.

Now, I have no way of knowing if the bios of the band members on the website are true or not. If they are, this is a fairly remarkable mix of experiences, and may explain the individuality of the record. If they aren’t, the creativity that went into making them up shows on the album.

All I know is that this CD came in the mail one day and, along with a pile of other CDs sent to me by readers of this magazine, I played it one night, and it stood out. A lot. Maybe it was the Neil Young-ish guitar that started the first song, “Grand Canyon Meltdown”, or the song’s stark, scary lyrics. Or maybe it was Hardy’s way with a melody, as on “Cassius Clay”, which took hold right away. I have to admit I was amazed when the last track, “Running Hot”, was delivered to the accompaniment of an honest-to-Bach pipe organ, enough so that I didn’t notice the lyrics were a little weak for several more plays.

The more I played Make Me Like Gold, the more I heard that I liked. There’s the strangely engaging little computer program playing underneath the first half of “Prophet Blues”, a song best described as Bowie’s “Space Oddity” as composed and performed by The Band, with a nod toward the Flaming Lips’ “Race For The Prize”. The way Seth Pendergrass’ drumming is solid enough to sustain dub-like sections with bassist Shaun Lee here and there, as well as being able to propel the band through moments of near-frenzy. The flat-out Dylan sound of “The King Of Main Street”. The overall weirdness.

My final judgment was that this record is about as original as any grass-roots recording by a guitar-based band is going to get at this late date. Do they sound like this live? Probably, at least somewhat. Is some of it derivative? Inevitably, but it’s where they’re doing their deriving, some of which I’ve mentioned above, that’s important.

There are too many records being made by competent people these days, and no way to get an overview on the thousands upon thousands of them. The needle pins at “average,” and not much pushes past that. This does. Maybe there are loads of bands better than this. I haven’t heard them, so Jon Hardy & the Public are, for me, a rare find. (And to be honest, I kinda doubt there are.)

I hope Hardy’s got more albums in him, because he’s doing fascinating work. In fact, of late — we’ve been corresponding some in the six months since I got the CD, and he’s pointed me to some MP3s of recently recorded stuff — he’s gotten even more confident and, well, odd: “This House Shall Fall” starts with much guitar, sinks down to an acoustic thing and then…huge hunks of near-silence, before it eventually picks up again. The more I listen to his stuff, the more the Hieronymous Bosch critters on the website (Hardy didn’t seem aware of who Bosch was or what his reputation was, strangely enough) make sense.

I hope I’m not the only one who gets to hear him; I hope he doesn’t get lost in the torrent.

Go ahead. Risk eleven bucks. I don’t think you’ll be sorry.