Durand Jones & The Indications’ share music video for 'Smile'
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Emerging Indiana-based band Durand Jones & The Indications’ deluxe version of their acclaimed self-titled debut album will be released on March 16 via Dead Oceans/Colemine Records. The album, which was originally released in 2016, received praise from The Philadelphia Inquirer, who called it, “Smartly restrained music steeped in the Deep South” and Paste, who said, “With a tingling rasp that screams James Brown and coos Otis Redding, Jones simply has to be heard to be believed on these vintage R&B pleas.” Detroit Metro Times furthered, “Modern soul that pulls with as much power as Lee Fields and Charles Bradley.”
Of their debut, the band reflects, “Three years ago we spent every Sunday in our basement with a 4-track tape machine and a goal: record an album inspired by not only the ubiquitous titans of soul music but also the should-have-beens and the never-weres. With that modest target in mind, we released the record and booked one show marking the occasion. The reception we saw was both humbling and invigorating, and what started as a recording project, became a touring unit with larger aspirations.”
The deluxe version of the album will contain a digital version of Durand Jones and The Indications Live Vol. 1. Additionally, an exclusive Dead Oceans/Colemine Records pre-order will include the LP, CD, digital deluxe version and bonus 7” that features covers of 1967’s “Put A Smile On Your Face” by E.J. and the Echoes and 1970’s Penny & the Quarters classic, “You And Me.”
A native of rural Hillaryville, Louisiana Durand Jones was a self-composed childhood “introvert” brought out of his shell when his grandmother gifted him an alto saxophone, which he played all the way through a BA in general music education from South Eastern Louisiana University and on up to post-grad study at Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Once in Bloomington, Jones joined and toured with the all-sax Kinari Quartet, performing complex chamber music and winning international awards in the process.
Initially, Jones was recruited to write and arrange horn parts for the IU Soul Revue but when the act fell short of singers, he was asked to step up to the mic. Fronting the Revue also brought him into contact with The Indications’ drummer / vocalist Aaron Frazer and guitarist Blake Rhein. With the addition of bassist Kyle Houpt, the group began writing and recording on a trusty TASCAM 4-track. Four years performing together onstage had schooled the musicians to play live and loud while the immersion in classic soul taught Jones, Frazer and Rhein the craft of songwriting and arranging.