All in the family for a Boston band

Explaining the origins of Oldjack requires a couple of beers, a few minutes and a handful of diagrams, as the Boston band with the ever-changing lineup has roots firmly entrenched in the local scene.

In quick summation: Dan Nicklin, Oldjack frontman and lead singer, produced hip-hop beats and a plethora of other records for Boston bands when he was introduced to Ms. Pigeon at the studio back in 2001. Ms. Pigeon drummer Jason Meeker would later become Oldjack’s man on skins. Rishava Green—then Ms. Pigeon guitarist (and Meeker’s brother-in-law); now the current frontman for The Lights Out—would sit in on various sets of Oldjack’s earlier incarnations.

Through Ms. Pigeon, Nicklin met The Halogens, then fronted by Jason Dunn of The Luxury, with Ryan Peters on bass. Nicklin later asked Peters to lay some bass down on “The Christmas Song,” the tune that Peters refers to as “the first Oldjack song,” which featured both Green and Dunn as well. Kelly Davis, lead “Jackette,” had lent her octave-leaping vibrato to countless bands about town before complimenting Nicklin’s baritone with her superlative belt, while Hugh Wyman, formerly of Baby Strange, joins the group on guitar. By the time Oldjack was rolling eight or nine heads deep—including Derek Feeney on guitar and Christie Beaulieu and Emily Belastock on vocals—they had the self-released Union Glory and the Will Dailey-produced EP Gone Before You Know behind them, both brandishing an arsenal of straightforward songs invoking the timeless attraction of impressive guitar work and growly, weathered refrains at the ready.

Got it? Good. (I wasn’t kidding about the few minutes, as you can see.)

The point in the history lesson lies in the pedigree of Oldjack and the rare chemistry between them that can only come from a group of chorus-hungry musicians. The orchestral quality and multi-faceted detail in their music is testament to that, as exhibited in the twanged-up “Green” or “Chorus Line,” the number off Gone Before … that has strangers to the band singing the words back to Nicklin long before the bridge. When you’ve got a handful of people together who’ve done nothing but live and breathe rock and roll—and Boston-bred rock and roll, at that—you’re bound to reap the combined benefits of these talents at work, though it won’t always be easy. And this isn’t lost on the ladies and gentlemen of Oldjack.

“Steering the ship all the time in the right direction is hard,” says Nicklin over a round at the Rosebud, the band’s unofficial second home. “I have to say, I feel like the crew we have right now is ‘in the band’ for the first time.”

Adds Peters: “We’ll take what happens and go with it because we love it. Regardless of what happens, we’ll continue to play with each other because we enjoy doing that … it’s honestly about the music and the kind of family we have. With our band, and with the people associated with our band, I think that’s what we care about more than anything else—making really good music as best we can, and having the music speak to people in a way they can understand.”

OLDJACK

AT MAKE MUSIC/HARVARD SQUARE

SATURDAY 6.18.11
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25 BRATTLE ST.
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5PM/ALL AGES/FREE

WITH FULL BODY ANCHOR, TIRED OLD BONES, THE GRINDS, AND TIK TOK
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