By Renny Logan
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Last year, Grampall Jookabox released its wild child debut
“Scientific Cricket.” The CD contained an array of influences, from folk to experimental. With paranormal-inspired lyrics and crackly, raw recordings, the capricious debut had much to offer listeners disinclined to mainstream music. On Tuesday, the band (if you can even call it that; its composition is loosely formed) released its second CD “Ropechain.”

In light of this, I met with Grampall Jookabox mastermind David “Moose” Adamson at a café in Broadripple to take a peek at the man behind the music. The Indy local got his start in music early on, recording songs on his boom box while in grade school, he said.

Adamson said he has tried holding down normal jobs and also attended Indiana University, but realized that music was what he wanted to do.

“I wasn’t convinced that (majoring in telecommunications) was what I wanted to do,” Adamson said. “I didn’t want to be stuck in Bloomington learning about camera angles and whatever else.”

After a tour with his former band BIGBIGCar didn’t go well, Adamson said he began to focus more on Grampall Jookabox, which originated as a side-project with girlfriend Amy Brown. Brown, who attends Herron School of Art and Design, no longer records with Adamson because of commitments to school and work.

Musically, Adamson said he believes in maintaining a raw sound. “I think you often lose something when you try to re-record a raw idea in a crisp way,” he said. “Even though I upgraded the technology on (‘Ropechain’), I still kept it to as few takes as possible.”

True to this statement, Adamson maintained the unrefined quality on “Ropechain;” however, the difference between the two albums is still noticeable. While I’m somewhat nostalgic for the crackly recordings of “Scientific Cricket,” to add them to “Ropechain” would have sounded forcibly raw.

“I tried to make (‘Ropechain’) so that it’d make more sense. One time I listened to ‘Scientific Cricket’ and I thought that it was just too all-over-the-place,” Adamson said.

The effort was executed well. “Ropechain” had all the oddity in style as “Scientific Cricket” without being incoherent. Adamson succeeded in harnessing his musical ability to put “Ropechain” together so that all the pieces worked in a synergistic manner, rather than conflicting.

For example, the opening track “Black Girls” begins slowly, with each sound entering separately but building upon one another. Adamson’s vocals soon begin as spoken-word over the simple beats. Adamson said one of the new technologies implemented on “Ropechain” was a loop pedal for the drums, which can be heard on this track.

One of many aspects of “Scientific Cricket” that can be found on “Ropechain” is the altered and sometimes just crazy vocalizations of Adamson. Vocals are sometimes sped up or slowed down, Adamson said. Other times, Adamson utilizes spoken-word or even a strange and modern kind of scat singing, like on the track “Let’s Go Mad Together.”

Unlike the debut, transitions between songs occur much more fluidly and cohesively on “Ropechain.” Each song leads into each other and all have the same underlying tone, whereas on “Scientific Cricket” each song existed on its own plane of existence. That’s not to say that “Scientific Cricket” was a bad CD, only that the songs, each good in their own right, didn’t necessarily belong on the same disc.

This is not true of “Ropechain,” which leads the listener logically from track to track. The CD is a successful forward step in the artistic progression for Grampall Jookabox and I’m interested in where it will take the band as a result.