Music
Press
Mike Jasper—a former music critic for the Sebastopol Times & News, Marin Independent Journal, Cotati Clarion and other now-defunct newspapers (who therefore knows how ridiculous it all is)—does not care one iota about reviews. He does, however, care tremendously about PREVIEWS and is amazing at getting advance information on his shows placed in newspapers, websites and, occasionally, broadcast media— i.e. conventional radio and TV. - Jaspernews
Discography
Kid Off The Farm
To The Valley of the Moon
Let It Go
Back In My Salad Days
I'm So Heavy
Photos
Bio
In the summer of 1973, while still a teenager — with just a knapsack full of clothes, ten bucks in his pocket, and a Martin D-18 in the front seat next to him—Mike Jasper drove his '67 Chevy Impala to Los Angeles to start his music career.
That year, Jasper became what he calls an "unstaffed writer" with Screen Gems. "They didn't pay me, but anytime I thought I had a song they should here I could drop by and they'd make a cranky production assistant record it on a two-track Teac tape recorder."
During the '70s, Jasper started one of the early punk rock bands, The LA Flyers. The Flyers—comprised of his brother Dan Eagan on drums, Don Crosby on violin, Greg Drozd on keyboards and bass, and Jasper on guitar and vocals—took to the stage for the first time in the fall of 1976, a full year before the debut album from The Sex Pistols.
"It was odd, because I was doing punk rock with the Flyers, but also doing a folk solo act. The two genres have one thing in common—they're cheap. All you need to be a solo folk act is an acoustic guitar and a bucketful of songs. With punk, you just grabbed whatever guitar and amp you could afford. If the speaker was blown out on the amp, that would just become part of the sound.”
Jasper continues, “You have to remember, this was the era of big production rock bands such as Emerson Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, with crazy effects and expensive synthesizers. The punk movement was spawned by a bunch of young guys who couldn't afford the equipment to compete at that level and wanted to get on stage right way."
As a solo artist, he played a now-defunct club on Lankershim Blvd. which featured an open mic run by Murray Langston, who also performed as The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show.
"I knew The Unknown Comic before he was unknown," Jasper quips.
Langston heard a novelty song called "Gotta Little Soul," and encouraged Jasper to try out for The Gong Show, produced by Chuck Barris. Jasper got on the show and won, thanks to a ten by Anson Williams. (Jamie Farr and J.P. Morgan gave Jasper scores of nine each, but he wound up winning by one point.)
"It's really a throwaway song, something I wrote just to amuse my stand-up comedian girlfriend at the time. In fact, I gave her the trophy after I won," Jasper says.
After five years in LA and upon the death of his '67 Chevy, Jasper returned to his roots in Sonoma County, California. He went back to the acoustic scene, but also started MJB, short for Mike Jasper Band, a power-pop rock band. The original members included Eagan on drums, Randy Quan on guitar, Robert Williams on guitar and Neal Gross on bass.
During the '80s, his song "To The Valley of the Moon", co-written with Quan, won a local song competition and was featured on a homegrown album produced by radio station KVRE called Sonoma Soundtrack. Jasper and Quan won several other awards for pop songs such as "Love Will Survive", "Case Closed", "Gas Food & Lodging", and "Write To Me".
During the late '80s and early '90s, Jasper put his career on hold to get a degree in English from Sonoma State University. He soon found himself on staff of several local newspapers, including the Marin Independent Journal, the Petaluma Argus-Courier and the Sebastopol Times & News. He still kept his big toe in the music business, however, performing at open mics at Jasper O'Farrell's.
In 1991, Jasper got laid off from his job as a publicity director for a local software company, and decided since he didn't have anything else going he’d restart his music career. A friend gave him two plane tickets to Austin, TX, one for him, one for his guitar. Jasper put all his stuff in storage and moved to Austin, with no car and about $600 in his pocket.
"Every time I move, it's like jumping into the deep end and hoping I can learn to swim before I drown,” Jasper says. “This move was tough. I lost 20 pounds in a year and pretty much lived on a slice of street pizza every night."
Jasper wound up working (and living) at Chicago House, a venue for acoustic musicians, poets and stage actors. There he met and gigged with Slaid Cleaves, Kevin Gant, Mark Viator, Betty Elders, Jimmy La Fave, Russ Somers, Will T. Massey, Walt Wilkins, Patty Finney, Hamell on Trial, Beaver Nelson, Kacy Crowley and more than he can remember.
"I'm sure I'm leaving some important names out. It was a great time during the '90s in Austin, although nobody seemed to notice. Too often, the other players waiting to play were our only audience. The only time Chicago House filled up was when somebody like Jeff Buckley came to town."
In 1993, Jasper started John Cougar Rabinowitz (JCR for short) a band that played everything from country to rock & roll. It featured Mike Macicak on guitar, Ric Furley on drums, and Mike Davis on bass.
"Ric was clearly the standout in the band, since he was the only one not named Mike," Jasper quips.
"JCR was the best band I ever played in, hands down. Very disci
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