Jon Lemmon Steppenwolf, pg. 247

I stumbled across Jon Lemmon while I was killing some time in a music store recently. Not physically (as best I can tell, he lives in New Zealand) -- I happened to be chillin' at Music Makers in downtown Austin, and they were playing an iPod out of an amp in the soundboard section. The whole time I was wandering around the store I was really struck by the music. It felt strangely nostalgic, and I was eventually compelled to ask one of employees what was playing. He told me that it was Jon Lemmon with a bit of a shrug that seemed to indicate he had little to do with its selection, or that maybe it wasn't his iPod.

Either way, the music stuck with me, and I ended up looking him up when I got home. After misspelling his name and trying pretty hard to convince Google that I was not in fact searching for John Lennon, I eventually hit his Bandcamp page, where I was thoroughly pleased to find his entire discography available for free download, which you can (and definitely should) take advantage of.

His music has a washed out quality -- heavy on the droning, and leaning strongly towards the chill end of the music spectrum. Jon Lemmon has a knack for splicing short vocal samples into harmonic melodies that drive his spacy downtempo (and mostly electronic) tracks. His voice is little unrefined, but in an honest authentic kind of way, which struck me as endearing.

"Steppenwolf, pg. 247" has a low-key, hazy, psych-ambience that's perfect for a rainy morning in bed. I melt a little bit at about the 2 minute mark, when after a soft pause, a chorus of  Lemmons' modulated voices come in and croon me into blissful chillness.

On the whole, Jon Lemmon has proved to be a very rewarding chance find. Dude can make some music, and if you can get down on it, go to his Bandcamp page and show him some love.