This new band of mine has been branded as JASON. Anne, my now wife as of early October, suggested the name one evening, and after I realized she wasn’t joking, she made a valid point. Nobody can ever spell my last name anyway, and this new music should be called something different from J Mundok, which is the moniker under which my ambient and instrumental music has been published on the streaming platforms over the years. So, while the rock and pop music we’re focusing on was originally released under the name J Mundok on cassettes and CDs back in the day, I’m going to use JASON going forward for the band and any shows I do solo or with other configurations.

JASON (the band) landed our first show at West Art here in Lancaster, PA on Saturday, October 18 alongside the Lancaster band Pro Human Future and two touring bands, BRNDA (Washington D.C.) and Cor de Lux (North Carolina).

We played a strong 8-song set that we started crafting back in August, opening with “The Bottom”. I always loved that song as the opener on the Artichoke album. Because of the electronic nature of the original material from that album, I wanted the updated version to emerge through jams with the band, rather than trying to dictate the sound. Erik and Brent found an amazing groove that fits perfectly with the overall feel of the band. We followed “The Bottom” with a rock version of “Complicated”, which sounds more like the original demos for that song than what was recorded for Artichoke, followed by “Horizontal”, a song that I’m really glad I get to play out with a rock band again.

Our second mini set is a collection of songs about being a teenager, “Summer” originally from Boredom Breeds Curiosity, and “Notebook” and “Answers” from The In Between.

We closed out the set with the latest version of “What’s Mine”, the oldest song in this set that I wrote when I was just 19 years old followed by “Green Grass”, another track from Boredom Breeds Curiosity. “Green Grass” has become one of my favorite songs in the catalog and was a perfect way to end the set.

Overall, we just simply had a blast getting up there and bringing the rock. It’s been a long time since my last show (outside of hosting open mics at The Candy Factory) and an even longer time since I played a rock show. The feeling when the beat dropped after the intro to “The Bottom” was like the one you get when you see an old friend and you pick up exactly where you left off, regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve seen each other. It’s great to be back!