National Bag

Collection Contents

#		Title	Length
1		Paradise 65	3:14	Play
2		Ground Speed	3:27	Play
3		Cigarette Star	3:45	Play
4		Rock Island...damn	3:02	Play
5		Thirsty Work	3:46	Play
6		National Bag	3:56	Play
7		Rootbound	4:40	Play
8		County Fair	2:34	Play
9		Smelterville	4:22	Play
10		Slow Dance	3:48	Play
11		Sugarbeet Bitch	2:10	Play

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Description

Sometimes patience pays off. With Fragile Jack, the rootsy, Northwest-based rock band, ten years of making music together (and years of friendship before that) has paid off in their most fully-realized songs to date on the soon-to-be-released album Lower Utopia. Combining up-tempo, twangy rock with honest, intelligent lyrics, the band finds an intuitive, natural communication when writing their songs. "It comes from doing it for so long with the same guys, from riding together in a broken-down van for hours on end. You just develop that instinct," says lead singer Phil Smith. "It's truly a band."


Formed in 1995 by childhood friends Adam Monda (guitars/ vocals) and Dave Goedde (drums), and soon joined by Smith (vocals/guitar) and Steve Pitner (bass), Fragile Jack quickly developed an enthusiastic following in the Northwest. Their full-throttle early performances caught the eye of renowned producer Rick Parashar (Pearl Jam, Blind Melon), and he helped produce Fragile Jack's critically acclaimed debut EP, Thirsty Work (1996). The CD showed a broad range of emotion and song-craft, hinting at American rock influences like the Replacements, Son Volt, and Creedence Clearwater Revival-but, as one reviewer put it, "the songs are so well-written and the band's performance is so fantastic that any strict comparison seems unfair."


After more than a year of playing shows throughout the Northwest, Fragile Jack decided to expand on the ideas expressed in Thirsty Work with a full-length album. With the help of sound engineer Geoff Ott (Nickleback, Three Doors Down), they crawled into a friend's basement studio with $1500 and a broken 16-track and created National Bag (1998). The album captures the raw energy and intensity that the band hoped for. The subject matter also expanded, with topics ranging from politics, as in "County Fair" and the title track; to relationships, like the sweetly sad ballad "Slow Dance;" to the wild search for a lost dog in the raucous hidden track "Sugarbeet Bitch"-an overwhelming fan favorite. The song "Ground Speed" gained the band national attention when it was chosen for a nationwide ad campaign for the Polo Jeans Company, featuring them alongside other top unsigned bands.


With their third offering, Lower Utopia, Fragile Jack have delivered their most accomplished work to date. "It's our best-sounding, best-written music so far," says Smith. The band has created a more cohesive feel both musically and lyrically, but maintains the distinct Fragile Jack style and flare. Smith even delves into the previously avoided subject of love with "Meet Me in Reno." Written for his fiance during their engagement, the song pulses with the heartfelt yearning of young love. "It's a tired word and subject in music, but the challenge for me was to convey the feeling without using the actual word. I think I succeeded," says Smith. Balancing out all that sweetness is the four-alarm blast of "Radio Fire;" the heartland rock of "Ambulance Lights;" the splintered remains of a relationship run it's course in "Heaven's Comin' Down;" and even a ghost story for the drinkin' man, "Molly Be Damned." The simple honesty and urgency that comes through in these songs shows a band that has grown together; combining their creative strengths and energies to capture that elusive quality that only a true band can deliver. Sometimes patience does pay off.