The Midas touch

Jon Brion

For such a quiet and unassuming musician/producer, Jon Brion's been in the news a bit lately. Kanye West recently announced he was calling on Jon Brion to work with him on some tracks on his next release. Meanwhile, Brion's production of Fiona Apple's latest (Extraordinary Machine) is in the midst of a ongoing battle with Sony to see it's proper release. Sony seems to think that the album doesn't have a marketable single and won't release it, but, much like the drama 4 years ago with Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it's been leaked on the web and is getting serious buzz, much in thanks to Brion's production.

There are a couple musician/producers who have the Midas Touch in the music world today, and truly only one is as prolific is Jon Brion. Not only does he produce (the aforementioned Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, Macy Gray, Rufus Wainwright, Robyn Hitchcock, Lisa Marie Presley, Eels, and many more) he's a great session musician that's called upon by many artists to give a song a more interesting spin w/ his instrumentation (Peter Gabriel, Beck, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Elliott Smith, Marianne Faithful, The Crystal Method, Melissa Etheridge, Mary Lou Lord, the list goes on and on!) Before that, he also was briefly members of the bands The Grays, Jellyfish and The Wallflowers. Brion brings a unique sound with him, mostly his use of the chamberlain. He's parlayed his sound into motion pictures with his great soundtrack scores to movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I Heart Huckabees, Magnolias, and Punch Drunk Love.

Here's a playlist of songs that have Jon Brion's hands all over them, and thus, are all unique pop masterpieces.