Hailing from Seattle, Washington, USA, Damien Jurado is an indie rock singer/songwriter who made his debut in 1995. He is known for his incredibly prolific output, releasing 13 studio albums and 14 EP’s with eight different record labels.
The D.I.Y movement in punk rock gave birth to many great things that weren’t powered by ferocious power chords and throat crushing screams. Most of the movement’s ideology could be just as easily applied to any struggling singer songwriter as well, and in Damien Jurado, it had found an artist more willing to commit than most.
Jurado started out releasing cassette tapes on his own label Casa Recordings, this managed to get him a cult following in his native Seattle and the attention of Sunny Day Real Estate frontman Jeremy Enigk.
Soon after they met, Enigk bought Jurado to the attention of legendary alternative label Sub Pop who would go on to release his first four albums, starting with 1997’s “Water Ave S”
Jurado would stay with Sup Pop for five years, releasing 1999’s “Rehearsals For Departure”, 2000’s “Ghost Of David” and 2002’s “I Break Chairs” in the interim.
These ran the gamut from the upbeat rockisms of “I Break Chairs” to the abject desolation of “Ghost of David” and earned him an even bigger cult following around the globe.
However, in 2003 he signed to Indiana’s very own Secretly Canadian, where he remains to this day. The truth of the matter is that Damien Jurado is going to remain a cult concern for the rest of his days, just as most artists as outrageously talented as he is will do.
However, it seems as though that’s exactly what Jurado wants to be, and any music fan worth their salt should want to be there as well.
Gregory Alan Isakov
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