GARY JULES ANTI BIO by His Heinesse Diggy Bedlam

As a preeminent critic of music and culture, I always find myself thinking "Gary Jules does not dance well enough to be considered among today's top entertainers". Furthermore, I cannot see his eyes when he performs for that damned perpetually-worn baseball cap, which, in my opinion does nothing to help him win fans, or friends for that matter.

"But wait a minute", thinks I presently, "critics don't buy records, fans do". So when I heard that Gary Jules had been handing out home-burned copies of his new self-titled album -- the first since "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets", which took him to ..1 in the UK for 6 weeks in 2003-4 -- I figured I'd see what they, the fans, had to say. Here's what I found: "I, like many, had only heard his cover of Tears for Fears 'Mad World' from Donnie Darko. When I saw him live I found myself mesmerized by his songs. Such a soulful voice . . like whispery life-soundtrack music for grown-up indie kids". (Thanks Meredith, San Francisco).

"The best yet. Ties it all together. If there is any justice in the world, this record will make Gary Jules a household name . . . for all of us who sway to Jack Johnson and dream to Elliott Smith." (Thanks "Pablo X, Crooklyn"). In case you're wondering, here's why Meredith and Pablo's poorly chosen, yet poignant words are important: A small number of independently-produced pre-release copies of Gary Jules' long-awaited self-titled follow-up to "Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets" are now available, but only at live shows along his Summer US Tour route and online from his website (www.garyjules.com) through CdBaby.com.

For this information to be meaningful, you may need to know the following (stop reading now if you are easily bored): After years struggling in the nascent Los Angeles underground singer-songwriter scene of the mid-90's, Gary Jules' first record "Greetings from the Side" was recorded for A&M Records and released in August 1998. Weeks later A&M's parent label Polygram was bought by MCA/Universal. Jules and "Greetings" were lost in the proverbial shuffle, but not before both received considerable critical acclaim. Zeke Piestrup of VH-1's show "Fresh" called Jules "The best American singer-songwriter to emerge out of the late '90's -- and the only one worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence with Paul Simon, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Nick Drake." I personally find this last bit to be a heroic stretch, but never mind that now.