What are my first impressions of Dan Jones’ music? Strongly influenced by REM, Robyn Hitchcock and The Who, does that suggest Guided By Voices to you? Perhaps. In fact, there is a very strong 80s alt-rock sound here. I mean, please also include Dream Syndicate, the Minutemen, Sonic Youth and the Replacements into the mix. Make no mistake, though, Dan Jones delivers where it matters – great rock music, whatever the genre. Highlights include – the gorgeous fragile ballad “Little Machine,” the dynamic edgy instrumental “Successtro,” the driving “Cooling Off,” the Bob Pollard-evoking “The Rain and the Swell” and the infectious folk-rocky “Redbird in the Rain.” Kudos also to the Squids (viz. Brian Gardiner, Dustin Lanker, Tom Nunes) for providing fantastic backing to the excellent material. A-

STATESMAN-JOURNAL WEEKEND, MARCH 2007
by Michelle Theriault
...there's still a bit of the goofball-getting-his-act-together about Jones...the difference now is that Dan Jones and The Squids is a critically acclaimed band, much loved by audiences on the Northwest garage-rock scene and on the verge of the album that might allow them to quit their day jobs.  [Totally Human],the follow-up to Get Sounds Now, is a guitar heavy, indie garage rock punk with a writer's lyrical touch.  And...there's something endearing about a man who sounds like Lou Reed but whose simple pleasure is coming home from his job as a painter and playing Pac Man while listening to Minor Threat.


OREGON VOICE, FALL 2005
by Jon Itkin
    Clocking in at slightly more than half an hour, Dan Jones Get Sounds Now is a whirlwind of raw rock and roll color.  Sounding like The Who fronted by an unpretentious Lou Reed, Jones bashes out his short tunes with equal parts fire and tenderness.  Get Sounds Now has the magical, inexplicable appeal of an album that gets you through.  Not many songwriters can make references to William Faulkner and Russian aerospace exploration without sounding self-inflated.  Jones steers through the modern landscape with artful randomness, telling bittersweet stories and showing us the pictures, too.


EUGENE WEEKLY, AUGUST 2005
by Emily Freeman
    Question: Can a classical trombone player who didn't seriously start playing the guitar until he was in his late twenties grow up to be one of the most prolific and rocking music artists in the Northwest?
    Answer: Yes, if that guy is Dan Jones.

    Jones is like your best friend: the guy you didn't expect to hit you who did.  His music is startling and clever, there for you when you need it with poignant lyrics and slower songs, but also there to slap you back into reality with hard-hitting punk rock.  Get Sounds Now definitely does pack a punch.  Not the kind of bloody-nose punch that a full blown punk album would give you, but more like a friendly punch in the arm.  The music gets you with its closed fist of rock and roll, but the hit comes off with a tinge of unexpected tenderness.

WILLAMETTE WEEK, 2005
by Jeff Rosenberg
    Dan is back!  That slogan, were it a just world, would be blaring from billboards, TV's and radios, heralding the new release by one of the most tuneful, ingratiating and clever pop-rock singer-songwriters under the hot summer sun.

THE OREGONIAN, 2003
    The jangly, irresistably tuneful guitar pop is classic enough to sound familiar; the witty, sometimes charmingly odd lyrics are idiosyncratic enough to sound fresh.

CRAIG LEVE, HOST OF SNAP CRACKLE AND POP! (KWVA)
    Dan, I think, sort of spearheads the 80's alt-rock sensibility in a really unique way.

SPONIC ZINE
by Tim Murr
    I couldn't say a bad thing about this album if I wanted to!  I laughed, I cried, I drank beer!  One Man Submarine is GREAT!  The next time I drive across country this CD will be with me.  There are no political manifestos, no rapcore, and no commercial potential, which are all the reasons you need for seeking this album out, you lazy, uncultured, weird-smelling servers of America's fast food industries!  I have spoken!

CINCINNATI CITY BEAT Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah,  2003
by John James
    My pick of the week is One Man Submarine, a stunning indie gem from Eugene, Oregon singer/songwriter Dan Jones....More open sky and underwater than just "americana," this sophomore release from a late blooming master songwriter is blissfully washed in fragile acoustic and jangle Pop guitars, building and leaning, cutting loose with punk rock riffs and--when you least expect it--roaring walls of humming waves.  Deliciously melding influences like Lou Reed, Husker Du, The Meat Puppets, and Steve Earle, Jones wit and chops are electric, haunting, spontaneous and fun.  The quieter moments are reminiscent of Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey's Mavericks album and relaxed and flickering silent super-8 movies.  But when the lights go down I can only imagine Jones' wicked grin as he plugs in his amp, charging forward like a house party bat out of hell.  Well worth searching for.

COZMIK DEBRIS, 2003
by Jason Thornberry
    Jones and his guitar sit next to a Bud Light on his lawn in Eugene, Oregon, recalling Tobin Sprout's more contented moments...fans of old school Guided by Voices would love to hear him talk about "Worst Practice Ever," even though he spends most of One Man Submarine alone with the engineer on the other side of the glass who throws ambient washes and noise back into Mr. Jones' second album where they belong.

THE PORTLAND MERCURY, 2004
by Kim Chun
    Smash your head against the acoustic punk rock.  Diehard fans of Dan Jones' debut For Your Radio, may miss the days when the Eugene singer-songwriter would ply his Cormac McCarthy-inspired stories with simply an acoustic guitar.  But considering that this working stiff songsmith has always had a jones for rocked-up stuff like The Who, Husker Du, and Guided By Voices, it's little wonder that Jones eventually turned to the electric guitar.

THE EUGENE WEEKLY, 2003
by Vanessa Salvia
    Singer-songwriter Dan Jones may have gotten a late start in Eugene's music scene--he was leaving his 20's behind before he played his first open mic--but he's quickly making up for any lost time through his keen combination of perseverance, wit, and talent.

JOHN ROCCO GALLOWAY,  The Unscene, 2003
    Look, our local rock hero does good!  Slap this thoughtful warbler on a gray day get down with some poetic justice.  He's filling for Dylan, mining that twisted emotional pop gold.

EUGENE REGISTER GUARD, MARCH 2003
by Lewis Taylor
    ....Cozy like an old pair of sneakers in one moment and as noisy as a chainsaw the next.

BETTARECKONIZE.COM, 2003
by Pat Bugala
    From the opening number of One Man Submarine it's clear that Dan Jones is not your average singer-songwriter.  The thoughtful lyrics, clever arrangements and revolving cast of collaborators that you can find on too many records like it are here.  But instead of the pretense of a rocker eight years removed from his fatal major label mistake and ten years removed from his last listenable song, there's a disarming humility mixed with the simple wisdom of Jones presentation.  My Spidey sense tells me you jaded hipsters need some convincing and I'm sure you'll fihd it in spades on One Man Submarine.  Take, for instance, "Joy," a sweet little rumination on recognizing the bliss is actions as simple as eating pizza.  "Death's Head Bar" is a lament for a surreal dive bar that any good Midwesterner will recognize.  And "Frustration" starts where its own title leaves off with hints of Johnny Cash and Neil Young.  What makes One Man Submarine so appealing is Jones' ability to portray the mundane as a pleasant respite between opportunities to explore one's world rather than another chance to get belligerent and angry as so many artists with similar influences would lead you to believe.

EUGENE REGISTER GUARD, MARCH 2003
by Lewis Taylor
    ....For Your Radio, which Jones describes as a nostalgic song cycle, highlighted his knack for crafting vivid stories and catchy melodies and caught the attention of more than one record label.

WILLAMETTE WEEK, 2001
by Jeff Rosenberg
    ...One of the best songwriters in the whole Willamette Valley, you know.

KANSAS CITY PITCH, 2000
    For Your Radio exemplifies why local music fans should welcome back this prodigal son with open arms.  Name-dropping certain sports stars, hitting the road with a "skanky hardcore band," and threatening to open a keg of whupass, Jones isn't the stereotypical sensitive-guy folk singer.  Jones juggles witticisms with truly touching tales of longing and emptiness, setting both to gently rolling country melodies and spare descending scales.  If his Acoustic Grudge Matches were actual competitions, Jones wouldn't have much to worry about--it's difficult to imagine a contender besting For Your Radio.

MIKE MEYER, host of KRVM's Acoustic Junction
    Dan keeps focused, centered, and comfortable, while being as adventurous and unexpected as anyone "on the edge."

EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, 2000
by Lewis Taylor
    For Your Radio is lyrically driven, storytelling folk music at its finest.  With a warm, undistilled voice, Jones walks his way through a kaleidoscope of adolescent memories, revisiting the basketball court, the local grocery store, a freshly fertilized front lawn and other suburban touchstones.  Jones album, with its collection of childhood tall tales and remembrances, is reminiscent of a shoe box full of old photographs.  The images are there, incomplete and unsorted, and the fragments come together to form an incomplete, but somehow vivid, story.

THE WILLAMETTE WEEK, 2000
    Any given verse of his songs packs more wit than a roomful of singer-songwriters could must in a month of open mics.

THE EUGENE WEEKLY, 1999
    Dan Jones lovely new tape For Your Radio opens with a trio of post-adolescent boy-meets-girl songs that feel like plot summations of movies such as Say Anything...all first love and fear of the future and small-town anxiousness rolled into one poignant moment.