Gimme 5! Jacob T. Simons Shares Five Records That Have Influenced His Work With Moon Orchids

With ‘Gimme 5!’ we take a peek into the collections of artists we admire. The premise is simple: artists WE like share five records THEY love.

Moon Orchids is a folk-rock collective from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who in my crystal ball are heading towards a bright future. Their 2023 debut EP Skin/Skein—4 tracks in 26 minutes—already showed a lot of promise, but last month’s eponymous full-length album is nothing short of a masterpiece. Lyrics, music and emotions amplify each other in a sound that is rich and warm.

There’s so much in there that it made me curious about the sources of inspiration, so I asked Jacob T. Simons, leader of Moon Orchids. The singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/recording artist, currently living in Boulder, Colorado, expresses his excellent picks as thoughtfully as you’d expect.

“It’s a pleasure to be asked to do a feature here. I’ve enjoyed the challenge of condensing my myriad musical interests to a manageable quantity. In an attempt to keep my list contemporary, I have limited myself to choosing only albums released in my lifetime (i.e., 1992 onward), but there are loads of vintage choices that directly influenced the process as well. Without further ado, here are five records that have influenced my work with Moon Orchids – the band and the album – in some way or another, which also happen to be among my all-time favorites.”

1.
Songs: Ohia || The Magnolia Electric Co. (Secretly Canadian, 2003)
“We may as well get the obvious one out of the way first. This record completely changed my concept of songwriting and composition when it first graced my ears. Jason Molina was the master of conjuring an entire universe in the course of an album. The chord choices are unwavering, the song structures are expansive, and the lyrics invoke opaque vignettes of darkness. If you’re willing to let them, they’ll grab you by the shoulders and won’t let go. They’re hypnotic, meditative soundscapes, each a small window into a different part of the artist’s soul.

I listened to this LP and the accompanying demo tracks (I got the deluxe version, naturally) for a good few months straight in early 2020 as the world around me shut down and succumbed to the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. Molina’s music was a friend and still is. I could’ve picked any record from his vast yet all-too-brief catalog for inclusion in this list, but this was my first exposure to his singular vision, so it’s only fair to highlight it here. Thank you for everything, Jason.”

2.
Mint Mile || Ambertron (Comedy Minus One, 2020)
“Isolation was sort of the kernel of the Moon Orchids story, so it makes sense that some of my listening habits from 2020-2021 would be reflected in this list. Mint Mile is the “new” band (that’s been around for a good decade or so) featuring Tim Midyett, former bassist/baritone guitarist/vocalist of Silkworm and Bottomless Pit. Tim has been a friend and something of a mentor to me for several years, and his influence is never far from my music. Silkworm remains my favorite band of all time, and those records are written in my DNA.

Ambertron is Mint Mile’s first full-length album – a double LP, no less – after a string of 4-song EPs. By this point, the band had settled into a definitive lineup, and Tim apparently had a wealth of material stored up for the occasion. That it came out in March 2020 is incredibly unfortunate – I’m forever disappointed to have missed their in-store performance at Reckless Records in Chicago – but it made for another excellent soundtrack for the COVID-19 lockdown. It rides a lot of the same grooves as The Magnolia Electric Co. (and the two albums happen to share a drummer in the great Jeff Panall), but it’s a bit more sunny and optimistic than Molina ever allowed himself to be on record. Plus, on a purely sonic level, I’m a sucker for the trumpets and 12-string guitars.”

3.
Yo La Tengo || I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One (Matador, 1997)
“Another double album. I had originally conceived our self-titled full-length as a 2xLP. In the interests of time and quality control, several songs were left on the cutting room floor, and it’s arguably for the better that it worked out this way. I’m a big fan of the format, though, and I love it for the statement that it is. My favorite record from this band changes by the day, but I think this sprawling set contains everything that’s great about them. They’re wide-eyed music fans as well as musicians, and their collective curiosity is on full display here. It’s the perfect album to throw on amidst a road trip through the Midwest.

Bailey, Morgan, and I saw Yo La Tengo at Bell’s Beer Garden in Kalamazoo in June 2023, and they were just incredible. That remains, without a doubt, the single greatest show I have ever seen in my life. What a fluid, dynamic, organic group, and it’s been just the three of them for the better part of their existence as a band. Just like on this album, the trio traded spots at the microphone, swapped instruments, and shifted genres, often achieving all of the above within the same song. I made the comment then that they’re like the Grateful Dead of indie rock, and I’m sticking with that stance. We also got to talk to Ira Kaplan about a time he saw Donovan live at some point in the ’90s, and that was a hoot. He was an absolute prince, clearly grateful for the collective camaraderie and support. They’re a band full of sweethearts, and it shines through in the music they make together.”

4.
Big Thief || Two Hands (4AD, 2019)
“Everyone in the Moon Orchids camp loves Big Thief. The working title for our song You Don’t Need a History was Song for Adrianne, and I’m sure you can pick out their influence elsewhere. Two Hands was my point of entry to the band, so naturally it’s the one that made the list. It’s also their earthiest and shaggiest, and it speaks to me in that way as well. I remember hearing Not when this record came out… the winding structure, the skittering drums, the strained, impassioned vocals, the foreboding chorus harmonies, and that screaming, anguished guitar solo. It absolutely leveled me then and still knocks me out to this day. Bob Dylan is alive and seemingly well – may he stay forever young – but if we’re looking to call anyone the Bob Dylan of this generation, I think Adrianne Lenker is a worthy enough candidate. Her output is astonishing in terms of both quality and quantity.

What strikes me the most about Big Thief is the deep sense of communion among the individuals in the band. It’s very much a collaborative enterprise, and you can witness that element while they tear through these songs as a living, breathing unit (most of these songs were apparently performed live in the studio, including the vocal takes that made it on record). There are many things an artist could take away from this record, but I think that last bit is the most important. You can hear the intimacy and the humanity here, and those aren’t components that you can replicate unless you happen to have the perfect combination of people playing in harmony together.”

5.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds || Let Love In (Mute, 1994)
“I had originally planned to include Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps or Freedom on this list, but the Crazy Horse influence is prominent enough in all my other choices that I’ve considered it redundant. Sorry, Neil. You know I love you. What the aforementioned records have in common with both Let Love In and our eponymous LP is the trick of opening and closing with different versions of the same song – bookends, effectively. It’s a fun technique, and it gives the album a circular sense, like a Möbius strip, a continuum. I haven’t tried listening to our record with the A and B sides flipped; I’m curious as to how well it might hold up with this feature.

I was listening to Let Love In quite a bit while preparing the songs for Moon Orchids. There’s an impressive amount of variety throughout the ten songs on this record, even considering the Bad Seeds’ somewhat self-contained atmospheres. There’s a good amount of black humor on display as well – you could blink and you’d miss it, but it’s surely there. Nick Cave is a great inspiration to me, and he only seems to get better with age. His most recent effort, Wild God, came out right around the time we were having our album mastered, and you could make a valid argument that it’s his best work yet. He’s always committed to learning and trying to better himself through his art, a solid role model for fellow creatives.”

You can order Moon Orchids’ self-titled album—out digitally and on vinyl LP—via Bandcamp.