Jason Sebastian Russo
Jason Sebastian Russo is an American rock musician and writer, currently a MFA student at Bennington Writing Seminars in Bennington, Vermont and a published poet and short story writer. He was a member of Mercury Rev from 1994 to 2001, and rejoined in 2011 for the Don't Look Back concert series Deserter's Songs reunion tour. He founded the psychedelic rock band Hopewell in high school. Hopewell has since gone on hiatus. They released their fifth album, Good Good Desperation, on Tee Pee Records in 2009. He is also leader of the band Common Prayer.
Common Prayer's debut record There Is A Mountain was released in the UK by Big Potato Records, a label founded in part by Slowdive's Neil Halstead. It was recorded on the site of the Truck Festival in Steventon, Oxfordshire, by Joe and Robin Bennett of Goldrush. Other players include Russo's brother, Justin Russo.
In 2014, he began a new band called Guiding Light with the musician/filmmaker Tara Autovino. Their debut LP was released by Bleeding Gold Records and Eggs In Aspic Records in late 2017.
In 2018, while simultaneously recording their sophomore album, Guiding Light became one half of the band Pete International Airport, recording and touring the album Safer With The Wolves.... They also contributed, separately, remixes for the band's remix LP SFR WTH TH WLVS...RMX.
Childhood
"Jason Russo grew up in a religious household with two brothers, a sister and no TV. The son of a psychiatrist, he spent the better part of his youth in graveyards, woods and strip malls in upstate New York before music consumed much of his life. At the age of 19, Russo found himself touring alongside his brother Justin as bassist for critically acclaimed Mercury Rev during the band's peak, before moving on to focus entirely on his own eclectic psychedelic rock band Hopewell. - NY Post".Discography
Albums
- Harmony Rockets Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void
- Hopewell Contact
- Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets The Orbit of Eternal Grace
- Mercury Rev All is Dream
- Hopewell The Curved Glass
- Grand Mal Bad Timing
- The Silent League The Orchestra, Sadly, Has Refused
- Hopewell Hopewell & The Birds Of Appetite
- Hopewell Hopewell and the Birds of Appetite
- Mercury Rev The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991-2006
- Grand Mal Love Is The Best Con In Town
- Hopewell Beautiful Targets
- Grand Mal Congratulations You've Re-joined the Human Race
- The Silent League Of Stars and Other Somebodies
- Camphor Drawn To Dust
- Hopewell Good Good Desperation
- Grand Mal Clandestine Songs
- Common Prayer There Is A Mountain
- Hopewell Live Volume 1
- Common Prayer Frame The River
- Kevin Devine Instigator
- Pete International Airport Safer With The Wolves...
- Guiding Light Guide the Lightning
- Pete International Airport ''SFR WTH TH WLVS...RMX''
Soundtracks
Jesus' Son Soundtrack Tarnation Soundtrack Alphonso Bow Soundtrack Psycho Guru Soundtrack Lapse: Confessions of a Slot Machine Junkie Soundtrack- ''River Of Bears Soundtrack''
EPs and singles
- Hopewell "Windy & Carl" / "Hopewell"
- Hopewell "Stranger"
- Hopewell "Purple Balloon"
- Mercury Rev "Goddess on a Hiway"
- Mercury Rev "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp"
- Mercury Rev "Opus 40"
- Mercury Rev "Holes"
- Hopewell "Planetarium" / "Hopewell"
- Hopewell "Small Places"
- Hopewell "Safe As Milk"
- Hopewell "The Angel Is My Watermark"
- Hopewell "The Notbirds EP"
- Hopewell "Hopewell" / "Lions & Tigers Keep - Mother Vol 3"
- Hopewell "Good Good Good Desperation" / "Opus Part 2"
- Hopewell "Another Music"