COLOURMUSIC and MORNING TELEPORTATION
COLOURMUSIC
Welcome to the beautifully strange world of Colourmusic, a place where concept albums - an LP named My _____ is Pink in this case-have nothing to do with structured narratives or loosely-linked lyrics. More like musical walls that must be climbed, whether that means shunning acoustic guitars or modeling the rhythm section of some songs after metronomic sex acts. Which isn't as titillating as it sounds. The way Hendrix sees it, "We wanted to focus on human sexuality and reproduction. Not in terms of turning people on; from a point of view of fear and anxiety, and how it's the prominent decision-making force in many people's lives."
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That explains a couple things, starting with My _____ is Pink's actual sound. Rounded out by bassist Colin Fleishacker, drummer Nicholas Ley, and guitarist Nick Turner, Colourmusic's new material amounts to an everevolving mass of melancholic melodies, gauzy vocals, shifty beats, and monophonic musical structures. Not to mention glimpses of agnostic gospel grooves ("You For Leaving Me"), hip-shaking R&B ("Feels Good To Wear"), acid-drenched pop ("Tog"), and Bladerunner-inspired psych ("Pororoca," which means - quite tellingly -"great destructive noise" in many parts of South America). And then there's "The Little Death," a five-part foray into the outer realm of sandblasted rock, subterranean drone tones, and the kind of headphoneready hooks that cause weak-willed speakers to spontaneously combust. Like a yellow brick road to the second circle of hell (lust, if you haven't visited Dante's Inferno in a while), it's a ten-minute guide to what makes Colourmusic tick. Well, sort of. Truth be told, the Oklahoma-based band isn't spelling anything out. "If you write a song that's too literal, it dates it," explains Hendrix. "We'd rather make things a little more subconscious. It gives a song a longer life span because you never know what's really going on." "The music tells us what the song is going to be about," says Hendrix. "Once we have a drum beat, it's alive. And once we come back to it, it's basically beckoning us to finish it."
MORNING TELEPORTATION
Morning Teleportation formed in 2005 when Bowling Green, KY natives and lifelong friends Travis Goodwin (keyboards), Tres Coker (drums), and Paul Wilkerson (bass) met up with Chicago transplant Tiger Merritt (vocals/guitar), who had just moved to their hometown for college. From the beginning the band has built up a roller coaster of tumultuous rock 'n roll, featuring analog synths, heartfelt vocals, and sudden changes woven through psychedelia, electronica, and deep-space pickin' n' grinnin'. They've spent most of the past year on the road playing for enthusiastic crowds at Bonnaroo and Sasquatch and supporting the likes of The Flaming Lips, Cage The Elephant, and Modest Mouse.
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To witness Morning Teleportation's live show is to experience a cacophony of improvisational mayhem draped with melodic twists and turns. Merritt's vocals dart sharply about the frantic, pulsing backbeat held down by the rhythm section, while his spacey fingerstyle guitar prowess embodies a style best described as "finger-trippin." And while their sound may be somewhat more modern than several of their cited heroes (including James Gang and CSNY), you should make no mistake: these are still some boys who want nothing more than to have a good time in the classic rock idiom. With the combined energy of a basement party, a back-room jam session, and a futuristic hootenanny, Morning Teleportation's raucous, off-kilter explosion of enthusiasm is guaranteed to raise a smile. The band's first album, entitled Expanding Anyway, is out now on Glacial Pace Recordings.
THE CHAMBERMAIDS
Minneapolis/St. Paul siblings Neil and Martha Weir formed The Chambermaids (originally the Shut-Ins) in 2003. Using a drum machine, they cut five demos, and began playing shows in the Twin Cities. The demo was well received by 770 Radio K (The University of Minnesota's student-run radio station), and the duo was invited to perform a live in-studio session. A short time later, drummer Colin Johnson joined the group and the three piece began recording tracks which would later become their self-titled debut full-length, released on CD by Modern Radio in the Fall of 2006.
