“12 years of playing music with someone changes your perspective on things. It starts to feel weird playing with other people. For better or for worse you’re kind of stuck together.” So says Midnight Reruns singer/songwriter guitarist Graham Hunt about his relationship with drummer Sam Reitman. “You start to lose any pretense you had about what kind of music you should be playing and just play what feels natural. Try to write good songs. Try to have fun. I was bored of feeling like I had to be in a punk band. I just wanted to be in a band.”
It was in this spirit Midnight Reruns were formed at the tail end of 2010 when childhood friends Hunt and Reitman were still teenagers. In 2015 they released their sophomore album, Force of Nurture, which was recorded and produced by Tommy Stinson. The band has often been compared to Stinson’s old band, frequently bringing to mind The Replacements’ drunken swagger with deceptively intuitive songwriting that’s as informed by DIY punk as it is throwback pop. This is not to suggest they are your run-of-the-mill pop-punk band; this is a GUITAR band. Influenced by classic duos like Gorham and Robertson or Verlaine and Lloyd, guitarists Hunt and Karl Giehl play off each other with a natural easiness reserved for those with years of mutual musical obsession. From Krautrock (“Note on a Bill”) to Richard Hell (the title track) to spaced out Crazy Horse-esque jams (“Great Southern Rail”), Force of Nurture showcases a band of of true music fanatics.
“Lyrically, the record is inspired by day-to-day things myself or people around me are dealing with. Losing friends to drug addiction. Learning to live with panic attacks. Just a general feeling of disconnect to other human beings. Our home town of Milwaukee is the type of place where more often than not, people who are born here also die here. I think that influences my writing on some level.” Live, they have been described as “Aggressive Slack” by Die Krueuzen bass player Keith Brammer, “not posing, not shoegazing, just throwing it down.” “Midnight Reruns are one of those bands that make discerning listeners rejoice in the pure joy of rock n’ roll,” he says. “Do yourself a favor and be one of those listeners”.
