There are an awful lot of good bands out there. Why should you care about MELOMANE? Because they are making music the good old-fashioned way, writing good songs and using real instruments, but they're not afraid to experiment with odd sounds made by computers and household appliances.
In Europe, people call MELOMANE "the most European band in America." Maybe it's because they have Swiss cello player Frank Heer, English wurlitzer player Quentin Jennings, and Pierre de Gaillande, a Paris-born, California-raised singer-songwriter. In any case Melomane are happy in Europe where the food is great, but America's OK too. It will be better in 2004 when you-know-who is no longer in office.
Melomane is a New York based "pop-noir" sextet combining guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, cello, trumpet, and samples into a melange of haunting melodies and hummable pop. Their distinctive sound has been described as cinematic and irresistible, and invokes Magnetic Fields, Leonard Cohen, and Can in the same breath; or as the ŒAll Music Guide¹ instructs: "Fans of Beck and Stereolab should be on the lookout for this."
Resolvo, Melomane¹s debut LP is available in the US through Rubric/Kniche Distribution and the band¹s website www.melomane.org, and in Europe through Hamburg-based XXS Records/Indigo. Their follow-up titled Solresol is available on Vermilion Music in the US and XXS in Europe.
While Solresol (named after a musical language invented by a Frenchman) revisits the catchy melodies, melancholy lyrics, and orchestral instrumentation of Resolvo, the follow-up CD ventures into electronic soundscapes (Complicated Melody, Aria in D), Pixies-esque power-pop bashing (Far Out), and epic prog-like constructions, including a guest phone appearance by beloved New York guru/tour guide Speed Levitch (The Cruise). All in all, the band has evolved as a unit, yet the crafty and precise songwriting is still the pervasive force on Solresol.
Originally conceived in 1998 by front man de Gaillande, Melomane¹s current line-up solidified in late 1999. Backing de Gaillande is bassist/vocalist Daria Klotz, cellist/synth-stylist Frank Heer, keyboardist Quentin Jennings, drummer Kenny Savelson and Jesse Neuman on trumpet.
Since 1998, Melomane has performed regularly in NYC at downtown venues such as BAM, Knitting Factory, Joe¹s Pub, Tonic, NorthSix and others. Recent activities include and a European tour in November, a US Tour in March including SXSW in Austin with Fastball and John Wesley Harding, regular visits to Boston, DC and Massachusetts, and live radio appearances on the nationally broadcast XM Radio, KXLU in Los Angeles and WBRS in Boston. The band¹s recent European tour included shows with Arab Strap, HIM, and The National, and was a great success. Melomane¹s European agency is Berthold Seliger (Calexico, Flaming Lips.) Tracks from Resolvo were recently on the smash hit MTV shows "The Osbournes" and "Daria" and compilation appearances include the track Aria in D (Solresol) in the winter issue of ZING Magazine, as well as various independent film scores.
In Europe, both Solresol and Resolvo received rave reviews in German and Swiss publications including Rolling Stone and Intro.