Midlake
Can you ruddy bloody believe it – Midlake were once a group of jazz students who met at the University of North Texas. Their original line up numbered Tim Smith on vocals, guitars and keyboards, McKenzie Smith on drums, Paul Alexander on bass, Eric Nichelson on guitars and Evan Jacobs on keyboards. They played jazz. And funk. And sounded like Herbie Hancock. They were called The Cornbread All-Stars. Oh lord.
But five white men can only take funk so far, and as Herbie’s influence started to wane and that of Radiohead and Grandaddy came more to the fore, Tim Smith put down the saxophone, Eric Nichelson moved on to keyboards and Evan Jacobs, one assumes totally disgusted at the whole affair, buggered off to Austin – a move which saw pal Jason Upshaw added to the line up on guitar, albeit for a brief period, as soon afterwards Eric Pulido took over his role. The current Midlake line up was now in place.
They made sounds. Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde, he of previous Cocteau Twins fame, took them on for an album. Though it was mastered in the legendary Abbey Road studios, a house of theirs in Denton, Texas, was the setting for the actual recording of their debut LP, ‘Bamnan & Silvercork’, which far from their early jazz funk dabblings was more reminiscent of the likes of The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev. They gained fans – some of them were even a little bit famous. Jason Lee (you might know him from My Name Is Earl, or Mallrats for example) became a huge promoter and collaborator, directing and filming the video for ‘Balloon Maker’ and appearing with the band on their rapturously received performance on ‘The Late Show with Craig Ferguson’. That was 2004.
This, if you haven’t noticed, is 2006, and ‘The Trials of Van Occupanther’ has found its way on to UK shelves via the good folk at Bella Union. Continuing their quest for a gently epic indie sound, it triumphs, even though it suggests that they might really like Fleetwood Mac. That’s OK. Now and again, we listen to Fleetwood Mac too, don’t you know.
MIDLAKE OFFICIAL: This is Midlake’s true home on the ‘net, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. There’s a tour diary, opportunities to listen to clips of songs, fancy flash menus, you know the deal.
MIDLAKE SPACE: Unlike any other band ever, Midlake have a MySpace account. But their pioneering spirit is no bad thing, because you can stream a quartet of tracks (and even download previous single ‘Balloon Maker’) and read a friendly little blog.
BELLA UNION: No word of a lie, Bella Union’s one of our favourite labels. Reasons? Midlake. You want more? Bikini Atoll. Dirty Three. Explosions In The Sky. Fionn Regan. Howling Bells. Josh Pearson. The Dears. The Cocteau Twins…
’THE TRIALS OF VAN OCCUPANTHER’: Matt Tomiak’s thoughts on listening to Midlake’s second LP were entirely complimentary. You’ll notice a theme about rockfeedback’s views on Midlake developing here…
’ROSCOE’: Ever listened to BBC 6Music? You’ll have heard this then, and liked it probably, as Michael Cragg admits to in this single review. If you’ve not, start, and watch the song’s video…
’ROSCOE’ VID’YO: …here! Videos are great. You can watch the band and hear their song at the same time.
ROCKFEEDBACK TV: The second instalment of our TV crew’s trip to Norway’s Oya Festival saw us catch Midlake live – well, actually, they came back to our hotel and played an acoustic set for us. It was spesh. The series is already running on MTV2, but you’ll be able to catch the footage from October 7th, when Rockfeedback TV hits Channel 4.