| Member Since | 6/3/2004 | | Band Website | www.mellowdrunk.com | | Band Members |
Leigh Gregory
Vocals/Acoustic & Electric Guitars
Ricky Rene Maymi
6 & 12-String Electric Guitars/Keys/Percussion
Stephen Cavoretto
Keyboards/Trumpet/Vocals/Percussion
| | Influences | THE CHURCH, The Go-Betweens,The Triffids,The Crystal Set,The Bhagavad Guitars,
Paisley Underground,C-86,Creation Records,Flying Nun bands,Straitjacket Fits,The Chills,The Verlaines,The Clean,The Bats,The Sneaky Feelings,Love & Rockets,The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Telescopes,Spiritualized,Mike Mooney,Julian Cope/Teardrop Explodes,Joy Division/New Order,Echo & The Bunnymen,Felt,Jacobites-Dave Kusworth,Nikki Sudden,The Rain Parade, Tom Verlaine/Television,Selwyn Image,The Pushups,The Aurora Pushups,Zolar X,XTC,David Sylvian/Japan,John Foxx/Ultravox!,Peter Parrett/The Only Ones,The Cuddly Toys,The Damned Wire,The Tubes,Iggy Pop/The Stooges,David Bowie,Mick Ronson,T.Rex,Queen,Roxy Music, Metro, Lloyd Cole,Brian Eno,Robert Fripp,Peter Gabriel,John Cale,The Move,Donovan,
Kaleidoscope/Fairfield Parlour,Syd Barrett & The Pink Floyd,The Zombies,"Rubble",
The Small Faces,The Factory(UK),The Pretty Things/Electric Banana,The Creation,
Brian Jones,Jimmy Page,The Action,The Who,The Kinks,Bob Dylan,The Beatles,
Leonard Cohen,John Renbourn,Davey Graham,Bert Jansch,Nick Drake,Tim Buckley,
Jackson C. Frank,Martin Carthy,Dougie MacLean, Ralph McTell,Chris Thompson,
Pentangle,Fairport Convention,The Incredible String Band,John Fahey,Bill Fay | | Sounds Like | Please visit The Internet Underground Music Archive to hear 9 "streaming" songs!
BLOW UP (ITALY)
"Undoubtedly shares an affinity with Steve Kilbey from The Church, The House Of Love and also at times The Byrds (There For You), Jesus & Mary Chain (Never Sleep At Night) and repeatedly, the flourishing season of the Paisley Underground."
ALL MUSIC GUIDE
Mellow Drunk's [Never Sleep At Night] pretty well follows in the vein of [Always Be Drunk] though there are a few exceptions, notably that Leigh Gregory now has a full band to work with instead of using the group name as a studio guise. The quintet gels pretty well throughout, but the same situation holds true as with Always Be Drunk -- namely, that Gregory is worshipping at the Church. His world-weary singing again inevitably suggests that of Steve Kilbey, the rich and ringing guitar textures mixed with a bit of bite more than once calls to mind the work of Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes, and so forth. Again, though, Gregory has always been so open about his love for that band and the vein of passionate, dark energy they work in that complaining is beside the point -- and more to the point, unlike, say, Gene vis-à-vis the Smiths, Mellow Drunk are a really enjoyable band with good songs on offer. Brevity is the rule of thumb throughout the album -- the first four songs alone barely last longer than ten minutes added together -- and the band delivers such fine, full-on efforts as "The Top" and "Definitely" with aplomb. When the band takes the time to slow down a bit and lose itself in its own arrangements, as on "Before & After Then" and "Dead Sea Fruit," the results can be equally enjoyable. The jaunty "A Different Color on My Door" made for a smart choice as a single, winning and upbeat musically while not steering away from the band's general ethos. Moments of striking beauty abound as well, to the group's credit -- the lead-in to the instrumental break (and the break itself) on "Shone on Everyone" is a great example of rich guitar texture and steady rock drive working in tandem.
UNCUT (UK)
"The likes of Interpol have long been employing the flavours of mordant early eighties "raincoat rock" in their music, but San Francisco's Mellow Drunk are forging a new strain from the genre, drawing not so much from Echo & The Bunnymen and Joy Division as The Wedding Present, adding the literate social commentary of Black Box Recorder's Luke Haines. Reviews to date cite The Church as an obvious touchstone, and there's no argument here, but Leigh Gregory's vocals are closer to Robyn Hitchcock, while the cinematic sweep of the guitars, in the hands of The Brian Jonestown Massacre's Ricky Rene Maymi, offer an evanescent counterpoint to the otherwise straightforward recording aesthetic. File under: mind-expanding."
MOJO (UK) "Never Sleep At Night" boasts the expansive guitar layering of Television's Adventure allied to the subdued grace of Yo La Tengo....Mellow Drunk's romantic melodies gloss over the cracks admirably. The title track may be a misleading hint that the West Coast Strokes have arrived, but the languid 'Very Strange Times' is a better mark on a band as much in thrall to the doomed grandeur of punk rock fellow travellers The Only Ones as to The Byrds."
SHMAT (USA) "Never Sleep At Night" makes it obvious why Mellow Drunk have been opening for the likes of Luna and Supergrass at San Francisco's legendary venue, The Fillmore - brilliant pop music. The line-up has an indie pedigree most shag-haired boys would give their My Bloody Valentine collection for - drummer Patrick Harte was drummer for the sublime band The Rosemarys; Ricky Rene Maymi was a founding member of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and toured with Sonic Boom & Spectrum; Daniel Dietrick was bassist for Your Precious You; and Stephen Cavoretto is the talented multi-instrumentalist from Dora Flood. Add talented vocalist Leigh Gregory from The Dispossessed into the mix and you have the catalyst for some great music.
The 2 minute crunch that is "Never Sleep At Night" starts the album off with a blast of Jesus & Mary Chain-styled fervor....the level of diversity in the songs is the key here. The twang of the song "Before & After Then" is gorgeous and understated and shows the record's ultimate strength is the marriage of acoustic and electric guitars. The more expansive songs benefit from talented playing that never crowds the arrangements, avoids self importance, and deftly sidesteps the noisy wanking that has become more and more irritating and unimaginatively prevalent in releases today...
Well written, well recorded & expertly mixed - what more could you want?"
NOT LAME (USA) "Never Sleep At Night" is the UK only release from this always interesting, always consistently enjoyable band (make sure you check out their "Always Be Drunk" release.) While their earlier releases blended lots of post-Byrdsian jangle, a very good thing, more recent ones explore more expansive, less nostalgilistically limiting territories. In the case of "Never Sleep At Night", the gorgeous boundries of the melancholic psychedelia of The Church, the simple beauty of The Waterboys, the explorative wanderings of Yo La Tengo and never-play-by-the-rules spirit of Television - all are explored here.More to add: Robyn Hitchcock and on the more obscure side,Ultra Vivid Scene (where is that guy these days?!). Simply, the record is a winner,a radiant journey into gentle,sweeping 12 string jangle that still keeps that post-Byrds-ian styling close the chest but... Backed by bright, jangly guitars and the twinge of soaring keyboards,the baritone-whisper, cigarette-voice of Leigh Gregory, Mellow Drunk`s latest is leaving a lasting impression to close out 2004 and adds another CD vying for position of being the best of 2004." JAM RECORDINGS (USA) MELLOW DRUNK-"Never Sleep At Night": "Mellow Drunk has become everything that we wish The Church was today. They have restored the awesome jangly, Byrdsy vibe from The Church's heyday into their sound and in many ways do it better than that band. What puts this cd over the top is that the songs are VERY melodic and VERY catchy. This is well recorded, well done, and the best thing this band has recorded yet! GRADE A!!!" | | Record Label | none |
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