Mock Orange, New Album in April

"Duuude, you guys sound like Mock Orange," said Steve LeFevre to me when I was 17. My band, The Manhattan Project, had just played a house party for a group of people much older and more experienced in the ways of the world than we were. This was the first time I had even heard of Mock Orange, and my life would never be the same (technically, that's true about every moment of one's life I guess - but, still). We naïvely smiled and nodded and immediately went to the record store to find out more about them.

picture from pennlive.com

What we found (listen to this old material here and here) was another take on the kind of indie math-y rock we'd grown to love through Braid and Jawbox. In fact, the guy's voice almost sounds like Bob Nanna's (of Braid and Hey Mercedes). Back in these days, music like that was still pretty hard to come across. Joan of Arc was doing their thing, but it was a little bit too avant-garde for me, especially back then.

We found they'd released two albums by that time (2000-2001?) - Nines and Sixes and The Record Play, the latter being produced by indie legend, Mark Trombino. The drumming and time signature changes are so complicated and precise, it's almost mesmerizing if you let it be. My love for the band grew more and more with time, until 4 years passed without a new record from them. It was 2004 and I was afraid Mock Orange had gone the way of The Jealous Sound and other great bands who weren't surviving the shift of indie rock to main-er-stream pop culture.

Well, when they finally dropped an album in 2004, titled Mind Is Not Brain, the reason for the wait was apparent - they had completely changed. They had drastically abandoned the heavy distortion and the aggressive rhythmic drive, and, most notably, adopted a radically different vocal style. The good news is that every change showed to be an improvement. Once familiarized with the albums, you can see things that do connect them. And it provides an interesting timeline of sound, showing not just Ryan Grisham's songwriting development, but adjustments in his fundamental musical execution as well. Observe:

If Mind Is Not Brain was the turning point of the band's sound, 2008's album Captain Love was surely the group hitting their new stride. The guitars got shakier, the drums got bangier, and the sound got weird-ier. Grisham's lyrics improved immensely, pulling more purpose into the songs - it was no longer a music theory show-off exhibition. As a result, the sound is more organic and more universally listenable. Here are five of my favorite tracks from Captain Love:

With that said, it is with great pleasure that I pass along the news of a new Mock Orange album, set to be released on April 12, 2011, in just a couple months! The album is called Disguised As Ghosts. This news, along with news of a new Man Man album is quickly making 2011 a really exciting year for rock music.