| Melmac Bio |
[This is the worst thing ever written. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had editorial control. My recent comments = ().]
Despite the often disparate (desperate?) musical proclivities among the members of Melmac, owing in large part to the variety of influences and tastes of the band members, Melmac's credo is as follows: that all efforts, from improvisational jams to finished songs, must be teeming with the omnipotence (for real?) and unsettling edginess that transcends all worthwhile rock genres and characterizes only the best live music. Paradoxically, this end is readily achieved, as the clash of opinions and personalities within Melmac gives rise to our goal.
Friends for nearly two decades, vocalist/guitarist Matt Morgan and primary guitarist Tom Hemphill have spent the greater part of their lives laying the groundwork for such a project. As alumni of Musician's Institute in L.A., Tom and Matt have played off and on for the past eight years in various incarnations of the current effort. The two strive to achieve perhaps the most difficult balance within the band -- one that comes at the cost of the most delicate of head-butting -- as Tom's tendency to eschew his technical mastery to capture the raw, loud, and spontaneous elements frequently stands at odds with Matt's compulsively analytical eye for texture, detail, and composed intensity.
Drummer Justin Cook and bassman Toby Goodwin, the "new blood" of the group, help to simultaneously confound and resolve this quagmire. While Justin's quirky, non-traditional rock drumming may fulminate into a polyrhythmic conflagration that draws kudos from Tom, the drummer's passion for dynamics and subtlety is additionally lauded by Matt. (The most pathetically self-indulgent sentence ever written.) Yet Justin's mixed-bag presence on the kit often flies in the face of both musicians, as the duality of appreciation additionally serves to highlight the polarities of vocalist and guitarist. (What kinda shit was that?)
Traditionalist Toby, as the harmonic and spiritual foundation of the group, is left to reassemble the parts and tend to jarred egos. Being the voice of simplicity and taste, Toby brings a compositional cohesion to the tension (except for the fact the he announced he was going to quit the band after moving out of Eugene and driving 2000 miles away, never to be seen again).