Are your ears itching to discover something different? Then have I got a treat for you. I’m willing to bet that the music of Morning Teleportation is like nothing you’ve heard before. I certainly hadn’t. They classify themselves as Psychedelic/Electro/Roots but they are so much more than that. Achieving musical alchemy, they successfully combine more genres than I can count, creating these fabulous journeys of song. They have taken the rulebook of song writing and thrown it out the window. They’re doing things their way.
The band formed in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 2005, when childhood friends, Tres Coker (drums), Travis Goodwin (keyboards) and Paul Wilkerson (bass) had the good fortune to meet Chicago native, Tiger Merritt (vocals/guitar), who had just moved to town to start college. The rest, as they say, is history. For a band that’s been together for 6 years, there is surprisingly little information about them on the world wide web, but here is what I do know. They apparently moved to Austin, Texas after forming, and while living on food stamps and playing the circuit, worked towards perfecting their craft. They currently call Portland, Oregon home and as of three weeks ago, they are mysteriously down a bass player (one of those ‘surprisingly little information’ things). Oh, and the name? “Because, we wake up in a place that we were not the night before“. Pretty consciously aware dudes.
With their frenetic, harried sound and Tigers’ unique vocal stylings, it’s no surprise that Isaac Brock, front man of Modest Mouse, gravitated to these guys. He produced their debut album, “Expanding Anyway”, and released it under his own label, Glacial Pace Recordings, back in March. A word to the wise, there is nothing glacially paced about this band’s music (nor their success, I hope). It sounds like a garage jam session, where anything goes and they play what they want, how they want, with passion and reckless abandon. Kudos to their drummer, Tres, who keeps the whole thing from spiraling out of control with his consistently controlled beats.
“Expanding Anyway” is expansive in scope and kaleidoscopic in nature, where the turn of a chord can take you in any direction imaginable. They can be fast and hard and in your face, channeling ’70s rock gods on a song intro (“Boom Puma”, “Foreign Planes”), then… flip, they transition into folk or disco, surf or jazz (I could go on and on and on). Or, they start off with this campy(“Snow Frog Vs. Motor Cobra”), ’60s “Batman”- like theme that mutates into this bluesy-jazzy piece, while Tiger repeats the title through a talk-box, over and over again. Sounds impossible, but it works very well, and the transitions are seamless. The genius of their music is in the delivery. These guys really are great musicians. Their staggering talent and the level of passion and trust that they play with translates through to the listener, and you become an active participant, in more ways than one.
Upon first listen, you’re running just to keep up with the changes in music styles, they happen so frequently and sometimes, drastically. Once you have that down, you’re then able to notice that Tiger’s voice will occasionally remind you of … someone. By the time you figure out it’s David Byrne, he’s leaning towards Robert Smith, and by the time you catch up to that, he’s moved on again, to The Police or Isaac Brock himself. It’s the musical equivalent of “Where’s Waldo?”; the creative pool they draw from is so vast and deep. There is so much going on, all the time, I think it would be very hard to get bored with this album. I’ve been listening to it every day for the last two weeks and I still can’t get enough!
And while there are lyrics (some quite indiscernible), they are not the core of the songs. Tiger treats his voice as just another instrument, skipping over the top of the melodies, from a lofty folk falsetto (“Daydream Electric Storm”, “Crystalline”) to auctioneer-like vocals (“Expanding Anyway”, ” Treble Chair”), adding a unique texture to the music. Not to mention the yelps, shrieks and hollers peppered throughout the tracks. And just when you think you’ve got them all figured out, they throw “Cold Weather Sunshine” at you. Close your eyes; you’ll swear you’re back in the ’6os, and it’s open-mic night in some smokey, beatnik, coffee house.
“Expanding Anyway” is upbeat and uplifting, and it always takes me to my happy place. I only discovered them two weeks ago, but it’s safe to say that this is, hands down, my favorite album of 2011 and I’m already anticipating their next body of work. Where so many musicians keep using the same formulas over and over again, and every band sounds the same, Morning Teleportation have turned music on its ear and I hope it’s never the same again. By playing so far outside of the box, they’ve captured lightening in a bottle. Even if you’re not a fan of the genres that have influenced them, or their playing style for that matter, you still have to respect the risks they’ve taken and the talent they possess. You can watch the wicked-brilliant video for their first single, “Expanding Anyway” or listen below and feel free to prove me wrong. They also have two free downloads available, if you follow their label link.
(If there is one negative thing that I can say about the band, it’s this. I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of teleporting, and now, they make me wish that I really could. I’d kill to see them live, I bet they put on one hell of a show.)
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