Chris DeLine

So many great bands have come from Ontario and Quebec as of late that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with things. Toronto’s Meligrove Band is one of the recent buzzers that have really clicked with me. The band’s brand of smooth, piano driven rock might not exactly rock your face off, but it doesn’t kick back and let smooth grooves encompass the sound either.

I hate making straight up comparisons, especially when I’m not really in the “know” on things like piano-rock, but I’m going to try. I’ve always imagined that Ben Folds’ version of the “piano driven rock” that everyone is talking about (or maybe just me) is so draining and weak that it loses meaning. After all, does “Rockin’ the Suburbs” really rock? Does it? The Meligrove Band put me in my place for even thinking about clumping the two together; “Everyone’s a Winner” succeeds at what I’m talking about here. It doesn’t drain on, and there is even a (gasp) bit of rockin’ going on.

“Everyone’s…” isn’t the only track on Planets Conspire that succeeds along these lines as most of the record maintains a bouncy, energetic beat. To get into what else bothered me about the style I have to mention something along the lines of the sappy piano sound that often is the proverbial straw… Here, however, the band just isn’t sappy. The piano is borderline funky at times. After some solid listening, you can see why such acts as Spoon, Ted Leo, and the Constantines all toured with the boys. Oh, and they’re big in Japan; but, no big deal, right?

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]