Music Monday: Tera Melos

Pin the tail on the picture, win a free song!

Tera Melos originally were a four-piece instrumental musical assault. They were hands down my favorite live band, melding improvisation, reckless abandon, musical prowess and a healthy serving of chaos into a terrifying, exhilarating 30 minutes. Just hanging out with those guys was totally ridiculous. (I rode along with them to a show they played in some lazer tag place where we stole cake and pizza from some kids party. They annihilated the place and then we played a few games of lazer tag, harassing the balding referee. He wanted us to call him game master and we kept yelling "gaybasher!")

Anyhow... time passed. They got sick of having to have their guitars put together every few shows. Jeff quit the band to work on his beard full time, and to ride giant motorcycles. They bought a bunch of weird samplers and keyboards that didn't like being knocked over or unplugged. They started setting up on stage rather than in the middle of the audience. All of their songs got really long, and then Vince quit to go be awesome at something besides drums. I still thought they were a good band, but I was having a hard time following the songs, and it wasn't because I was trying not to get stabbed in the face with a guitar headstock.

So, here we are, 2010, and Tera Melos has a new album coming out soon. I honestly wasn't super jazzed on the news... until I heard this song! Frozen Zoo, the new track, has CHORUSES!! Holy crap. It's three minutes long!! WOW! It's catchy!!! While I'm told this track doesn't represent the album as a whole, I hear that the songs have quite a bit of structure. I'll for sure be picking this up the day it comes out now.

While Tera Melos may no longer be the wall-climbing, gear-destroying, energetic, mean kids from Roseville anymore, there's a good chance that their new direction will find me listening to them again a lot more.

(This video will give you an idea of what their shows used to be like)