With a sophisticated sound that belies years of collaboration since their teenage beginnings in a raw post-punk band in Germany, Bon Savants founders Thom Moran and Kevin Haley write the kinds of songs that come naturally to music-obsessives. The band built a following out east on the strength of their live performances, including a July 2006 residency at Piano’s in NYC and Brooklyn’s new outdoor music playground, McCarren Pool.
The debut album, Post-Rock Defends the Nation, brings to mind contemporaries like Spoon, Pulp, and Magnetic Fields, but also provides peeks behind the curtain of a vibrant library of influences from Bowie to the Kinks to French crooner Jacques Dutronc.
Thom grew up in a small logging town in Oregon, came so close to death after getting mugged in 1999 that the police began a homicide investigation that night, and is now a part-time rocket scientist at MIT. He finally convinced Kevin to move to Boston after he’d been drifting among Germany, Texas, and Colorado for years. Bassist Dave Wessel was days from moving back to his home state of Indiana when he answered a Craigslist ad for this new band with a French name (means “Good Scientists”). Drummer Andrew Dole may be the best musician in the band, studying at Berklee and carrying a hired-gun reputation for learning an entire album of songs in a single rehearsal. The end result is a sound as much about personality as musicianship, with healthy doses of both.
Presently unsigned, Post Rock… will be self-released nationwide via the Coalition of Independent Music Stores on November 7, 2006 with the support of Tag Team Media and Cornerstone Promotion. The album was produced by Thom and mixed by Bill Racine (Rogue Wave, Phantom Planet).
