The Nice Ones
North Canaan, CT, USA | Established. Jan 01, 2011
Music
Press
By Darryl Gangloff
The Nice Ones are the definition of hometown heroes.
click headline for full review - The Lakeville Journal
by John Duval
Finding a new home in the Northwest Corner (After many Sharon Playhouse Stomps), The Nice Ones took the stage at the historic Infinity Music Hall, in the musically rich town of Norfolk, Connecticut. Here is a solid rock group which should evolve from a bar band to the college circuit in the near future.
click headline for full review - Live Music News and Review
Since relocating from their origins in Northwest Connecticut to the Dutchess County town of Millerton, indie-prog outfit the Nice Ones have been taking the town the New York Times once dubbed "Williamsburg on the Hudson" by storm. But if you are thinking this competent quartet of outstanding musicians can be pegged as the area's resident answer to the National, you would be doing a great disservice to the band and their acerbic spin on the indie-rock idiom.
There is a myriad of styles within the construct of their all-too-brief five-song EP Hungry Ghosts. If you listen to songs like "Ava" and "Black Haired Stranger at the Charlotte Airport," you can definitely hear an affinity for the Dismemberment Plan's more pop-oriented fare, while the slinky funk of "Big Sexi" undoubtedly shows why they are welcome at Darryl's House Club. Meanwhile, the influence of Frizzle Fry-era Primus is highly evident in the hard-driving bass pops of the group's resident four-string whiz kid, Dillon Morrison Halas, on the EP's most impressive cut, "Dogs." The glue that holds these tunes together, however, is the commanding combination of guitars and vocals from Patrick "Pastor Dan" Surdam, who is on his way to landing himself a place alongside Be Bop Deluxe's Bill Nelson and Television's Tom Verlaine with the seamless way by which he pulls double lead duty. Indeed, it will be interesting to see what these Nice boys do across the din of a full-length LP. - Chronogram
Discography
To Be Frank (2013)
Photos
Bio
The Nice Ones are not consciously a "dance band," although people dance and Pastor Dan likes to dance on stage. The band's approach to writing abandons any approach at all as so much has been done and said so well. The Nice Ones are haunted by the blues. They go running scared into an experimental abyss, hitting walls and falling into each other. They don't owe the listener anything but revere when people dance or sing back the words or, on the rare occasion, mosh. Sometimes people stare and wonder what the hell is going on, sometimes it's best to keep them guessing. The Nice Ones are partial to being in the dark: no direction, no real goal, no apparent need to describe or understand anything they're doing or what or who they might sound like. When they give in to the vulnerable process of trying to create and avoid becoming insane or at each other's throats, The Nice Ones are at their best. Then the kids will sing and dance and punch and push and smile and screw. The Nice Ones like sex music.
Band Members
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