Grand and Noble

Jon Elling, the man at the heart of Grand & Noble, grew up in Los Angeles and Jacksonville, FL. His bi-coastal upbringing is partly responsible for his wide-open songwriting style. “I got the full L.A. experience, including muggings and drive-bys,” Elling recalls. “A bullet went through our house just over my head. Meanwhile, in Florida, my grandfather taught me how to call alligators. As a teenager, I would use it as a party trick when we drank under the bridge by the river.”

Elling’s schoolmates listened to country music and classic rock, sounds he hated at first, but slowly learned to appreciate. “I rode the school bus with headphones squashed to my ears, trying to block out the sound of Allan Jackson with a cassette of Minor Threat. Headphones can only block so much.” The result was a song-writer with a punker’s urgency, a classic rock sense of song-craft, and lots of all-American stubbornness.

After he finished school, Elling moved to Chicago. He’d been writing songs and playing guitar since high school, and used Grand & Noble as a pseudonym when he started performing in 2009. “We used to practice near the corner of Grand & Noble in Chicago and I loved the name. It’s almost comically high minded, but the intersection is in a scrappy Chicago neighborhood. Cement factories next to high-end Italian restaurants, a burger joint next to an organic grocer.”

As Elling’s songs evolved, the group morphed from a backing band to a cohesive unit. “Scott Stukel joined on keys and bass and he really helped flesh-out the existing stuff and also contributed music for new songs; Matt Tanaka came in on drums and Ben Janik played lead guitar. This summer, we rented a studio and started working on our first record.” When Tanaka and Janik moved on to other things, Stukel and Elling pushed on and finished the album with producer Oscar Salinas (All American Rejects, Jewel, Kenny Chesney).

Elling’s musical philosophy is a simple one. “Back when we bought CDs, I picked albums based on how many ‘keeper songs’ were on them,” he says. “[A record] had to have at least three great songs to get my money. The ultimate thrill was an album you could put on and leave on. Those are the kind of records I want to make.” Grand & Noble’s debut lives up to Elling’s aspirations, with 10 tunes that include folk-like ballads, back-woods stompers and thoughtful rock’n’roll.

Tanaka’s inventive martial rhythms pull you into “Hellcats,” a subtle exploration of the horrors of warfare. Stukel’s dark piano chords and Janik’s wailing guitar compliment Elling’s anguished vocals. “Bone Church” is a surrealistic country blues, with a relentless pulse, a number that sees the specters of death and dysfunctional relationships kicking up their heels in a swampy graveyard. “Send Me On My Way” features the vocals of Rachel Sara Thomas of Automata. It’s a gentle protest song with Stukel’s melancholy piano adding to the feeling of hopelessness. “I watched a poor family get evicted and saw their neighbors cherry-pick their stuff,” Elling says. “(The song) sums up the situation a lot of people are in today.”

The swaggering rock of “Effigy” sports a killer guitar hook and an exuberant vocal, a tongue in cheek celebration of rock star narcissism that hints at the poetic excess of Blue Oyster Cult. “Delicate Boy” is a sensitive basement-dwelling dandy, with few friends but the music he’s composing. The last verse shifts gears to become an ode to the joy of songwriting, suggesting the soaring happiness a great melody can bring.

Elling and Stukel finished production and mastering of Grand & Noble in 2011. The band is currently playing shows in the Chicago area to support the album, with a lineup featuring Elling on guitar and lead vocals, Luke Sagadin on drums and bass player Joe Swierupski.