MERCH

Merch - Crash Boom Bash [Sassafras]
Dude starts band with cello. Cellist quits band as they are about to tour/record. Dude is determined and learns all the cello parts despite non-familiarity with the instrument and makes cello-rock record. It's a rad album that totally hinges on the energy of the bow of the cello sawing across the strings.
- Sam Farzin, KUCI Music Director

Merch is the perfect name for this young DIY pop-punk outfit of local transplants from Fresno, California who have been rocking the all-ages scene with their infectiously hook-y lo-fi power anthems. Made even more off-kilter due to their unique use of cello and banjo as well as electric guitar as lead instruments, this reminds us at times of early Pavement, Camper Van Beethoven and Guided By Voices, but done in a way that feels like more of their own making rather than deliberately mining similar sonic influences. A fine debut that makes great use of its rough-around-the-edges production with fun catchy songs that stay with us long after they're over. Cool! - Aquarius Records

"My favorite cello rock band, and frankly the only one I can think of at the moment. Merch has a fantastic original style, from the rhythmic cello riffs to the rough and relaxed vocals."--The Deli Magazine - The Deli Magazine

In a town up to its ears in “indie rock,” Merch – the project of Joe Medina and “whatever musicians happen to be playing with him at any given time” – has distinguished itself by making the cello a core instrument. Medina even calls the sound “cello-rock,” a term connoting hard rock riffage gone classical (not classy). This fact may cause suspicion about Merch’s status as a novelty act, but on Crash, Boom, Bash they defend against such a charge with the simple irony of being “indie” cello rock.

In other words, Merch sounds a bit disheveled and atonal. The riffage is occasionally here, but it’s more bizarre than kick-ass in any Led Zeppelin-esque sense. With some exceptions, the cello works more like an organizing principle than an aesthetic spearhead. Tracks like “Sorcerer’s Lament” and “Short Stint” gain their thrust from short, repeating cello phrases; but the baritone timbre eventually fades into a din of guitars, banjos, drums, keyboards, bells, and fiddles churning beneath Medina’s distressed vocals.

For all the diverse instrumentation on Crash, Boom, Bash, one would hope for a more dynamic sound. Given its repetitious melodies and song structures, the album needs the spice of a rich sonic palette. Sometimes Medina’s arrangements heed this necessity. But the album has two antithetical characters: One is brash, opaque and anxious; the other is spare and wandering. With the former, a grungy flatness prevails, in part perpetrated by the grating electric guitars. With the latter, Medina’s songwriting has a clearer atmosphere in which to shine.

“Long Steel Rail” succeeds by virtue of the guitar’s absence. The song’s nakedness translates to intimacy, as a girlish voice sounds a folksy tale about a life of hopping trains. Cello provides the sole accompaniment. “Kindergarten” works according to a similar premise: A limber melody, acoustic guitar, tinkling bells and some harmonica. “No Author” is a love song that shambles through a landscape of lush acoustic guitars, cello, fiddle, floor stomps, claps, tambourine and what sounds like closing doors. The result is an articulate loneliness, akin to the atmosphere of an abandoned house with all its furnishings and pictures untouched after years. Medina captures the hollow feeling of an abandoned love perfectly in this line: “I have a short story but I don’t know the author.” Indeed, sometimes one’s own story looks like a stranger’s.

Unfortunately this kind of keen vision is too much lacking. One senses the theory on Crash, Boom, Bash, in part, was to push hard enough against the tenets of musicality (i.e., melody, musicianship, being in tune) that, like the Velvet Underground did 40 years ago, the songs would emerge in a unique sonic space, as authentic documents of an artistic counter culture. But this smacks of parody. Simple acts of transgression qualify no more as “artistic” than conceptual strategies do. Most bands far enough from L.A. and Nashville strive to sound artsy and think they are making art. That said Crash, Boom, Bash is hardly derivative of any current sound, and its influences are subtle and diverse. Merch’s best moments are unencumbered by the confusion of strangeness and beauty, parody and truth. They just don’t come often enough.

[Nathan Ladd] - WireTap Music

Most bands get started slowly. They form, they play with each other when they can, and if most bands that exist are like most of the new bands that I know, they spend more of that initial “together time” drinking and talking about making music than they do actually making music. But Merch does not appear to be like “most bands” in that respect. This young San Francisco band formed and immediately started playing. You can check out their MySpace “about us” info to find out just where in this city they’ve already played, but I can tell you before you follow that link that it’s a long list. These folks are committed to making their music their life.

So what can I tell you about that music? Well, have you ever heard the term cello-rock? If not, check out the Wikipedia definition because it gives you more of the basics than I can, but then come back here, because Merch is more than cello rock. The band takes cello rock and then adds in a bit of pop flavor that’s got an almost European club feel to it. Go back to the Myspace, listen to “Water Balloon Bomb” and listen to the poppy ba ba ba and you’ll know what I mean. But listen to the rest of that song and you hear that clashing of sounds that spells out experimental.

Hm, I’m not describing this very well, am I? Oh, wait, I’ve got it … Cello Rock is hanging out at a super trendy art gallery opening, eyeing the new works by the latest avante garde artist. He spies Indie Rock blowing bubbles with the watermelon-flavored gum that’s the same color as her bangs. With a sophisticated air, he swoops down on her and says, “hey baby, I’ve got a jet, want to go have dinner in London?” She responds, “shouldn’t you get my name first?” And he says, coolly, “let’s jump right in, I already know that we’re going all the way”. After a multi-instrumental course of entrees in London, they hit the nightclubs and infuse their affair with pop edge. It’s only the beginning of what they’re going to create in the space between them.

Yes, that’s Merch. If you don’t know what I just said, let the music speak for itself. And since the band isn’t shy about getting out and playing as much as possible, you can catch them live on April 9 at Bottom of the Hill, where they’re playing an all ages show (with Little Teeth and Pidgeon) that only costs $8 to see. Other shows this month are in Oakland, San Jose and Reno … and after that, who knows, maybe London?
- San Fran Voice