Mezzanine Owls

Los Angeles' Mezzanine Owls are somewhat new to the scene and have actually been receiving some local LA blog love in the last two months. We finally got our grubby little paws on the CD not too long ago, and can confirm that it is everything that you have been reading about. If you are new to the band, which I am sure a lot of you out there are, it consists of four members - Jack, Pauline, Jonathan and Dan - and they just recorded their debut album, Slingshot Echos, with Andy Lemaster (Now Its Overhead, Bright Eyes, Azure Ray) at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA. As a matter of fact, this project is so new that the band is without website and only a Myspace page that was created in March 2006.

Mezzanine Owls started off as another band called The Few, which morphed into the current project at hand. Unfortunately, The Few flew far under the radar; something that I put money on not happening to Mezzanine Owls. The sound maybe somewhat similar, Conor Oberst-esque vocals backed up with music that resembles a southern indie Jayhawks meets shoegazer Ride/Jesus and Mary Chain sound. Odd, yes; but it totally works. For example, take one of the best tracks on the album, "Lightbulb." Jangley guitars and a steady, train like drumbeat keeps this track on repeat in my iTunes. "We Don't" is a little darker utilizing layered backing harmonies that build into an eruption at the end of the song, much like Arcade Fire did on their last album. The anthem choruses don't stop there; on "Dark Too Early," the last song on the record, a huge one is belted out at the end. Other tracks not to be missed include the countrified "Coyote," the pounding "Graceless" and the opener, "Moving Ground."

What it comes down to is this: the world has been without a good indie pop recording for a long time. Hopefully with a little help from their friends, fans and a little luck on their side, Mezzanine Owls will fill this void. In the meantime do yourself a favor; give your tired record collection a rest and try Mezzanine Owls on for size. Your stereo will thank you.
- The Tripwire

Rating: Highly Recommended
“Can’t you see you suck the life right out of me”, proclaims Jack Burnside on the stunning number ‘Lightbulbs’. That particular track, as well as the rest of the album, are filled with edgy love songs built on overdriven guitar melodies a la Ride and Yo La Tengo. Slingshot Echoes was produced by Andy Lemaster of Now It’s Overhead. The sound these two camps produced results in a gritty and warm batch of tunes with Burnside’s vocals leading the helm with exuberance and strength. Other highlights include ‘Coyote’ and ‘Moving Ground’ (The moodiness of The Church minus the goth overtones).

Mezzanine Owls succeed by keeping their sound direct and simple. The guitar tones and layers of backing vocals (check out the end of ‘We Don’t') are extremely catchy, propelling the sharp pop structures deep into your soul. Burnside sings with such confidence and emotive flair he sounds like an indie rock veteran. Slingshot Echoes manages to keep it's musical structures firmly on the ground while simultaneously peeking it's head above the clouds, still searching for that perfect riff. - Autopia

It's the first night of October and the cool breeze that usually marks the coming of Fall is in full effect. L.A.'s Mezzanine Owls are a band that fits this season perfectly. Their sound is warm, hazy and offers a slight chill to the senses. They played to a decent-sized crowd on a beautiful Sunday night at Spaceland, which is typically a quiet night for showcasing newer bands you’ve probably never heard of. Obviously the word is out about Mezzanine Owls and their infectious brand of dreamy noise-pop. Within thirty minutes prior to their set a large crowd filled up the empty space with everyone looking anxious and excited to catch the band.

They opened with ‘Moving Ground’ and played a set full of songs off their new debut Slingshot Echoes. The stunning track ‘Lightbulbs’ is easily my favorite number, sounding even bigger and more energized live. Jack Burnside nails the vocals all night with earnest emotion and precision. Drummer Pauline Mu was impressive as she locked into a groove adding even more edge to the warm overdriven guitars. People were kind of bummed that the set was so short but it was a great batch of tunes nonetheless. It’s always better to leave crowd wanting more anyway right? I’m confident that everyone who was there will be back for their next performance, it was too good not pass up. - Autopia

Unlike the Northern Spotted Owl, the Mezzanine Owls don't seem to be endangered. In fact, the quartet of Californians is thriving thanks to sessions with noted recording engineer Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes, Azure Ray) in his Athens, GA studio. LeMaster, who also fronts the band Now It's Overhead, helped shape the songs the Owls spent the previous year writing.

One of their brightest ideas, "Lightbulb," has a haunting Jesus and Mary Chain rattle filtered through an anthemic guitar line as driven as something from another avian outfit, Doves. Mezzanine Owls are busy sinking their talons into crowds in and around Los Angeles, and their self-released debut, Slingshot Echoes, is currently streaming on the band's website. - SPIN

It's a damn shame that the phrase rock anthem tends to send a lot of folks running for the hills, fingers thrust deep in their ears, since it was once meant as a compliment of the highest order. Now those two words together usually means mullets, Spandex pants, and hoisted cigarette lighters lacking any irony whatsoever. Scared? Chin up, kid — it doesn't have to be that way. Take Los Angeles' Mezzanine Owls. Approaching the big-screen sound from an Anglophile perspective, this four-piece builds luxuriant canopies of shimmering guitars and propulsive rhythms reminiscent of British heart racers Doves and Elbow but bearing the intriguing twist of wounded vocals landing somewhere between Dean Wareham and Mercury Rev. Anthemic rock with dignity, then. - SF Guardian

As if I didn't have enough reasons to envy all my fellow bloggers who happen to be going to SXSW, this just takes the cake: It's called Hot Freaks and it's just about the best damn set of shows this year's five-day-musical-clusterfuck has to offer. Aside from the reasonably well-knowns (Annuals, The Broken West, Malajube, Menomena, Page France, RJD2, The Young Knives, The Black Lips, Bishop Allen, etc), there's even more talent that some of you may not have heard of. I decided to check out a few of the bands on the roster I didn't know and the one that stuck out the most for me was L.A.-based Mezzanine Owls.
[MP3] Mezzanine Owls - Moving Ground

These guys remind me a bit of what Interpol would sound like if they weren't trying to be Joy Division. It's a sort of shoegazey, downtempo'd post-punk for lazy students and aging parents alike respectively trying to figure shit out. It's got that positive, upbeat, "we're gonna make it," "don't let go, Jack - I'll never let go, Rose" vibe to it, which sure beats the hell out of Elliott Smith when you're feeling blue. It's got a bit of an air of self-importance and cockiness, but for some reason I can't help but smile at the irony of it all (given the drastically adolescent circumstances of the music).
[MP3] Mezzanine Owls - Lightbulb

I'm not the only blogger relishing in the glory of Mez Owls: MOKB, Rock Insider, I Rock Cleveland, We Say Disco, Obscure Sound, and Noise For Toaster all whole-heartedly echo these sentiments.

Mezzanine Owls' Slingshot Echoes is in stores now! Check out the links below for more info and MP3s, as usual! - I Guess I'm Floating

Jax has been pounding me over the head with Mezzanine Owls for a while now, and sometimes I ignore Jax because she loves everything. It is one of her most endearing qualities. Anyway, I received the album in the mail last week, so I have been giving it some time and have been enjoying it. Shoegazey, melodious with soaring guitar and an 80s pop feel to the vocals.

Mezzanine Owls have been added to our SXSW Hot Freaks! Party along with Small Sins, The Hylozoists, The Broken West and Hot IQs. If you aren't already familiar, you can get to all their MySpace sites from the lineup section of the Hot Freaks! site. Mezzanine Owls' MySpace. - My Old Kentucky Blog

Slingshot Echoes is the best unsigned release since Clap Your Hands…, but once this is released on a label (which would only make sense unless the band is intentionally anti-establishment), there is no reason for it not to take off like Turn on the Bright Lights. In fact, Mezzanine Owls has a little more mass appeal than Interpol because it lacks the semi-goth theatrics of predecessors like Joy Division. The vocals can be fragile (think Luna) at moments, but the presence of the guitars (reminiscent to Swervedriver) do not expose this as a weakness, but soar omnisciently under it instead, carrying the lyrics heavenward. Given this unique chemistry, Mezzanine Owls is not the depressing, plodding shoegazer band, which is already a common misnomer. If a label must be placed, stargazer would be more appropriate.

"Lightbulb" is an obvious single. Pauline Mu's constant hi-hat fills are addictive, the guitars fill the ozone, the bass keeps the spirit grounded (like Adam Clayton), and the lyrics, "Can't you see it sucks the life right out of me/I know your shoulders weigh a ton", achieve the opposite effect, energizing the track. Even though "Lightbulb" may be the common ground for realizing the greatness of Mezzanine Owls, Slingshot Echoes has a definitive trademark of a great album, in that as you continue to listen, it evolves, and as it evolves your enjoyment of all the different tracks evolve. Depending on the day and mood, it is very easy to change your personal favorite without having to change discs. For the past month, this has been the only disc in my car because it's a balanced meal.

Mezzanine Owls is on the cusp of greatness; this self-released album proves such greatness was earned, rather than created by some label-backed studio. It's just up to all of us to take notice and prove that we value what is genuine and true about music. A few years ago, my friend, Bob, was so excited about Turn on the Bright Lights, he was telling everyone he knew and even bought a few extra copies to give to friends. Slingshot Echoes deserves that type of reaction. - AntiMusic

Cohesive debuts are few and far between. Here is an album in the ruff: the Mezzanine Owls are sure-footed in their fledgling sound, which is all the more grown-up for standing on the shoulders of giants like R.E.M. and The Jesus and Mary Chain. As a Los Angeles based band, the Owls sound native to Southern California about as much as Pink Martini sounds indigenous to Portland. What they do sound like: Silver Jews, My Bloody Valentine, Built to Spill, and Slowdive.


The Owls (Jack Burnside, Pauline Mu, Jonathan Zeitlin, and Dan Horne) recorded this album with Andy LeMaster, who has also lent his helping hands to Bright Eyes and Azure Ray. A multitude of comparisons and descriptive words for Slingshot Echoes beg to be chosen from: psychadelic, pseudo-britpop, shoegazer. It is pretty, dreamlike, and at once melodically haunting and optimistic.

Uniformly hypnotic, the album hits its high-water mark early on with “Lightbulb.” The song breaks into a euphoric chorus with a warm adrenal ambiance running throughout. Each melodious tune is layered with a seemingly indefatigable supply of reverb—this, and each time a tambourine is lazily slapped against a palm somewhere in the background, conjure visions of Mazzy Star.

“A Draft” is another gem, in part because it offers an alternative to the recurring formula that pervades the album. The songs build momentum like steam locomotives, but the end result is usually the same: loud, indistinct, and muddied. It’s a thin line between uniformity and redundancy, and by the end of the album it leans towards the latter. The thick, melodious fog tends to swallow the delicate vocals, making the prettied, poignant lyrics barely audible. But every now and again, the fragile words, like patches of starry sky, peek out through a break in the clouds. In order to catch these moments, listen to this album with headphones. Nice ones. Afterwards, you may experience a slight, persistent humming in your brain where these unrelenting, soaring pop melodies used to be. - USounds

Mezzanine Owls hail from Los Angeles, CA but you would never guess that from the band’s sound. The band plays dreamy, shoegazy indie rock that sounds, oddly enough, like it has a little southern charm to it. Perhaps that comes from the fact that the album was actually recorded in Athens, GA by Andy LeMaster who has produced bands like Bright Eyes and Drive-By Truckers. Whatever the case, Slingshot Echoes is a fantastic debut album for the band.

On Slingshot Echoes, Mezzanine Owls sounds incredibly mature for a band still in their infancy. Vocalist Jack Burnside recalls a softer, less dramatic Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. The band is certainly adept in composition as all the songs here feel warm and inviting. The music accompanies the sly vocals of Burnside rather nicely. Mezzanine Owls sound so familiar, yet unique in their own right. Slingshot Echoes should be commended for its uniformity. All the songs on the album feel like they are a small piece of a much bigger picture.

Mezzanine Owls have put out a quiet stunner of a debut here. Pulling equally from brit-rock, alt-country and the shoegazing scene, the band has taken their varied influences and made them into a sound all their own. Slingshot Echoes proves the sky is the limit for the Mezzanine Owls. - Sound As Language