Mission Complete!
San Antonio, Texas, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
Mission Complete!'s performance last Friday at Indie Fest 2011 was summed up in the set's final number "Metroplex." Guitarist/vocalist/creative nucleus Ryan Teter strummed a boogie lick on his electric, while his band instigated a full-bore clap-along. Teter sang about longing for a simpler highway system, losing his keys, having no internet, and feeling isolated and bummed. "Which is pathetic!" he screamed, as the band joined him. The song's self-awareness was precious, likely written with indie kids and their First World problems in mind.
The place was only half-filled with the targeted audience, perhaps; the rest were "Dude-Bro" frat types (probably 5050 Colonnade regulars).
Teter's voice invoked the goofiness of a Third Wave ska singer, before the band leapt into a Minute Man-style jam after the second verse. Moments prior, Mission Complete! pulled a similar shape-shift with "Flu Shot." Bassist Kyle Manhke gave the low end an island bounce which, combined with drummer Rudy Villarreal's accompaniment, underscored Teter's punky guitar and vocals with a shameless jam band groove (think moe.'s "Spine of a Dog"). What the hell was going on here? "That's a good question," Teter said after the show. He spoke of being in a period of rapid change as a songwriter since Mission Complete!'s birth in Denton circa 2008. The goals were simply to complete some songs (hence the band name) and make sure no cuts really sounded alike (hence the show). This approach probably led him to place both Bowie's "Suffragette City" and Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" moments away from each other in the set (the latter appears on the Current's 25th Anniversary disc). Teter and second guitarist Mike Squilla gave some lively riffage, unfortunately drowning out keyboardist Meg Lobasso. But when Teter skirted the whistle section for some vocal improvisation instead, all felt right. - San Antonio Current
Discography
upcoming full-length:
- "emotionally strong enough to be your man." - to be released May 25, 2011
Self-release EP's:
- "Mission Complete! - The EP!" - February 2010
- "Live on KRTU Plugged In EP" - August 2011
- "the metroplex EP" - November 2011
- Our songs "the metroplex" and "flu shot," as well as the live session we recorded at KRTU 91.7 FM in July 2011, have been featured numerous times on several local radio shows such as Indie Overnight, Plugged In, The Graveyard Shift, and Good Job Texas.
- Our self-produced cover of The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" was featured on the San Antonio Current 25th Anniversary compilation, which features popular songs from 1986 as performed by local artists.
Photos
Bio
The story of Mission Complete! begins in a small, musty dorm room in Denton, Texas in January 2009. Displaced San Antonio native Ryan M. Teter was a third-year jazz trombone major, living on campus at the University of North Texas and looking for some sort of personal creative outlet. Teter and long-time friend James Alvarez spent countless hours over that semester jamming and hashing out songs together, with Teter on guitar and vocal duty and Alvarez on the drums.
Teter and Alvarez never officially made it to the stage together while living in Denton, and in May of 2009, Teter moved back home to San Antonio, Texas. He decided to take some time off from the trombone and spent much of that summer continuing to work on songs by himself, as he struggled with finding other musicians to form a full band. In December 2009, Teter became exceedingly impatient, and thus went ahead and performed the first official Mission Complete! show as a solo musician, playing electric guitar and singing by himself much in the style of Ted Leo, Teter’s long-time musical idol and main inspiration.
Teter spent the end of 2009 and much of 2010 playing shows in San Antonio and Austin, being billed under the name Mission Complete! but performing as a solo act. In July 2010, Teter’s focus was drawn away from Mission Complete! for a while, as he opted to end his sabbatical from the trombone and begin both playing live and recording with various local acts such as Deer Vibes, Marcus Rubio & the Gospel Choir of Pillows, Bad Breaks, and Blowing Trees.
After almost a year of success playing trombone in the local music community, Teter got the bug to start playing guitar again, and in June 2011 Mission Complete! experienced a “rebirth” of sorts. These days, Teter is joined on stage by close friends and local musicians Michael Squilla (Ellen & the Degenerates) and Rudy Villarreal (Pillow Talk, Kevin Goes 2 College). The band now tends to draw more influence from indie-rock and dance-punk style acts like Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys, yet still manages to hold onto Teter’s formative punk-rock and ska inspirations such as Bad Religion and Streetlight Manifesto.
The band has just recently wrapped recording on its first full-length album, with plans to release it in May 2012. Mission Complete! in its new incarnation is optimistic, ready for the road ahead, and a force to be reckoned with.
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