Montgomery Greene

There was something extremely comfortable about spending a Saturday night in the gray-and-brown basement of Montgomery Greene drummer, Jason Short. The walls are covered top to bottom with rock memorabilia: a Police poster, a Guided by Voices flyer and, of course, their proudly displayed, exotic wrapping paper.
I sat on the 1970s-style orange couch and listened to the four music junkies that make up Montgomery Greene spout off obscure music facts like the John Cusack or Jack Black characters from High Fidelity, trying to outdo each other with “who sang it” and “where are they now.”
“Television is my Led Zeppelin,” Short said. “They’re not classic rock so don’t even call them that,” he added.
The band’s abundance and exploration of musical tastes has molded their sound since the band’s creation, when Kyle Melton (guitar, vocal) and Short began playing together in 1994. The two were joined by Marc Betts (bass) in 1998, and most recently added Darryl Robbins (guitar) earlier this year to complete today’s lineup.
“I believe that once a musician opens himself to lots of musical influences, then he can start to get his own sound,” Melton said, whose influences are mostly 1960s and 70s punk rock and British pop.
“Yeah, the more influences you have, the harder it is to figure out who you’re stealing from,” Short added.
Montgomery Greene may have borrowed some direction from their favorite bands, but their new EP, entitled Ready By The Next Symbol, is a Dayton rock album with a sound all its own. Recorded in the very basement I met them in, the EP gains credibility with a low-fi mix and crystal-clear accents.
“It’s the first record I enjoyed recording and it’s our best-sounding thing we have done to date,” Betts said.
The 1970s punk in them definitely comes out in the upbeat numbers, as in the highlight of the CD, the anthem-like, palm-muted, beat-heavy song “Minor Washington.” The song begins with a machine-gun snare and three distorted chords and then breaks into a soft, choppy guitar and a high-range cool voice singing, between the breaks, enigmatic lines such as, “Send in Minor Washington.”
“Lyrically, I like to write abstractions or metaphors and leave it open to the listener to figure it out,” Melton said. “I’m not a singer/songwriter type, but I like to make the listener work a little because that’s what appeals to me about some of my favorite bands.”
The EP concludes with 70 seconds of bliss by way of a song called “The Modern Fever Wife Theme.” This song leaves you wanting more as a treble, bright-as-the-sun guitar leaves room for the up-and-down, tastefully off-key melody, singing, “Now you can sleep at night.”
“ I just had fun playing on this record,” Short said. “It’s technical and thoughtful yet aggressive enough to allow me to act like a maniac.”
Although Robbins, the newest member of the band, does not appear on the CD, his presence is felt heavily in their live performances. Onstage, the band is energetic and fun, yet artful. Robbins brings his ability to improvise and play leads, allowing Melton to fill the bar with harmony and melody.
“I really enjoy playing with these guys,” Robbins remarked. “In past projects, I had to carry a lot of the weight but now I can be more band and less me.”
Montgomery Greene is a self-proclaimed “marketing nightmare” because of its tendency to jump genres. They border indie rock, have more than one affair with pop, and you can not miss the throwback punk such as The Clash or The Ramones in their sound.
The band is getting ready to record a full-length LP early next year, but until then, wet your lips with seven songs and barely 12 minutes of interesting, catchy, and mysterious music that will keep you hitting “play.”

Coming off a wild weekend of shows in Lexington, Kentucky (ask them about the Camel sign) and Cincinnati, the band is more than ready to debut their new EP to Dayton at Elbo’s, corner of Fifth and Jefferson St., on Saturday November 20, with longtime Dayton rockers Shrug, Shuttlecock, and Once-ler. For more info on Montgomery Greene, go to www.montgomerygreene.com.

-Kris Neises
- Dayton City Paper-11/17/04

Montgomery Greene
Ruby Tuesday’s
Friday, November 19

Living, working, playing and recording in Dayton has proved fruitful for Kyle Melton. Since 1998, Melton has been developing his pet project, Montgomery Greene, accumulating members and miles of tape in the process. Leave it to a band from the Gem City to sound 10 years too late. But while listening to the group’s sixth release, Ready for the Next Symbol, all is forgiven. The brief but diverse disc is crammed tight with short-attention-span pop going from lo-fi to hi-fi and back in a matter of seconds.

Reminiscent of peers like Guided by Voices and Swearing at Motorists for crafting memorable melodies that last the length of a cigarette, Montgomery Greene also visits the garage of Half Japanese with quavering vocals and no frills, three-chord progressions. While the fidelity alludes to a band in their infancy, this is no demo. The oddball placing of “The Popular Secret,” a Spanish guitar instrumental among scruffy punk songs, shows considerable ability and a yearning to break away from basement cajoling.

The Bravado, a worthwhile mainstay in Columbus that rarely sees the stage, will also play, as will Cotton Jackson.

—Kevin Elliott
- Columbus Alive- 11/17/04

Like fellow Indie Pop bands The French Kicks and Deathray Davies, there's an archly deceiving "retro-ness" to the sound of Dayton's Montgomery Greene. Upon initial inspection of their stellar album, Attack Culture (released last year on the late Cincinnati-based Unlike Label), the shimmering jangle, high-pitched, gritty vocals and buoyant Pop hooks might deceive the listener into thinking MG are the latest '60s Garage Pop revivalists. But, like the aforementioned bands, Montgomery Greene simply uses the tools of that time with a slightly more contemporary mindset. The songs themselves are the stars of the show; with their impulsive arrangements, an MG song flirts with familiarity, but singer/guitarist/songwriter Kyle Melton isn't cemented in tradition, frequently taking the songs in unanticipated directions. The album's first several cuts have the "bif, bam, pow" sizzle of vintage Mod ("Past Frozen" is particularly stand-out), but as the album progresses the writing and performances get more adventurous. The blissfully deranged instrumental, "Thanks to Bennett," is a swirling head-trip of fuzzy Psychedelia (a la Syd-era Floyd). Elsewhere, "Avalanche Past Stars" has an almost Emo-like dynamic, but with better melodies and lyrics. MG follow their analog hearts in a digital era, using a Kinks/Seeds-like cornerstone upon which to build their tight, mini-symphonies of shaggy, supercharged Power Pop. (MB) - Cincinnati CityBeat

Remember the days when indie rock was painless, pose-less and built on spontaneous energies rather than easily recognizable influences? While the Dayton trio Montgomery Greene is nothing earth-shattering or deserving of obsessive fawning, they are quite reminiscent of those simpler times, putting a warm feeling in one’s belly whilst listening to their latest disc, Attack Culture.

With that said, though, Superchunk is the nearest point of reference. Songs like “Foreign Metallurgical” and “See for Yourself” are sharp and stripped clean, with quick, infectious hooks and vocalist Kyle Melton squealing sincerities like an On the Mouth-era Mac McCaughan. It’s the sound of an honest-to-goodness garage band having a blast with what little chords they know. Now if only every band would ditch the couture in exchange for this kind of spirit, we’d all be a lot better off.
- Columbus Alive