Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"This is roiling, dynamic music, more akin to Bitches Brew than anything Sublime ever thought of. It isn't often that one hears something totally unique, the sort of sound that might just start something big." - Rob Ferrier
Labor Day weekend. Seattle's First Avenue is filled to capacity with cars, many driven by individuals whose driver's training is token at best. I am trapped in the gridlock of hulking metal cocoons, windows open, trying to pretend I'm elsewhere. The radio's on — Seattle's own KEXP of course — but I'm focusing most of my attention on surviving my drive unscathed. Looking out at the gleaming hot car hoods, I am slowly lured out of my traffic-loathing stupor by a grooving track about California — Mountain Con's "North to California." Sunny bright guitars, organ, harmonica, and a steady drum beat brought me an instant reprieve from the claustrophobia of motionless cars.
"Dusty Zeros Dirty Ones", Mountain Con's latest LP, fuses lo-fi with digital to fashion bluesy anthemic grooves that reinvent Americana for the modern age. Mountain Con juxtaposes artifacts of modernity like siren wails and CB radios against traditional banjos and slide guitars to underscore the unique sounds of each. Samples and break beats live happily with harmonicas and Leslie-cabineted organs, creating multilayered tracks that defy classification.
James Nugent's distinctive vocals merge cultural critique, folk lyricism, and pop sensibilities: the ideal complement to Mountain Con's instrumental eclecticism. The record evokes an American July — warm, vibrant, full of activity. With autumn sneaking closer and the grey setting in, this is a great record to help you remember just how the summer months feel. - Imaginary Jessica
Mountain Con are one of those reassuringly unique rock bands that aren’t too mellow yet never take things to the extreme point of fan alienation either. ‘Dusty Zeroes Dirty Ones’ is the latest in a string of well received releases from the band and this one is destined to be just as successful. With “I Woke Up and the Morning Was Grey” the band have penned a delicate, catchy rock song filled with clever nuances, simplistic hooks and even some scratching. However it is with tracks like the disjointed, moody “Hello Nightmare” that Mountain Con takes their mix of blues, hillbilly rock and contemporary catchiness to new levels of lo-fi quality.
That said; if you like your music a little more polished then “Saturday Night” is the song for you. The influences are far fetched yet work brilliantly. The story telling nature of the song, coupled with the delivery creates an Everlast or OPM style track that is simply irresistible. This is the band at their most accessible and catchy yet there is more to this album than you might expect had you just heard “Saturday Night” on the radio waves. “I-5” sounds like British indie legends the All Seeing Eye - feeling like a cross between country rock and Gary Jules’ hit ‘Mad World’.
”Hypersaturated Blues” finds the pace and mood lightening as the album nears half way. Providing a jovial lead into the marvellous song; “The Goodtimes”. This is a far more subdued, old skool style that harkens back to the late 60’s rock and pop era wonderfully. A strong ballad with pleasing lyricism and heart. This band has been dubbed Electro-Folk and I can understand that categorisation - however I believe they are far broader than any one genre, combined or otherwise. Mountain Con are as up to date as you could hope for. Lo-fi is not for everyone but when the music is this good it would be a shame to not give it a detailed once over.
Standout Tracks: “I Woke Up and the Morning Was Grey”, “Saturday Night” & “The
Goodtimes”. - Liam Thomson
Discography
Sancho Panza (LP) - Hidden Peak 2006
Dusty Zeros Dirty Ones (LP) - Hidden Peak 2004
The MC Stands For Revolution (LP) - Hidden Peak 2000
The Highpoint Project (EP) - Self Released (1999)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Always one of the most likely bands to be the next it from Seattle. If this record doesnt do it, there is something wrong with this world. John Richards, KEXP 90.3FM
Mountain Con is a poster child for the current cataclysmic upheaval underway in the music industry. Here is a band that, on their newest album Sancho Panza, record themselves, produce themselves, mix themselves and promote themselves. Like many groups these days (such as The Arctic Monkeys and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) Mountain Con aren't waiting around for the music business to get over its identity crisis--they are taking matters into their own hands.
It was a hard fought battle to get to the position of artistic autonomy they find themselves in now. There were big time LA producers, hot up-and-coming labels and a publishing deal with one of the big four. It would sound as if they had it made, yet a few years ago Mountain Con found themselves in a state of utter music biz limbo--shelved, ignored and lost in a holding pattern.
For Mountain Con, going it alone was a natural move. They have always been the outsiders, both nationally and within the local Seattle music scene. Five of the six members are from Missoula, MT (the other is from a small town in Colorado). From the beginning, they never fit in with what was being played in Seattle's many rock clubs.
For Sancho Panza they built a new project studio from the ground up in a warehouse space in Seattle's gloomy industrial district. The setting and the space proved to be a perfect backdrop for the groundbreaking new music the band began to record. They then began to build their own samples through endless sessions of jamming, overdubbing and looping. The result is a new rock hybrid that sounds like the Velvet Underground letting Kanye West remix "I'm Waiting for the Man", or better yet, the Stooges jamming with Check Your Head era Beastie Boys. It sounds like proto-punk but with beats like hip hop with no rapping.
Mountain Con lead singer James Nugent writes in a style that recalls both Bob Dylan and The Clash, singing about everything from crazy Roman emperors to rockets made out of garbage cans with a distinctive delivery that sits some place between the rhythmic energy of hip hop and the traditional talking blues of American folk music. Unlike many contemporary rock bands, Mountain Con aren't afraid to step outside the genre's increasingly narrow boundaries.
"If you want to know what rock will sound like in ten years, just listen to Mountain Con," says Nugent. It's a pretty outlandish claim, the kind that musicians later wish they could take back. But one listen to Mountain Con's latest album, Sancho Panza, and youll begin to think Nugent has a point.
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