Mystery Roar

With a serious debt to '80s new wave as well as the deep bass grooves of disco, this band is all fun but deceptively simple, creating complex arrangements of both melody and rhythm. Initially, the three founding members of Mystery Roar just wanted to "make it out of Scranton alive," according to an interview with local entertainment magazine Dig Boston. Arriving in Beantown, the childhood friends joined up with identical-twin bass and drum players, Patrick and Andrew Dole, and keyboardist Tia Cariloi to form a synth-pop band with minimal use of computers.

Energetic personal-trainer-by-day front man Nathanael Allan Bluhm and the rest of the band rocked the Boston to Austin showcase and day party with their energetic dancing, hypnotizing beats, liberal use of synthesizer and keyboard alike and — yes — a pretty killer fashion sense. Even the burly sound guy and security guards were dancing up a storm.

Full list: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2060909,00.html - TIME Magazine

The Boston Music Awards were held on Sunday at the Liberty Hotel in Boston. This is rock Boston’s annual excuse to take over a posh downtown hotel, get dressed up, get drunk and check out some of the best local acts around. I doubt most of the patrons who were booked into rooms around last weekend knew what they let themselves in for. Attendees dressed up, dressed down, dressed in a monkey suit wearing what looks like a Celtics shirt! The old and the new school mixing it up, hipsters backed up against hippies. OK, not so many hippies but you get the idea.

Highlight performances came from Mystery Roar and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper, whose song “Beluga” was preceded by a dedication to the late great Billy Ruane, also honored earlier in the Unsung Hero category. Mystery Roar were among the many winners who performed on the night.

Others performing included Jenny D. and her Delinquents with Jen D”Angora who won for Best Female Vocalist, Dom who won for Song of the Year, Girlfriends who won for Rock Artist of the Year and Lady Lamb the Beekeeper for Folk Artist of the Year. Non performing acts scoring a win included Scott Janovitz and Bodega Girls for Singer/Songwriter Artist of the Year and Electronic Artist of the Year respectively. Amanda Palmer, not too surprisingly, took home Act of the Year. Also congrats to The Pill for its BMA nod for best DJ/Dance Night.

The night proved just how good Boston’s local music scene is and how well it’s thriving. - The Weekly Dig

Mystery Roar (OUR PICK: Act of the Year)
From humble bedroom-recording beginnings, Mystery Roar has fast become Boston’s very own neo-disco institution. They’ve been around for only a year and change, but they’ve already shared the stage with artists such as Neon Indian, Das Racist and Soul Clap. This year saw the release of Mystery Roar’s inaugural self-titled EP on Dopamine Records, featuring their glittery, sultry single “Mayhem.” The group’s neon synths and smooth, sexy vocal harmonies combine with out-front basslines and full percussive arrangements reminiscent of early house; think Grace Jones meets MGMT. It’s refreshing to see a full band onstage actually banging away on guitars, keys, bass and drums in a scene ruled by drum machines and samplers. With his effortless crooning and gyrating stage presence, frontman Nathanael Bluhm will woo you into a disco trance before you even know what hit you.—Max Pearl - Time Out Boston

1. [ELECTROPOP] Mystery Roar: “Mayhem” — This disco-soaked electropop outfit was recently nominated for Best New Act of the Year at the Boston Music Awards. The group offers the track “Mayhem” (right-click to download) to Mashable (Mashable) readers. Check out a few more tracks on their MySpace page, get updates on their home page and look for their self-titled EP to drop on Dopamine Records on April 13. - Mashable

One thing that you will never find the staff at RE discriminating against: sweet, sweet laser-pop. In the last year, Boston’s Mystery Roar [MySpace] has popped onto our radar twice and it is only fitting that today, we manage to put something out there as I was desperately in the mood for a “pick-me-up”. The band has “managed to perfect a brand of elaborate, deep-space disco that’s already convinced The Boston Herald and The Phoenix to call the synth-laden laser-pop troupe “the number one band to watch in 2010!”

You’ll hear exactly what they mean (and what I am digging) on their upcoming self-titled EP, out on Dopamine Records April 13th. In the mean time check out more “after the jump”

[mp3] [listen] Mystery Roar – “Mayhem”

In that same year, Mystery Roar have joined Das Racist, Tigercity and Har Mar Superstar on area stages. And as their formidable live reputation continues to grow, the band lands even more high profile slots. Just last week, they performed a sold out show alongside Neon Indian at Great Scott in Boston. Catch footage of a recent performance, captured by the folks at Spin Earth TV, below, and pay attention to them when they say “this band should be on a national tour already, if you haven’t caught them in one of Boston’s small clubs do so very, very soon.”

WATCH MYSTERY ROAR PERFORM ON SPINEARTH.TV:
http://www.spinearth.tv/report/mystery-roaring-loud-out-of-the-boston - Radio Exile

Mystery Roar Stream EP At AOL, Offer Up Mayhem In New Video

ALBUM STREAM: Mystery Roar EP
http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/20

VIDEO: “Mayhem”
http://vimeo.com/10866964

Mystery Roar’s debut EP is out now. Released last week on Dopamine Records in both digital and vinyl formats, the self-titled six-tracker is currently streaming in its entirety over at AOL Spinner. From the shooting-star synth pop of “NYC Balloon,” to the blissed out gliter-disco of “Mayhem,” the EP pulses and pounds in a constantly-mutating display of dancefloor mastery.


Not surprisingly, the recently-released video for “Mayhem” seems preoccupied with that same mutation. In the clip, a series of surreal, shimmering representations of lead singer Nathanael Bluhm’s face morph and melt their way through time. Underwater, interstellar, mile-high, and distorted to no end, faces transform from pop art into puffs of smoke and smoldering stars into wall-to-wall panoramas. Check out the unruly clip, along with the full EP above. And, finally, for the Boston-based, Mystery Roar are set to return to the Great Scott stage, where they wowed audiences alongside Neon Indian last month, to celebrate the EP with a Record Release Party on April 24th. - Nerdy Frames

First off....these guys get a medal for rocking the coolest name. Mystery Roar are from America and to describe them is like describing the best New Wave band that you can think of from back in the day melded with some 80s, roller disco 70s bassline and puree of funk.


Their self titled EP will be coming out on Dopamine Records April 13th and from what we gathered from the promo it sounds like a winner straight out of left-field, take that Phoenix from France!!

We were given a freebee to give you as a sampling of sweet enriched pie. - Nerdy Frames

I like going to shows at Glasslands. It's always decorated differently whenever I go. I really loved the cottony clouds above the stage, the lights flickered behind bands to appear as if the higher powers were angered. The clouds reminded me of this short film called Tactical Advantage by Mangello Tipperary. Anyway, I biked out to see Mystery Roar ! They were awesome! - BLT/IDM

My favorite neu-disco dance band has to be Mystery Roar. You can count me in for any of their New York gigs from now on. I was super stoked to find that they were playing Coco66. Three reasons: disco balls, lasers and smoke machines. Needless to say, it was like they were home! - BLT/IDM

It's amazing to consider the evolutionary and cyclical nature of music over the past few decades, as instrumentation and execution have changed with the innovation of new technology. Mystery Roar (l-r: Nathanael Bluhm, Patrick Dole, Tia Carioli, Joseph Wawrzyn, Andrew Dole, Jake Dempsey) revisit familiar disco-era beats with a heavy dose of spacey synths and samples, melding modern technology with timeless rhythms. Riding the wave of funky electronic music a la Bodega Girls, Tigercity, and MGMT, this six-piece paves its own path within the the genre. Intricate melodies weave in and out of thumping bass and drum rhythms. Each member contributes their own separate piece of the puzzle all creating a much larger piece of work. Having recently released a self titled EP, Mystery Roar are set to have an exciting year of shows and events.

BBC: Aside from twin members Andrew and Patrick Dole, how did Mystery Roar come together?

MR: Twins aside, we’ve got a lot of history together. We’ve shared everything from high school bands in Pennsylvania to cramped Somerville apartments. Mystery Roar came about in Joseph’s bedroom, where Joseph, Jake, Patrick, and Nathanael huddled around an MPC, recording and sequencing guitars/bass, synths, drums, vocals. It started off as complete studio experimentation where we were layering track after track into Ableton and not really thinking about playing the songs live. Then we decided to get serious and start playing out. That’s when Andrew and Tia came on board and we began the process of wrangling the songs with an unwieldy number of vocals, synths, and sounds into entities that we could recreate in a room together.

BBC: In all of your songs, there is not one instrument or idea that acts as a cohesive tool to hold everything together, yet everything seems to fit together so well. How do you manage to coordinate the six of you to create such organized instrumentation in each tune, each independent of one another, yet working together to create the big picture?

MR: There was a lot of editing and sculpting that went into the original batch of recordings so that all of the layers could shine without stepping over each other. We take the same approach when writing together as a live band, by paying close attention to arrangements and how we all interplay with each other. We listen to each other, and we trust each other. And it all comes rather naturally because we’ve been playing together, in some form or another, for so long.

BBC: You've been getting all sorts of positive press, accolades, and nominations the past couple years and have played and are lined up to play some amazing shows with other fantastic bands. You also recently released an EP in April. What do you think the rest of 2010 has in store for you?

MR: We’re constantly writing new material. We just spent a week recording at Fireplace Studios in New York with Chuck Brody for an album’s worth of songs, which we’re continuing to work on this summer. We’ve got some amazing shows coming up, this week with MEN and with Delorean in July. We’ll be dropping a compilation of remixes by the likes of Soul Clap, Jensen Sportag, Die Young, Bodega Girls, and Coral Cola. And we’re planning a big blowout for September, details to come!

BBC: Your recordings are densely packed with so many layers. How do you manage to translate all of those ideas into a live setting?

MR: We’ve got six people with twelve hands. And we’re adept at multitasking.

BBC: Is anything lost in the translation?

MR: We wouldn't say anything is lost. If anything, it's a lot of fun to have a full live band version of a song with slight variations from the recordings. It keeps it fresh for us.

BBC: What Boston bands are you currently crushing on?

MR: We love Bodega Girls. A lot. Hooray for Earth are still half-Boston, right? We also like Bearstronaut, Big Digits, Viva Viva, Doomstar, DJ’s Die Young, Volvox, Horsey Princess 69. And we’re loving the innovative dance nights going on about town, like ssllooww and Harum Scarum.


Download an MP3 of Mystery Roar's 'Mayhem' here!

Buy Mystery Roars new Vinyl with a download code by clicking on the artwork below: - Boston Band Crush

Formed less than a year ago, Mystery Roar have been wowing the denizens of Boston’s music scene ever since. They’ve performed alongside Neon Indian, Das Racist, Tiger City, & Har Mar Superstar & were named “the number one band to watch in 2010? by both the Boston Herald & Phoenix. Mystery Roar’s self-titled EP was released today in vinyl & digital formats via Dopamine Records. Grab the latest single below and a remix by Nashville-based duo Jensen Sportag. - WeLikeIt.Indie

Tell us why your music is new and revolutionary (aside from the fact that you guys have an impressive following that seems to be growing by the minute)?

There are a lot of "dance rock" bands right now, which are guitar bands that add electronic dance affectations. Mystery Roar is an electronic dance band that adds live guitars. The sound we've created is retro to a degree, but it is ours, not ironic or nostalgic. We all have ADHD but somehow we write extended songs that develop slowly and arrive in new places.

Any top secret projects you're working on right now that you can talk about?

Mystery Roar is nearly done recording our second album.

Please tell us if you have any shows coming up; we'd love to check you out.

On Friday, September 24, Dopamine Records presents Mystery Roar at the Middle East Downstairs with special guests Bodega Girls, Hesta Prynn, Soul Clap, DJ Die Young & Baltimoroder. - Boston Magazine

"...Mystery Roar, the Boston band with the most seamless blend of dance music presented in a live-rock format and my new favorite Boston band of any kind (just saying)." - Stuff Magazine

Give your clean thoughts a much-needed night off with an evening of electro-tinted hedonism, as Boston-based synth-artistes Mystery Roar bring disco by way of Cylons to the Middle East Downstairs. Alongside fellow funkers of the far-flung Hesta Prynn, Soulclap, Die Young and Baltimoroder, and the master's class in debauchery that is Bodega Girls, there will be ample groove, booze and opportunity to fill a Delorean with the bad decisions you're liable to make this evening. Which is a convenient time to make bad decisions, seeing as then you can go back and make those same mistakes again and again. [480 Mass Ave., Central Sq., Cambridge. 617.864.3278. 8pm/18+/$10 adv, $12 dos. mideastclub.com] - Weekly Dig

I’ve never been to a disco band’s practice space, but I figured it would involve lots of velvet, mirrors, and other visions borrowed from the foggy-lens films they used to show at roller rinks. Was that naive of me? Stepping into Mystery Roar’s industrial Charlestown basement space, I was greeted with the following disclaimer: “Sorry for the smell. There’s a dead mouse somewhere that we can’t find.”

The six-piece Mystery Roar take the gentle art of cool-breeze disco very seriously. For a generation that’s used to unearthing this stuff from rare vinyl and old Solid Gold videos, it’s not easy to imagine how it gets made from scratch, but the Roar do just that. This Saturday at Great Scott, they unveil their first record, a Mystery Roar EP on shrewd Boston dance label Dopamine Records.

The new video for album closer “Mayhem” plays up the mystic diva side of the band, with frontguy Nathanael Allen Bluhm crooning into the camera while his face shapeshifts and multiplies, as if someone had made him a boss in a Star Fox game. Bluhm has a smooth baritone that fits in with the cosmic synths and gangs of vocoded back-up vocals, but it turns out the live performance is where it’s really at. “It can be really surprising when people see us and realize it’s real three-part harmony going on,” he says, pointing to bandmates Joseph Wawrzyn and Jake Dempsey, who grew up with him outside Scranton. “The three of us have been singing together for so long, being in bands back in Pennsylvania, even, that harmony just comes naturally.”

These three and bassist Patrick Dole began working on bedroom recordings for Mystery Roar after the break-up of their previous project together, Fantasy Mirrors. Last year, they added third keys player and robot voice Tia Carioli and Patrick’s brother Andrew on drums to finish up the record and flesh out the live crew. Since then, they’ve been on a tear, heating up dance audiences used to dinky stage shows.

“I think the whole minimalist thing is awesome if it’s done well,” says Bluhm, who first courted Boston in the sample-powered duo Cassette (who had a short lifespan as We Are Cassette). “But you see all the blogs — everything is two guys and a laptop. For me, coming from a synth-pop duo to this format feels like we might be on the cusp of a reaction to that.”

So with six keyboards and live skins and guitars in tow for every show, the band might not be a soundguy’s wet dream (“We try and buy him a lot of drinks,” says Bluhm), but everyone else is catching on.

“We started out just a bunch of deep disco shit and Italo records and stuff,” says Patrick Dole. “When things got moving with the band, we just wanted to keep that vibe and psych it out a little bit.”
They throw down that gauntlet on the new record. Even though it was recorded mostly in Wawrzyn’s bedroom, the thing packs a pleathery hi-fi punch — and you can buy it in 12-inch format. Drums pop and electro-circuits swarm past like schools of fish through bubbly plucked guitars. “NYC Balloon” makes a fetish of fingertips and cotton-candy fogs. Patrick Dole’s bass lines — particularly on the gooey-soul Trapper Keeper jams “Give It Your All” and “Why Can’t I See You” — could power hundreds of alternate-universe De La Soul roller jams. Over the six long tracks, they cover a lot of juicy territory, from the Tom Tom Club to Xanadu. If it all sounds a bit disembodied, good. Part of the mystery is how this stuff translates to real life.

To that end, the group have been trying to break down walls between records and live bands. “I’d love to do something where there’s like two small sets and there’s DJs in between,” says Bluhm. “As sets turn over, you don’t even realize except visually that it’s happening.” He’s already pulled it off once at Central Square’s Enormous Room, where he faded a record into his own band’s live set and broke off stage during the last instrumental vamp to cue up the next disc.

This is starting to sound a little frightening — can we deal with undetectable man/machine crossover? It caused problems for Philip K. Dick dudes hunting androids, but I suspect Mystery Roar will bring it to a friendlier resolution — dead mice not included.

MYSTERY ROAR + BIG DIGITS + DIE YOUNG + VOLVOX + BALTIMORODER + FOXY ACTION GROUP | Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston | April 24 at 9 pm | 21+ | $10 | 617.566.9014 or greatscottboston.com - The Boston Phoenix

The squiggly synths, supple electro-pop grooves, and ’80s-style beats that mark the Mystery Roar’s self-titled debut EP might make you wonder whether you’ve stumbled upon a relic from dance floor days gone by. From the sounds of the disc, that assumption makes perfect sense, save for the fact that the fresh-faced Boston crew has been together for less than a year.

Still, the sheer frothy, fun force of a style Mystery Roar has dubbed “deep space disco’’ (we’re not sure what that means, but we like it) has generated some serious buzz, landing the band opening slots for the likes of Neon Indian, Har Mar Superstar, and Tiger City. Plus, the identical twins comprise the rhythm section, so what’s not to like? The new EP, released this week on the Cambridge label Dopamine Records, is available in vinyl and digital versions (go to www.mysteryroar.com for more info). - Boston Globe

MYSTERY ROAR The latest addition to Boston’s synth-pop scene is Mystery Roar, a winkingly retro-minded band that’s never met a Casio it didn’t like. Anchored by Nathanael Bluhm’s processed vocals, the group mashes up its penchants for ’80s new wave, freestyle, and a seriously deep love of Giorgio Moroder. Tonight’s bill also includes Pretty & Nice and Nooka Jones. 9 p.m. Jan. 21. $8. Middle East Upstairs. 617-864-3278. www.mideastclub.com - Boston Globe

Attention! If you're an A&R scout poking around New England for the next Passion Pit, a/k/a the next-next MGMT: we're wrapping this up in a nice bow and serving it to you on a silver platter. Boston electro-pop sextet MYSTERY ROAR, who rose from the ashes of We Are Cassette/Fantasy Mirrors but sound even radder, have been rocking our iPods with an album's worth of unreleased jams that are just starting to make their way onto the intertubes. We predict a buzz, and I swear I'm not saying that just because my sister's in the band. (Sorry, Tia, I dunno how else to disclaimer this one.) Freestyle-throwback snare programming? Dreamy '80s synth arpeggiation? Discotronic bass traction? Check, check, and . . . check. We enthusiastically co-sign their debut single "Fantasies," which somehow splits the difference between New Order, Momus, and that one cool part of "Baba O'Reilly." Check out the mp3 below, and then see 'em Saturday night performing at Great Scott's "Happy Endings" dance party.

DOWNLOAD: Mystery Roar, Fantasies [mp3] - Boston Phoenix

Mystery Roar
Self-titled EP
Don't be fooled by the synth washes and electronic twiddling, this is a down and dirty funk party. Hand clap beats, filthy bass grooves and cooly effected vocals in a scandalous man on machine love affair.
LUKE O'NEIL

- Boston Metro

Keep your eyes and ears on these Boston up-and-comers.

Boston exports made a sonic racket nationally and abroad in 2009. Led by the synth-pop wizardry of Passion Pit, bands such as Drug Rug, Bodega Girls, Wild Light and Yes Giantess brought a fresh, fun, genre-hopping buzz to a city built on garage rock and street punk attitude.

Who is poised to break out in 2010? Here are the local acts we predict will rep Boston within - and beyond - the 617 area code in 2010.

1. Mystery Roar

Taking a cue from Bodega Girls’ electro-funk boogie, Mystery Roar is a local supergroup featuring members of Cassette, Information, the Bon Savants and the Westward Trail. Yet it sounds like none of those bands. Music to pour a glass of red and lay naked on a bear-skin rug to, this Roar screams next big thing. myspace.com/mysteryroar - Boston Herald

One of our favorite parts of each interview is when we ask bands who they are listening to. The consistent love parade that we’ve experienced in talking with local acts about other local acts gives us faith in the state of the Boston music scene, and gives us a heads up on who is making waves in the community and who we should be keeping an eye on. One such recommendation came from former-Bostonian, Brian Hamilton of Cymbals Eat Guitars, who couldn’t pour enough praise on his friends, local disco-dance revivalists Mystery Roar, when we talked with his own band on the deck outside Great Scott.

Gab and I managed to corral the boisterous bunch on that very same deck after their spellbinding, hip-shaking set at the Allston venue. Between greetings from both fans and friends hanging out nearby, we got them to talk about their storied beginnings, complicated songwriting process and how they decided to “be a real band about it.”

–Jessie Rogers

THE MAIN EVENT: THE MYSTERY ROAR TPB INTERVIEW

Hey Mystery Roar. Introduce yourselves…

Jake: Jake Dempsey. I play guitar, keyboards and I sing.

Andrew: I’m Andrew Dole and I play drums.

Nathanael: I’m Nathanael Bluhm and I sing.

Patrick: I’m Patrick Dole and I play bass.

Tia: Tia Carioli and I play keyboards.

Joseph: I’m Joseph Wawrzyn. I play keyboard and guitars and I sing.

So how did Mystery Roar start?

N: …you had to go there.

T: Oh man.

P: You guys got a minute?

JD: OK short version, short version… Nate, Joe and I met in Pennsylvania and we were in a band. We moved to Boston. Various bands happened.

N: There was a break-in. A saxophone was stolen.

P: The drum machine too.

N: I was gone for 45 minutes! And the guy was cruising our house because he rang every doorbell in the building…

A: I thought this was the short version?

JD: OK three of us move to Boston. Joe and I become the Western Trail. Nate forms Cassette. Cassette becomes bigger and adds Joe and Pat and becomes Fantasy Mirrors.

P: We all hate each other, we break up.

JD: Yeah Fantasy Mirrors breaks up and then Joe…

N: There’s another riveting story here about Tia and Andy and Bon Savants.

A: We’re coming in. We’ll wait.

T: Yeah we’re over here… where not there yet.

N: I’m ready.

JD: So Joe, Pat, Nate and I start working on songs again, together. And that becomes Mystery Roar. And we bring in Andy and Tia to flesh out the band and make a live set.

A: The really short version is these four dudes, minus myself and Tia made really great songs in their bedroom. And they were awesome. And they were like “yeah we should play live.” And they were like “well we need a drummer and we have a million keyboard parts.”

P: We made a lot of stuff on this little Yamaha keyboard and we just threw it on the computer so we could do whatever we wanted. So we’d have songs with 70 tracks and it was like, “How the hell are we going to play this with 3 people?”

N: Nine-minute songs….with 50 tracks…

P: The original concept was to just put out 12-inch disco mixes for all the kids in art school to listen to. And then it turned into something more and we were like, “Oh we can be a real band about it. Let’s do it.”

N: We have identical twins in the rhythm section, a lady keyboardist and a gay singer and…

T: And these two other dudes…

N: And these two wonderful straight men. Four. Four wonderful straight men.

JD: Well we have alternating first and middle names.

N: One is…oh shit. Joseph John? And one is John Joseph?

JD: Yeah.

A: That’s freaking me out.

N: This band has gimmicks out the wazoo.

So you started out making 70-track keyboard songs… What is your creative process like now?

J: We get together and fight a song out of it.

A: Somebody puts some chords down, and then it’s like bombardment dodge ball. And then we have a song.

N: With the program we use… you can build songs, uh, down or across. And we write them down and then we put them across. And you can loop shit and then you can add. And we just add, add, add, add. And then we go [grand sweeping gesture] and just throw it across and it sounds fucking marvelous.

JD: We come up with two parts and we layer the living daylights out of them and we put them next to each other. And it’s like “how are we going to get these parts to sound good together?” So we write six minutes of song to put in between them.

N: We also write songs, like from start to finish. With pre-choruses and bridges.

JD: We write bridges.

A: Actually what we do is we write five songs and five verses and put it all into one song.

T: … so do you have a clear answer?

N: We have a really good time doing it.

P: Everybody here is pretty much a songwriter. We have old songs, we have skeletons of songs, sometimes we just make a cool sound a we’re like, “Wow that sounds awesome, what do we do with this?” And sometimes Nate will write a whole song and we’ll be like, “Oh, that’s cool.”

N: Ha! That’s exactly what you’re like…

P: Or Joe and Jake will have a song from their other band and we’re be like “Oh, that’s great.”

Well you all clearly bring different things to the table… What are your influences? Either individually or as a band.

P: Well, Nate and Joe and I were on tour with Fantasy Mirrors and our friend gave us a zillion old-school, deep disco cuts from post-70s, early 80s stuff and Nate alphabetized them…

N: We’re talking deep disco. Deep, deep disco.

P: We’re talking B-sides.

J: C-sides.

P: We drove across the country and that’s all we had. We listened to the whole alphabet of these tracks.

N: Well it’s not that I put them in alphabetical order…iTunes did that. It sounds really great to think I put them all in alphabetical order, but I wasn’t like, “I’m going to alphabetize these rare disco tracks…”

A: We can all agree on that [influence], but then everyone comes from a different place.

J: We all listen to a lot of different stuff. And then it all gets smashed together.

JD: Change, Mtume…

P: Mtume.

J: Mtume.

P: Mtume is a big influence.

A: Giorgio Moroder.

N: Mtume is wonderful. Tawatha Agee–she’s the singer. She sounds fantastic. She sings back-up in Hercules now. I looked her up on Wikipedia. I was like “Oh my god! She’s in Disney movies now.” She deserves so much more. She’s one of the best singers I’ve ever heard in my life.

P: That’s a great story.

N: She’s making money. She’s still doing it, which is amazing. “I am a working singer. I had hits in the 70s and I am still a working singer.” Fuck that. That is fucking amazing. I hope I’m still…God knows I’ll be on a cruise ship somewhere but I’ll be having a good time and I’ll still be singing.

So you formed in Pennsylvania… are you all from Pennsylvania?

T: Incidentally, I’m from Pennsylvania, but I didn’t know those guys.

N: She is from Pittsburgh, Ohio…

All: Oooohhhh!

N: We are from Scranton. Thank you.

A: Where The Office is filmed!

N: And Mr. Joe Biden. It’s Joe Biden Country. I’m just a hardscrabble kid from Scranton.

How did you get to Boston?

T: I went to college here.

N: So did Joe. And then I quit college and I had nothing better to do. We followed him. We packed up the U-Haul and the first time I saw Boston was when I came up here. That’s how it is to be a hardscrabble kid from Scranton. You get the fuck out.de

J: Joe Biden did it.

P: Andy and I are from New Hampshire. We pretty much did the same thing.

Do you feel like Mystery Roar is a Boston band? Do you feel connected to the scene here?

T: Oh yeah. I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else.

P: As far as being part of a scene, it comes in waves. It feels cool… we were a part of a scene a while ago…

T: What scene was that?

P: I don’t even know. The indie dance scene?

JD: There were lots of basement shows and things like that.

N: Cambridge is where I found myself. I’m at home. I am safe here. I’ve got these beautiful friends that I make music with. It’s awesome.

J: Yeah. Nate said it better.

N: We’re refugees. From fucking Middle America.

JD: Everything we’ve been able to do is because of all the time that we’ve all spent on the scene. Particularly, you guys have been here longer…but we’ve been here for 7 years?

J: This is my home. Above anywhere else.

N: Amen.

JD: But we were like, “OK let’s play some shows.” Boston opened up for us.

N: Boston just opened us up and…

T: We’ve brought a lot of experience from the different bands we’ve been in…

N: …and we’re experienced…

T: …and I think that’s definitely helped us out. It’s just been a lot easier for this band than any other bands we’ve been in.

N: We’re friends. I can’t imagine…I don’t want anybody but Patrick to play bass.

All: Awww!

N: This is so stupid but I have to concentrate to turn around on stage and face the crowd because I’m so interested in what’s going on with Patrick’s bass playing and Andy’s drumming and Joe’s guitar work. The keyboard work. I’m, like, watching my band. And then it’s like, oh shit I have to turn around and see the audience. I’m so enamored with their playing.

P: We should all get T-shirts that say “Nate, sing.”

N: That, and a big, flashing, neon “SAVE” above the computer. Otherwise…you… lose albums. It is not good.

N: I’m not going to say how long we’ve been making music together because it’s embarrassing.

T: Say it!

N: I’m talking about revealing our ages…shhh…We’ve been playing together for, like, a decade. These guys are twin brothers so they must have been playing together since they were, like, fourteen.

P: We’ve almost been playing for 20 years.

N: It’s crazy. That would make me 35!

P: OK, like fifteen. Yeah. I was just trying to embellish the story. I was trying to make it sound deeper, you know?

N: We’ve been playing music together for 4 years now.

P: Because all our bands kept breaking up.

So who are you favorite bands in Boston?

P: Tigercity. They’re actually a New York a band.

N: Well didn’t they go to Berklee?

P: ….do you guys go to shows anymore?

JD: Back when Joe and I were in separate bands, my favorite bands were Cassette and Fantasy Mirrors.

N: I go to Scullers Jazz Club and watch Lou fucking Rawls. That’s what I do. I go to Scullers Jazz Club, I watch Shirley fucking Horne. That’s who I watch.

A: Night Rally. Night Rally was the best Boston band that ever was and ever will be. Night Rally.

T: OK how about bands that are not defunct…

P: I like the kids in Mean Creek. They’re good. Hooray For Earth. They’ve been doing that shit forever. Andy and I actually went to band camp with the drummer.

N: We’d probably be way better at identifying local DJs.

P: Colbourne, Die Young…

N: Fucking Colbourne? Alright. I’ll go to ZuZu’s every night of the week and there’s fucking great fucking music in that place. Middlesex, fucking representing with some awesome disco nights happening.

P: Bodega Girls. We just saw Bodega Girls, they’re actually really good. Big Digits. The 440R Collective.

N: We’re from this collective of artists called Compound 440, originally—we’re no longer there—but you’ve got artists like UV Protection, well they’re defunct, they’ve got a new band Secret Sea.

P: Paul Foley was spinning the other night. Big Digits are great. Bodega Girls are great. They’re kind of what we’re doing.

N: I was psyched to see Bodega Girls. Mac is awesome (from Bodega Girls), and he did a remix of one of our tracks. Those guys are awesome. They vacillate between the electronic stuff and kind of garage rock which is amazing. Like, they’ll have a song with backing tracks and then the next song is just tambourines and guitar and it was like my favorite song.

P: I’m a big fan of Drug Rug.

What’s up next for Mystery Roar?

A: I don’t think we’re touring until Spring. We’re going to release a record and then tour.

J: We’ve been talking to a bunch of labels., but one we’re really excited about is Dopamine Records. They do rock records, they do dance stuff. They started as a hardcore label, which is weird. So we’ll just get the record out and…

N: Promote the shit out of it.

A: My brain is exploding trying to keep track of all the industry people that are emailing us right now. But we’ll just get it out there and tour.

We know you haven’t really gotten to tour yet, by any crazy show stories?

P: We lost a battle of the bands to a high school band.

N: They were very Facebook savvy!

T: We did this contest, sort of as a favor…

N: Oh, now we did it as a favor but at the time we wanted to WIN THAT.

T: Well, we wanted to win it. It was sort of a last minute thing that was thrown together, and the winner got to open for Matt & Kim, Major Laser—a the show at the House of Blues. But the whole thing was determined by text messages. But these kids were in high school so of course they and hundreds of their friends…

N: What’s wrong with high school?

T: Nothing’s wrong with high school.

J: I actually had a really miserable time in high school.

JD: High school was obnoxious.

T: But they had the advantage, man. They’ve been texting since they were born.

J: There was this show on a Wednesday or Tuesday…

T: We totally packed the place. There were like 10-times more people there to see us.

N: We sounds so spiteful.

T: I know!

N: We’re gonna fight those kids…

J: We lost by, like, two texts.

T: They were actually really great.

J: For a high school band.

T: They were a fantastic band.

What band was it?

N: Are we going to call them out? We want a rematch!

T: We want a rematch!

JD: They were Old Abram Brown.

N: This is not over.

JD: We’re coming for you.

A: Another story–well this isn’t really a zany tour story– but we played this really small night at Enormous Room and it turned into the most epic show I’ve ever played.

N: It was amazing because they had risers so we all got to stand on risers.

A: There’s no stage. It’s the smallest bar in the entire world and it was just packed. Nate was in the crowd—the whole band was in the crowd the whole night.

N: Patrick got it on… he was getting his groove on.

A: It was by far the most fun I’ve ever had playing music live.

N: I wish… I wish I’d had a monitor. It was an awesome show though. Gary from Hooray for Earth put that on.

P: We’ll probably be real boring on tour. We’ll probably go back to the hotel and watch Golden Girls.

N: If you want to watch Golden Girls at the hotel, I am there. I will bring the first and second season.

T: We’re going to be tour blogging.

N: It’s going to be boring. We went to SXSW and these guys were partying like motherfuckers and I went to be at 1 every night and went to the gym every morning.

P: We pull into SXSW and we’re all, like, eating mushrooms, playing our first show all on mushrooms, and Nate’s like “I signed up for a gym today, guys.”

N: I got a 5-day membership at Pure in Austin, Texas and their facilities were really clean and really lovely. And I said, “Next year you should offer a special for the musicians.” And they were like, “You’re the only fucking one here. We’re not offering a special.” So I said, “What about for me? Can I get a special?” Actually, the guy at the AT&T store gave me the hook-up, he gave me a pass. Because I lost my cell phone in Waco and this guy named…

P: Corbett Trap

N: Corbett Trap found my cell phone. - Tea Party Boston

The term "deep disco" doesn't get thrown around enough in Boston, but electronic dance parties have become less scarce since electro-funk fiends Mystery Roar set up shop. These keyboard-wielding buddies have made impromptu groove-a-thons a habit as regular as eating breakfast or brushing your teeth. It's only a matter of time before Mystery Roar nudges Passion Pit out of the synth-pop spotlight.

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR MYSTERY ROAR?
We've got an EP in the works, and we're finishing up signing with a label, and we're finishing up the next album. There's one tune that's definitely going on the EP called "Give It Your All," and it's about the teachings of Ramtha, the 35,000-year-old spirit that lives inside JZ Knight.

CONGRATS ON YOUR BMA NOMINATION! HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE COMPETITION?
Boston's a real rock-centered town, so it'll be interested to see how we do!

"MYSTERY" AND "ROAR" AREN'T TWO WORDS YOU TEND TO HEAR TOGETHER.
All the good names were taken! Seriously, though, we had a five-page list of band names, and we'd keep googling these names to see if they were already other bands. We googled "mystery roar," and came back with this description that somehow included "God snoring," and we were like: "Cool. That works."

IF I WERE TO STEAL THE IPODS OF ALL SIX OF YOU MYSTERY ROAR KIDS, WHAT WOULD I FIND?
Broadcast, NPR and tracks straight from DJ Joseph Colbourne's super-rare vinyl collection. We drove down to New York recently and we listened to Roxy Music's Manifesto, Earth, Wind and Fire and Aja by Steely Dan.

IF MYSTERY ROAR WERE A MYTHICAL CREATURE, WHAT KIND OF CREATURE WOULD IT BE?
A unicorn. With dragon wings.

[Mystery Roar with Magic Magic and Hooray for Earth. Sat 12.05.09. Great Scott, 1222 Comm.Ave.,Allston. 617.566.9014. 9pm/21+/$9. greatscottboston.com] - The Weekly Dig

As for Mystery Roar, well after only a handful of gigs their uber-polished bear-skin rug synth funk purr is about to establish a reputation all its own. So the window is closing that the band comprises of ex members of Cassette, Westward Trail, the Information and the keyboardist for Bon Savants. That’s where they came from – where they’re headed is Mystery Roar’s own territory. Expect these guys and gal to be huge in 2010. - Boston Herald