Stanley Ross

Stanley Ross is an amalgamation of all that is gritty, grimy, urbane and upper Midwest. He seamlessly combines discord with harmony, each track providing you an in-depth look into the musical palate of Nicholas Meiers, the man behind the moniker Stanley Ross. Here With Me is authentic, rock and roll album that satisfies even the most demanding music lover.

There are punk tracks, rock tracks, and quirky rhythmic tracks and even anthem-like sing along songs you can swing and swill to. The lyrics are rich and vivid giving you an almost picturesque experience when listening to tracks like "Tell Me" or "Whatcha Want".

Stanley Ross: indie folk rock meets edgy punk rock complete with fuzz distortion and catchy, power-pop riffs. Here With Me is a well-produced singer-song writeresque album that has roots in so many different styles it’s hard to pinpoint what influenced what. There are so many great elements that characterize Here With Me, it is easy to find something you can relate to, attach to and be entertained by.
- Kevin Farr

"I popped [Nelsonian] in and was so pleasantly surprised, loved it, and have been playing it non-stop ever since. [ ] "I think that they're great and I'm so glad I can expose their sound to more people." -Whitney Matheson - USA TODAY

Imagine some weird fluke of nature in a parallel universe where Dave Clark is born decades late, and he is an American rock n roll drummer named James Duffy.

In this mythology I am weaving we are now in Chicago, and Duffy meets Nicholas Meiers. And, as fate would have it, Meiers is none other than Ray Davies born decades late, except this time around he apparently took some voice lessons. Then Duffy and Meiers meet up with some dudes named Seifert, Meehan, and Leach (whose identities have not yet been established).

These dudes then all get together, and create a band called Stanley Ross. Why Stanley Ross? Who knows. These are weird dudes, man!

What is the Stanley Ross sound? Imagine rock that makes you jump up and dance. Imagine Stanley Ross!


- Tim Null

"Not sure who these glorious, get the Kinks out, Anglophiles are, but I bet they have the best record collections in America! If I write a good enough review, will you make me a mixtape? What's the scariest about this is that I fear they may have snuck in my room and played me this CD in my sleep, because these all sound like longtime favorites!" - roctober.com

"A little spazzy, a whole lot of stylish, Stanley Ross takes the Midwest's love affair with power-pop to even more deliriously affected levels, which isn't nearly as annoying as you might think. In fact, his Favorites is pretty good stuff." - timeout.com/chicago

Stanley Ross is not a fellow, but a band from Chicago, and this is the first I've heard from them, though they've been around for a few years. Clocking in at just under half an hour, the songs on this record fit somewhere between Guided By Voices and the Oranges Band, with nods to Superdrag and Pavement, as well. The music on this record is rather hard to easily define, as it can sometimes be too off-kilter to be power pop and at other times too hard-rockin' to be indie rock (check out that guitar solo in "ZZ Hop"!) - but no matter how you want to classify them, there are plenty of catchy hits to bounce along to, like "Make Us Deaf", "Go!" and "Baby Divine"! The slow "Nails" wasn't too interesting, though I did like their even slower, somber ode to being hospitalized, "I.C.U.". This record is a good time, and I bet they're even better live... MTQ=9/11 - indiepages.com

Chicago outfit Stanley Ross celebrates the release of "Favorites" tonight, a nice, compact record that pays homage to both the riffy rock ‘n’ roll of yore and mid-nineties radio pop (my first reaction after listening to "Call Back" was, ‘Man, these dudes sound like Presidents of the United States of America,’ a sentiment I wish I could say aloud more often, actually). The song "Make Us Deaf" catches your attention rather quickly and proves to be the record’s finest, the leads during the interludes endlessly grabbing, the hook delightfully ecstatic in its hoppy craft. The band drifts when the songs get more goofy, at least by construction, like on "Major Crush," which is based in a series of "whoa"s that turn you off pretty quickly. But the giddiness of a song like "Go!" will turn it around again, and the bluesy, muddy rock of closer "Little Bird" shows promise. (Tom Lynch) - newcitychicago.com

Alter egos, generally speaking, are cool. Hiding behind a lie because the person that you really are is too dynamic for the real world is a good thing. For musicians, the alter ego has had a mixed history. Ziggy Stardust, the guitar toting alien from Mars, made David Bowie one of the bad asses of the 70s. Garth Brooks’s side project Chris Gaines, not very cool at all. Stanley Ross, the alter ego of Chicago singer/songwriter Nicholas Meiers, is a misnomer for the type of music Meiers creates in his band. Meiers has previously worked with other notable Chicago bands such as Kaspar Hauser and Soft Jolts, so he’s no virgin to the Chicago music world. However the type of music that he’s made with these other bands cannot be the basis of judgment about Meiers’s style.

The name Stanley Ross itself reminds me of the nerdy kid in grade school, the one that instead of playing soccer with the other boys sat underneath his favorite tree and read books beyond his grade level. But the Stanley Ross on Here With Me sounds like the product of a child who loved matches and sugar, which put this alter ego under the “Bad Ass” category. The opener “UR Mine” kick starts the album straight off, ripe with the carefree flavor Stanley Ross exhibits in the rest of the album. The album displays the hopeful feelings we all have when we’re young and don’t have the will or need to over think our actions. But don’t call Here With Me juvenile. Meiers and his crew are all talented musicians, with Meier’s himself exhibiting a warm voice and well-written lyrics. “Here With Me,” a personal favorite from the album, sounds chipper and cute with Meier singing about his delight in finding someone to love. But as the song reaches the chorus we see that this person has scorned the narrator. How could a song about heartbreak be so fun? That dual nature that Stanley Ross exhibits in Here With Me is what makes the album so entertaining. It’s fun and entertaining, but it’s not something covered in pop and production that you have to be ashamed about listening to. That’s what Stanley Ross seems to be. Music doesn’t always have to be work. Sometimes you can just get together with your friends, write some songs, and produce something where it’s apparent that everyone had a blast making it. Just by listening to “Lasso” you can hear the positive energy put into this insane punk-attitude track. It’s hard to fake enthusiasm track to track, so either Stanley Ross deserves an Oscar for convincing us all that their love for music is genuine or these guys are the real deal. - Amy Dittmeier

This week in Pop: My favorite things
Best CD I heard:
"I'm also listening to: Chicago band Stanley Ross. You can stream it on the band's website."

-Whitney Matheson

http://blogs.usatoday.com/popcandy/2007/12/the-week-in-pop.html - USA TODAY

Stanley Ross‘ Favorites is a collection of mostly two-minute-plus pop songs written/sung by lead Ross-man Nicholas Meirs. Meirs and other locals (including keysman Casey Meehan, first introduced to this column in 2002), make their full-length debut sound as if Ray Davies were playing with glam rockers like Mott or Sparks or T. Rex instead of the more garagey Kinks. It’s great to hear a band take chances, and when Ross’ aspirations exceed their ability (like on “ZZ Hop”) they just laugh it off and keep playing.
– David C. Eldredge - Around Here