Music
Press
Home recordings rarely impress me these days. It's not because the recording sounds bad, rather it is because the band really stinks. I can count on one hand the number of these recordings that have come across my desk and floored me. I would need hundreds of people to count the ones that made me hee-haw. After months of waiting, I finally received a one-hander this week! Thank you God.
With two founding musicians and several guests, The Midnight Collective delivers a strong, semi-acoustic based record that occasionally hints back to Toad the Wet Sprocket during the mid 90's. The music is not all acoustic however - there are a few electrics in there too, but the music is laid back enough to throw that loose classification at it.
"Leave on Your Light" is only one of the songs that caught my attention. Like most of the songs on this CD, the lyrics are very well written. There aren't any clichés that I could find, and I love this aspect of The Midnight Collective. The music stands on its own, paying homage to several styles but retaining its own feel. Structurally, the songs are impeccable and the music very catchy. However, catchy songs can only go so far, and this collection digs much deeper than a two minute joy ride.
Vocalist Ian White has a tremendous talent for singing. His voice is soothing and incredibly sad at the same time, yet it isn't the typical "rock voice." Instead, it is very deep and soft in a powerful way. Perhaps I've contradicted myself too many times in this paragraph. Regardless, you have to hear it for yourself. Drummer Adam Culbert provides the solid backbeat for the music. His style seems to be a cross between rock and some types of fusion. Some latin and jazz beats can be heard too and this only makes the music more appealing. Between the two of them, Ian and Adam have something special here.
...The band has its own self-produced CD out right now called Come Inside. They are planning a follow up this winter, so keep an eye out for them.
- The Rock
Discography
"Come Inside" - 2002 (6 track EP, self-released); "Truth Be Told" - 2005 (13 tracks, self-released).
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
The Midnight Collective has been playing clubs and colleges in and around New England since 2003. Beginning with their hometown in Boston they have been gaining fans and playing to bigger audiences from Burlington, VT to New York City, to Philadelphia, PA. Boston's Middle East, Paradise Lounge, Harper's Ferry and TT the Bear's have been and will be host to TMC, and NYC is becoming a good town for the band to play with rocking dates at places like The Bitter End, Kenny's Castaways and the Lion's Den.
The band has been having particular success at colleges. UVM, URI, UNH, UPenn's Spring Fling, Tufts and more are on the list from 2004, with plenty more coming up in 2005. College radio has picked up on the sound, with TMC's album Truth Be Told hitting the top 30 at LaSalle and Colby and getting airplay at many more schools.
A full list of their influences would be extremely long and varied. Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Jeff Buckley, Phish, Weezer, U2, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Harry Connick Jr., James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Dennis Chambers and many more have contributed to the bandmembers' musical styles.
The band has built an original and engaging sound, one which is often difficult to sum up in one category. "Diamond Rock" is a good shortcut. At any given time the music can be glowing and beautiful, cold and hard, warm and inviting, indulgent, spare, sparkling, windswept or sunlit.
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