love

Die gute Stube des Café Kairo statt das Stade de Suisse, New-York-Rock statt Robbie-Williams-Pop: Mit den Bands Morex Optimo (Bild) und Room sind heute Abend Vertreter der innovativen Musikszene des Big Apple zu Gast in Bern.

St. Gallen Tagblatt, Aug 22, 2006

Rorschach/St. Gallen.
…
Im Minivan durch Europa
Morex Optimo entstanden im Zuge der Jüngsten Explosion innovativen Rocks aus Brooklyn, fanden aber in keiner ger gängigen Schubladen Platz. In ihrer neusten Version spielt die Band lebendigen, verzwickten Pop. Um den Abgang von Bassist Yuri Weber zu verkraften, verschanzte sich das Kernduo Kristofer Widholm (Gitarre, Gesang) und Heather Wagner (Schalgzeug, Gesang) vergangenen Winter mit dem Produzenten Jay Braun (Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Mooney Suzuki) im Studio. Braun blieb als Bassist bei Morex Optimo hängen. Das Quartett wird durch die warme Stimme and die knackigen Gitarrenriffs von Kerry Kennedy vervollständigt.

….

It’s always fun to see where our CD’s end up, whether it be the used bins at Amazon.com, or the “sound bytes” section of a college news paper. In this case on of our intrepid wandering CDs ended up at the Viking News, student news paper for Ocean County College. We love that the author, Kristina Mondo, had obviously done her research, reading through our bio and one-sheet (which is more than you can say for most reviewers), and that she takes some great chances. The introduction to her piece is marvelous…

Kudos to the author for finally grasping one thing no other writers seem to have understood:

Unfortunately, the title of the piece says it all:

The longer we do this stuff of making music the more I have to conclude that the “creative set,” as well as the literati and intelligentsia are just as conformist, afraid of challenges, and averse to insight as the rest of the populace. Hate the album, love the album, I don’t care, but you all can do better than “weird,” no?

Finally, this will probably go down in history as one of our favorite quotes:

Many thanks to Kristina Mondo for listening to us and for taking the time to write. And yes, we do mean that.

You can read the full review here.

Not sure who the copy editors are at the Deli (I’m assuming they even have some), but it’s nice to see our album finally made its way to the top of what must be some very deep stacks of CDs-to-be-reviewed, as Beast of Reflection was released way back in 2004. We’re actually quite happy with this little blurb. It shows that a modicum of thought went into it rather than the usual “agh!!! me no understand!!!” we get from most places. Thanks to The Deli Magazine for giving some space for us. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Katie Hasty, for listening, thinking, and responding.

Beast of Reflection is in the top ten list for the second month in a row at smother.net! Isn’t it time you picked up a copy?

Thanks to Roman Elsener, collage artist, for assembling this beautiful little piece.

Journalist Roman Elsener is putting together a hot little blog focused on the downtown independent and alternative rock scene. He gave us quite a lovely writeup for our show at Mercury Lounge, April 17th. You can read the writeup here: http://romangame.blogspot.com/2005/04/there-is-rock-on-sunday.html, and check out his blog here: http://romangame.blogspot.com.

Morex Optimo - Beast of Reflection (CD, Broken Hill Music, Progressive pop/rock)
This is a case where the name most definitely fits the band. Imagine mixing Henry Cow and John Vanderslice with David Bowie and Captain Beefheart (?!?)…and you might begin to have a slight idea of what the band Morex Optimo sounds like. Art rockers in the coolest sense of the word, these folks are playing music that truly does not sound like anyone else out there. Many bands could make the claim that their music is unique and different…but how many of those bands actually record music that is credible…? Songs are what make the difference…and there are plenty of absolutely killer tunes to be found on Beast of Reflection. The folks in this band use jagged arrangements and peculiar instrumental phrasings to flesh out their songs. The vocals are slightly subdued and indifferent…yet they fit the music perfectly (the doubled-tracked vocals work wonderfully). Some musical segments are sparse and nervous…while others are rather thick, dark, and intense. Obtuse and peculiar…this is an album for thinking listeners. Cool and curious cuts include “Burkina Faso,” “The Exactly Commensurate Abattoir,” “Kosmonaut,” “Exhaust,” and “Wild Over.” Great stuff. (Rating: 5+)

original review here

we just happened to be there in the background. this is the second review that uses a curseword! we are really getting somewhere.

http://www.greenpointstar.com/StoryDisplay.asp?PID=3&NewsStoryID=270
to celebrate my inaugural exhibition of single drumsticks at williamsburg’s city reliquary, we played outside where apparently greenpoint journalists roam the “beat” looking for a “scoop”. did I just type “beat”? I did. I did not mean it like that. bad girl. I am going to punish myself. did I just type “pun”ish? nono, make it stop.

city reliquary:
http://www.dhlabsnyc.com/
the city reliquary is at 307 grand st at the corner of havemeyer in williamsburg. check it out, it is one of those notfamous but amazing little new york oddities.

here is my “artist’s” statement:

Over the course of several years of playing the drums, I have experienced the unfortunate but unavoidable problem of broken drumsticks many times over. The broken stick must be discarded (or used to prop up a plant or stir paint), but sometimes its surviving mate can be matched with another stick of the same brand and type.

But drummers are notoriously capricious creatures with short-lived allegiances when it comes to drumsticks, so eventually we are left with many singles varying in brand, thickness, length, type of wood, type of tip, &c. when a stick cannot be matched. Throwing out a perfectly good drumstick, though its mating potential is nil, seems deeply wasteful, barbaric, like burning the wife on the pyre of the dead husband, a kind of drumstick Sati.

So the proprietor of the City Reliquary, Dave Herman, good soul that he is, has allowed me to display my collection of surviving single drumsticks, each of whom has undergone extensive drumstick therapy and none of whom suffer survivor guilt or grief of any type.

The crown jewels of my collection has to be the “unbreakable” synthetic Mainline sticks which I was able to crack either through poor technique or an unfortunately-landed rimshot. Is this false advertising on their part? No, it only served to make me feel powerful and macho and continues to do so each time I look at them.

This is a case where the name most definitely fits the band. Imagine mixing Henry Cow and John Vanderslice with David Bowie and Captain Beefheart (?!?)…and you might begin to have a slight idea of what the band Morex Optimo sounds like. Art rockers in the coolest sense of the word, these folks are playing music that truly does not sound like anyone else out there. Many bands could make the claim that their music is unique and different…but how many of those bands actually record music that is credible…? Songs are what make the difference…and there are plenty of absolutely killer tunes to be found on Beast of Reflection. The folks in this band use jagged arrangements and peculiar instrumental phrasings to flesh out their songs. The vocals are slightly subdued and indifferent…yet they fit the music perfectly (the doubled-tracked vocals work wonderfully). Some musical segments are sparse and nervous…while others are rather thick, dark, and intense. Obtuse and peculiar…this is an album for thinking listeners. Cool and curious cuts include “Burkina Faso,” “The Exactly Commensurate Abattoir,” “Kosmonaut,” “Exhaust,” and “Wild Over.” Great stuff. (Rating: 5+) Reviewer: LMNOP.

http://www.babysue.com/LMNOP-Reviews-January-05.html#anchor938673