Live Tracks: Nice Monster at Naked Lounge Downtown, 11/20/09

Photo by Eric Bourne

Nice Monster’s “family” get together at Naked Lounge was a lesson in audience attentiveness and efficiency of space. With The Secret Lives of Squirrels (http://www.myspace.com/kjasonroberts), Be Brave Bold Robot (http://www.myspace.com/bebraveboldrobot), and Carly DuHain (http://www.myspace.com/carlyduhain), the web of musician-friend connections is woven thickly. Nice Monster’s guitarist, Jason Roberts, is the bandleader of The Secret Lives of Squirrels. Nice Monster’s singer/guitarist Matthew Gerken is the bassist for Be Brave Bold Robot, which also features Carly DuHain on backing vocals. Although the venue appeared at first small, with tiny tables and benches ringing the outside of the audience space, the efficiency of the venue meant that 30 or 35 people were able to comfortably enjoy the music that night.

Live Tracks are available:

What Would Huell Howser Do?

You

The Other is Better / The Landscape to Transform (James K Polk)

There

Give Me Some of That Poison

Nice Monster at New Naked Lounge with Be Brave Bold Robot, 11/20

A relatively rare live performance by Nice Monster is upcoming at the new Naked Lounge location at 11th and H in downtown Sacramento.

For anyone that has visited the 15th and Q location, you know this is going to be a great place with friendly service, unparalleled quality coffee, and fun times. Details:

11/20/2009 8:00 PM at Naked Lounge (the new one!)
11th and H, downtown Sacramento, Sacramento, California 95814
Cost: Minimal
Nice Monster with Be Brave Bold Robot, Carly DuHain, and The Secret Lives of Squirrels!

Nice Monster’s EP Reviewed in the Sacramento Bee

Nice Monster was recently featured in Sacramento’s premier newspaper, the Sacramento Bee. The first single from the new self-titled EP, “Down,” was reviewed. For more information, please read on: http://www.sacbee.com/music/story/1534015.html

Nice Monster/

Nice Monster consists of J. Matthew Gerken (guitar), Jason Roberts (guitar), Greg Aaron (drums), Chad Wilson (bass) and Heather Phillips (piano, vocals).

New Obama Song Debuts on NPR’s All Things Considered

“Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies” was again featured on National Public Radio last week, as the new song “Someone to Wake” about Barack Obama (written by Christian Kiefer) was released. Nice Monster’s J. Matthew Gerken is one of the 3 songwriters that created “Of Great and Mortal Men,” and Nice Monster’s Jason Roberts, Greg Aaron, Chad Wilson, and Heather Phillips are among the more than 50 musicians featured on the project. For more details, please refer to:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99315266

‘Mortal Men’ Creators Craft A Song For Obama

By Joel Rose

by Rama Hughes

New artwork depicting Barack Obama was created as an addendum to the collection Of Great and Mortal Men.

Grayscale Records releases new Nice Monster EP

Chicago’s Grayscale Records has released a new, self-titled, 7-song EP from Nice Monster. This collection of songs has all the cascading melodies and challenging rhythms of the band’s first full-length record (“Good Times + Sharp Knives”) but is more aggressive – the intricately picked acoustic guitars are paired with harmonized electric guitar feedback and thundering drums.

Nice Monster’s second release with Grayscale Records is a self-titled EP with seven absolutely brilliant songs in their signature style. The record is full of quickly picked and lovely strummed guitars bouncing and being anchored with wonderful sung lyrics. Unexpected, yet perfect chord changes, hits and cymbal crashes pepper each track with perfection.

 

For free previews of the EP and to purchase:

www.grayscalerecords.com/nicemonster

All Things Considered Story on Presidents Project

Nice Monster’s principal songwriter, Matthew Gerken has collaborated with Christian Kiefer and Jefferson on an ambitious recording of songs for each US Presidency. Today, this project was a feature story on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered:

Presidents’ Songs: Of Legends And ‘Mortal Men’

By Joel Rose

 

Listen Now

[8 min 19 sec] add to playlist

Kurt Lightner

A new collection of songs called Of Great and Mortal Men spans 43 presidents and 220 years of American history.

Hear the Music

“William McKinley (Czolgosz’s Dream)”

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“Herbert Clark Hoover (Woe Is a Spoon-Shaped Heart)”

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“James Earl Carter Jr. (A Great Beam of Light)”

[4 min 30 sec] add| purchase music

All Things Considered, October 8, 2008 – In just 27 days, Americans go to the polls to pick the 44th president of the United States. While some of the first 43 have become larger-than-life figures, others are all but forgotten. But songwriters Christian Kiefer, Jefferson Pitcher and Matthew Gerken, with the help of many stalwarts of indie rock, look to shed light on the lives and quirks of these men. They’ve composed original songs and music in a new collection called Of Great and Mortal Men, which features 43 songs spanning three CDs and more than 220 years of American history.

For more, please consult: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95509966

 

Washington Times

Washington Times reviews Gerken-Kiefer-Pitcher “Of Great and Mortal Men.”

Above: Christian Kiefer, Jefferson Pitcher, and Matthew Gerken.

Of Great and Mortal Men: 43 Songs for 43 U.S. Presidencies

Standard Recording Co.

In what’s sure to spark some kind of microtrend, three songwriters – Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer and Jefferson Pitcher teamed up with a diverse panoply of musicians to produce this three-CD set, with a song devoted to each of the 43 American presidencies. (Yes, Grover Cleveland, who served two nonconsecutive terms, gets two tracks.) This impressive and well-timed effort is accompanied by a [108]-page illustrated [book] and will be supplemented with a new song to be released online just after the November elections….

For the rest of the article: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/09/sounding-presidential/

Presidents Project in Sacramento Publications, Fox & Goose

Of Great and Mortal Men, the project by Nice Monster frontman J. Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer, and Jefferson Pitcher was recently the cover story in the Sacramento News and Review (Sacramento’s music, arts, and more weekly) and the Sacramento Bee.

Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/story/1217201.html

Sacramento News and Review: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=797425

Don’t miss the local CD release for this album this Saturday (September 13th) at 9:00 p.m. at the Fox & Goose at 10th and R streets in downtown Sacramento!

ChartAttack (Canada)

Songs For 43 Presidents
Thursday July 17, 2008 @ 05:30 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

Can you name all 43 American presidents? Which one is your favourite? Abraham Lincoln? George Washington? William Howard Taft? How about Franklin Pierce? You forgot about him, didn’t you? There’s a good chance you’ll have a solid knowledge of all of them come Sept. 9, when Of Great And Mortal Men: 43 Songs For 43 Presidencies hits stores through Standard Recording Company.

The three-disc collection features a song about each U.S. leader — from one George (Washington) to another (W. Bush). The songs were written by Nice Monster’s Matthew Gerken, Christian Kiefer and former Above The Orange Trees member Jefferson Pitcher. It features guest appearances by Smog’s Bill Callahan, Califone, Rosie Thomas, Low’s Alan Sparhawk, Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart, Cake’s Vince DiFiore, Mark Kozelek and others. Of Great And Mortal Men will be released as a 100-plus page hardcover book that’ll feature portraits and photographs of all 43 presidents, so you can figure out what the ones who aren’t on bills and coins look like.

Read more… http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2008/07/1713.cfm

Crawdaddy Interview

Of Great and Mortal Men

by Matt Gewolb

The 2008 general election season is in full swing, and here in the Smoke-Filled Room, we’ve been doing our best to bring you interesting political conversations from a diverse and outspoken group of musicians. But indie songwriters Christian Kiefer, Matthew Gerken, and Jefferson Pitcher have done more than just talk about the highest office in the land—they’ve gone and written 43 songs, one for each President of the United States. And they’re promising a fall download to cover whoever will be number 44. It’s a tremendously ambitious project and, against all odds, they’ve succeeded in crafting a wonderful record that’s timeless, intelligent, and entertaining. The trio’s three-CD set features some impressive collaborators, including Califone, Rosie Thomas, Bill Callahan of Smog, and Mark Kozelek. But Kiefer, Gerken, and Pitcher are the stars of the show—imparting history lessons and political commentary along with jangling guitars and killer hooks. Crawdaddy! spoke with the three armchair historians about Reagan’s Casio tribute, the obligatory presidential penis, and why it’s about damn time that Scarlett Johansson gets tapped for a campaign theme song.

Read more….  http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Article.aspx?id=8162

Photo by Scott Duncan, Sacramento, CA, 2008.