Just a few short months ago mr. Gnome, a louder-than-bombs 2-piece from Cleveland, released Deliver This Creature.  From its opener, “Pirates,” the phrase tightly controlled cacophony comes to mind.  They sound like PJ Harvey, sometimes. And sometimes like Tool. And sometimes like Massive Attack, but without the electronic beat. They even remind me of latter-day King Crimson. Sometimes it’s these influences all rolled into 1 song.  And then at other times they don’t sound like anyone but themselves. And while they may be a boy-girl duo, there is no comparison to any other boy-girl duo you can name. They’re weirder, arguably better musicians and more willing to use influences most bands aren’t touching at this point. 

 

Take for instance, “Rabbit.” The stylistic shifts are so numerous, the song plays like a mini-suite, with only singer/guitarist Nicole Barille’s heavily echoed voice as the constant against Sam Meister’s ever-changing rhythms. In fact he’s the never-let-up drummer I can appreciate, knowing power comes in repetition of intricate patterns, rather than rhythmic masturbation.

 

Elsewhere, songs like “Deliver This Creature” start off with cult-like chants that devolve into some post-metal sludge. And “Night of the Crickets” makes me think Don Caballero might have been propelled a lot further if their more accessible songs had a breathy female vocalist at the front.

 

Not to say that the lyrics aren’t obtuse, because they are. Yet somehow, this becomes strength, as Nicole uses her voice as yet another instrument. And even if I don’t know the words, their power and emotion read loud and clear.

 

 

But as hypnotic as their best (and longest) songs are, the weakest track is also one of the shortest: “Thief” just meanders into the void until stopping abruptly.

 

And the deceptively long last song, “Tied,” is actually 2 songs interrupted by a few minutes of silence. For a band whose strength is its power and noise, the silence comes across as little more than a throwback to the 90s grunge era when we still used CDs with regularity. And to be honest, the long pause between songs was annoying then, too.

 

Still, it makes for a palette cleanser of sorts, which you need after Deliver This Creature comes to an end.   Both of the songs that make up “Tied,” are the first time we hear something really different (Is that a horn in the first part of the song?) and this makes the ending a surprise. And a very good one at that. (4 out of 5 R’s).

 

 

 

Nicole Barille and Sam Meister of mr. Gnome were good enough to take time from the preproduction of their first music video to answer a few questions about sex, drugs, the making of Deliver This Creature and The Rust Belt.

 

 

 

Nicole: No, I don't think we've ever tried to sound a certain way or work anything specifically into the music.  The writing process has always been natural, just letting pieces fall into place.  We're fans of all types of music and our inspirations are all over the place...plus, we're both crazy and a little schizophrenic so that's probably why the songs tend to be so spastic.

 

N: When we first met, we introduced each other to bands we were into at the time.  I was always a little more into the heavier stuff - Tool, Helmet, the Melvins, etc. and Sam was more into bands like David Bowie, Meddle-era Pink Floyd, and Otis Redding.  We both discovered the trip-hop genre together - bands like Portishead, Massive Attack, Bjork, and Tricky - and when we first started writing, those influences all affected the sound of mr. Gnome.  At this point, a lot of the new music we've been introduced to has come from being on the road.  That's definitely influencing the writing that we're doing now. 

 

Sam: It wholly contributed to the sound of Deliver this Creature.  The album wouldn't sound or feel the same if we would have done it in a centralized location.  We had thrown all of our stuff into storage and toured across the United States.  We would rent these shitty "practice spots" along the way - which were pretty much small rooms that smelled and had mysterious stains on the walls.  We would lock ourselves in there for hours at a time, get a little intoxicated and see what the day would bring us.  So the writing process resulted from a culmination of the highs and lows of this style of living, crashing on couches, having no money, and trying not to go crazy.  Good times.

 

 

N: I was reading Ayn Rand's, Anthem when we were recording the album...I know this is the cliché thing to say and do, name your album from a line in a book! But for whatever reason, that phrase really stuck out for me.  I wrote a lot of lines from that book down and that was the one that kept calling out to us.  We thought it was interesting to get back to Cleveland and name the album Deliver This Creature because we had physically delivered it, having driven across the United States with all of our work on a hard drive and on reels of tape.  So that's kind of how that happened.

 

S:  Yeah, of course the city you grow up in has an affect on your aesthetics, but so do a lot of other elements involved in my life.  I can tell ya one thing, if I never tried drugs I'd look at music and art a lot differently and I'd probably be playing professional basketball in Europe, with naked models waiting in my hotel room after every game.  So more than growing up in a rust belt city, psychotropic drug use has affected my aesthetics.  Don't do drugs kids.  You could be a professional athlete instead of a dirty musician. 

 

 

 

S:  I don't think Myspace has helped us out in the way it helps a lot of breaking bands.  Myspace functions for us as more of a database of people we've met through touring.  It isn’t a way we pick up fans but a way for us to keep track of and keep in touch with our fans we've met along the road or through other means (ex: write-ups, radio, etc). Touring for us is the primary way of sharing our music and building a real grassroots fan base. 

 

N: We strongly believe that touring is the root of what we're all about.  It really shaped our live show and we've had so many insane experiences, good & bad, that have affected our writing.  But yeah, some cities are much more responsive than others.  The Pacific Northwest has always treated us great, as well as northern California, the southwest region and the Midwest.  We still feel like there are other areas we haven't quite tapped into yet.

 

S: We're both test tube babies, part of a U.S. government special, super SECRET-OP, made from the sperm of Ron Jeremy and the egg of Bea Arthur and developed and born from the uterus of our mothers, separated at birth and reunited on the set of "Anal Avengers 7." 

 

N: It's true.

 

 

N:  Our next tour is still in the works but we may be hitting up a few new places.  We played in New Orleans for the first time on the last tour.  Drunkest show we've ever played.  Our merch guy got spankings from the bartender and I'm not sure how we got home that night...

 

S:  You drove.

 

 

N:  In conclusion, don't do drugs, drive drunk, or quit your basketball career unless you wanna be like us. 

 

S:  Sex is cool.  It feels good.  If you need to practice, come to our shows and talk to me.  We'll work something out. 

 

 

 

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