Meyow

Sometimes I forget I live in Chico. I was so worried that I would miss Meyow's first song that I foolishly passed up a chance to play tunnel tag on the Laxson Auditorium lawn. Of course, my roommate and I went straight to Moxie's and ended up waiting an hour for the band to go on. Go figure.

Meyow is, by far, the most interesting band in town. No competition. If you are sick of the same old hippy jambands playing the bars week after week, then you have got to check out Meyow. Their music is like a trip to a fairytale world where everything is painted red, yellow and green, and the bunnies are cute but have big sharp fangs. What the hell am I talking about? Well, check out Meyow and see for yourself. The set slowly came to fruition with a collage of disturbing sounds. Anybody that can make their instrument sound like a big scary monster immediately gets my fear and respect. Eerie close-ups of teeth projected on a screen also helped to create the slight feel of unease.

This was their first show with a bass player. Before this, one person who played a hybrid guitar/bass handled the low end. That instrument was fed through a whammy pedal set at two octaves down, into a guitar amp and a bass amp. This was an interesting setup, but I think the addition of Paul on bass is a wise one. He really fit with the band, and filled out the sound. There is also a lot more flow in the music during the noise freak-outs, with more room for Jessie to make wack noises on his guitar.

Oh, and what noises he makes. Not only does Jesse create extravagant sound through the use of delays and whammy pedals, he uses a barrage of gadgets to mess with his pickups including a megaphone, walkie-talkie, hammer, "Dynamic," vibrator, and hand-held tape recorder playing Orson Welles' War of the Worlds. The daytime soap opera organ backdrop provided by Shoko is also an integral part of Meyow's sound. It's like the music you would find in a highly emotional circus / church. The band was absolutely alive and amazing as usual. Drummer Nick looked like he was being controlled by a puppeteer on speed - sticks flailing about, all somehow in perfect time.

I gotta give them props for making the evening free. It was really classy of them not to charge a cover - I know I used what I would have paid to get in to buy one of their CDs and some drinks, so it all worked out. Although they played a short set (only about 40 minutes), it was a great show and I hope to see many more of that caliber. It's great to have a band that can represent Chico in places like San Francisco and New York, and make it seem like we have something more to offer than 20 minute guitar solos. After the show, Jesse asked me not to make any cat references in my article. What does he think I am, a pussy? (sorry)

- Maurice Spencer Teilmann

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