Northern Spy Records
Starting out in London as a devotee of various blues and old time country musicians (Skip James, Dock Boggs, Robert Wilkins, etc) Dan Melchior soon found that slavish impersonation wasn’t the right route for him. After a period of mainly re interpreting traditional material, Melchior found a way to express his own concerns and ideas lyrically, and set about melding them to a backdrop of over driven, buzzsaw rock, with various collaborators. The resulting band was called the Broke Revue. Dan moved to NYC in 2000 to be with his (then girlfriend) Letha Rodman and to pursue playing in this band with American musicians including Brad Truax (Interpol). The Broke Revue released 5 albums on various underground labels, did a number of US tours, and eventually called it quits in 2004. Dan carried on writing and releasing records without respite, with ‘Hello, I’m Dan Melchior’ and ‘Firebreathing clones on Cellular phones’ emerging before he made the break and moved down to Durham NC in 2006.
Since then, Melchior‘s music has really come into its own – mostly under the moniker ‘Dan Melchior Und Das Menace‘, (although no other musicians actually play on the recordings) successfully melding a hodge podge of disparate elements into a cohesive whole that brings to mind veteran UK and US underground bands like The Swell Maps, Andrew Klimek, Chrome andAlternative Television more than they do old blues men or the tweedy garage rock conservatives of his past.
“Off-kilter garage-meets-country & western rhythms serve as the fuzzy backdrop for Melchior’s shouted vocals and lyrics that are by turn absurd and brilliant.” – David Balthazar
“It’s a fucking mess. Take that as high praise: Haunted and haunting…” – Grayson Currin
“Melchior may not have the influence of an indie icon, but he’s of the most refreshing breed – a hard-working independent artist with ideas to spare.” – Spencer Hensel
“Nice to see him here on northern spy dropping a more song-oriented set.” — Mimaroglu
No shows booked at the moment.
