Chicago, IL (Mbconn Official Website) - Mbconn, a psychedelic noise rock artist from Chicago, IL, will release his debut album "From
Black To Purple" on April 4. The CD contains 10 songs and a 17 minute hidden track - 78 minutes worth of music, sounding like nothing on the radio. "Yeah, it may be a hard listen at first, but that's what I wanted," Mbconn says. "I wanted something with musical resonance, and I think I succeeded. I could've been like most bands and written four minute pop rock, but that's too easy and gets old real quick."
Mbconn's road to where he stands musically today has been long and winding indeed. When Guns'n'Roses released their double album "Use Your Illusions", Mbconn had just started the 8th grade and quite obviously, that record was extremely cool at the time. "By the end of the 8th grade, there was a huge culture shift, and Nirvana had made them look stupid," Mbconn laughs in retrospective. "And though I still appreciate some Guns'n'Roses, I am grateful for Nirvana happening, not only for the music, but because I got to see how one era can be destroyed by another."
Speaking of destruction - in cultural terms of course - Kurt Cobain soon made the leap, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam did his best not to be seen or heard. "This led to a constant imitation of grunge bands on the radio and almost every band who got airplay not only sounded, but also felt like shit," Mbconn sighs. On the other hand, this is where synchronicity stepped in. "One of my best friends was in some advanced art class with an older student who played bass in some weird psychedelic band. He sees a CD, with a weird plastic cover and asks, 'What's that?' It turned out to be 'Pure Phase' by Spiritualized, with a plastic cover which glowed in the dark. When my friend asked him, 'Why does it glow in the dark?', this guy could only say, 'Because when it's dark and you can't see anything, you can find Spiritualized.' Oddly enough, this coincided with the time when I began doing psychedelics."
Later, after Mbconn moved to Chicago and went to college, all those Sonic Youth albums he bought began to make sense. Then "OK Computer" by Radiohead came out in June, and once again shifted the music scene. After scoring a screenplay someone had left behind in a bar, spending years trying to start a band and not being able to find the right musicians, Mbconn decided to just record the album himself. "It took about a year, but was worth it," he concludes, "Most people hear the album and think a band recorded it, even though it was just me. Not many people do that. Nor do many bands release albums over an hour."
