Midlake Coming to the Biltmore March 8th
Artist: Midlake
Venue: Biltmore
Date: March 8th, 2010
We all know someone who loves jazz, won’t listen to anything but jazz, raves about jazz and denounces every other genre of music. There are these types of music snobs in every genre, metal heads, hip hop etc, but in my opinion there are more in jazz than any other genre. Jazz snobs have good reason, jazz musicians are often masters of their instruments often starting in another genre before “discovering” or “re-discovering” jazz. That’s why some great jazz sounds more like 5 members of a band soloing at once than your typical four count rhythm section. To compare it to painting, it is like starting out with acrylic and working your way up to oil paints. So it seems odd that a group of jazz musicians would come together to form Midlake. Not for any other reason than usually jazz musicians are very dedicated to their craft. But lets be honest here… rock is fun. In an interview with Reverb Magazine’s Nick Milligan, Smith said of the band’s origins:
“We were jazz musicians, but right from the get go we’d never really play jazz music. We’d play some funk stuff and then jump right into playing Led Zeppelin. For jazz musicians, rock is sort of frowned upon for how easy it is. If we had friends that knew we were playing, the best thing we could play was Herbie Hancock or Stevie Wonder. A distortion pedal seemed like a no-no. It took us a while to get away from the jazz.” -Tim Smith[3]
They have stepped away from jazz, but not that far, and the result is quite amazing. Midlake takes an indie rock and jazz influence and melds together Jethro Tull with Radiohead to come up with a sound all their own. A building lo-fi sometimes psychedelic sound, you can recognize the jazz influence in their layering of sounds. Mckenzie Smith’s vocals are absolutely haunting. This is a band to watch and you will get your chance on March 8th at the Biltmore.
