Wednesday, June 25, 2014

PANCAKES. PANCAKES. PANCAKES.

I've been a fan of Mikki "internet" Lunda's bands since the shreeks and hammering on sheet metal of Knot Knocked Up about... 8 or 9 years ago. Few bands have driven people from a room like Knot Knocked Up. They made Teenage Jesus seem like a pretty band in lots of ways. Since then, Mikki's had (at least) Fag Rag, Needlecraft and now this group called Pancakes.

If you listen to that set of bands, it's noticeable how much much prettier and melodic her tunes have gotten over time. And that's not to say the music's become commercial, it's just that in the scheme of things, you wouldn't really have picked Mikki from Knot Knocked Up to be in Pancakes. Which is what it is, you know, but I just kind of like that fact.

Part of what's nice about Mikki's approach to making art is that she takes it on the road regularly, and gets the importance of playing for people outside of Missoula. But likewise she's rooted here, has friends and family and works at a good place, and as far as we know, she doesn't have the urge to move away from Missoula, with its perennial young person swap meet vibe and all the rest of our town's bummer aspects. Uh, yeah. But what's the do with Pancakes? Well, it's pretty rooted in 80s technology and that kind of generic 808 drum machine + keyboards deal permeates their jamz. Their absolute hit is called Mutual Ex-Boyfriend. It's a fucking gem of a tune and were they an LA band it might easily have done some time on KROQ, bro. 

1 comment:

Jon Lester said...

Actually, those are Casio beats, from the same series that included my old MT-70. When you've worked with them for as long as I have, you never forget them.