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MUSIC

The MLMs

A Philly band mixes earnestness and fun.

By Katherine Silkaitis

Add Comment | Comments: 8 | Posted Apr. 7, 2009

Listen to the MLMs on the Umm...Drop podcast.

“We try not to be pretentious at all,” says MLMs frontman Chris Gibbons. “We really like our music, we think our record is great ... but we don’t think we’re the next coming of Lennon/McCartney. We don’t think we’re revolutionizing the world. We think that we’re having a really good time and playing really good music.”

That mix of earnestness and fun has suited the MLMs well. It’s their kaleidoscopic sounds—changing minute to minute, song to song—that first catch the ear. Sunny shoegaze shifts to gritty Offspring-like choruses, followed by a pop-punk snippet even Panic at the Disco could call their own (albeit with heavy country/bluegrass overtones). And, of course, the unmistakable Nintendo-esque tones of the MLM keyboard—a tiny, plastic “Music Learning Module” used by beginners that gives each MLMs song its uplifting, playful vibe.

Sat., April 11, 9pm.
$8.
With the Dig + Fantasy Square Garden.
The Khyber,
56 S. Second St.
215.238.5888.
www.thekhyber.com

It’s fair to thank (or blame) the University of the Arts for the MLMs’ amalgam of sound. Fellow frontman Ben O’Neill received a bachelor’s of music in jazz performance there, which he says greatly influenced how he approaches music and songwriting. “I was trying to think of a way to sum up the band, and I think we try to look at anybody that’s writing a compelling song,” he says with a slight Southern drawl that belies his roots in State College, Pa.

“For me, that can be Lennon/McCartney, Duke Ellington, Wayne Shorter or Stevie Wonder, and then try to combine that with anyone that has a compelling energy ... My jazz education definitely helps me understand the mechanics of music and how we can apply that to our songs.”

Gibbons balances O’Neill’s studied, deliberate songwriting. “Chris has a natural touch for melody,” O’Neill says, “and that’s why I work with him. Despite my training and professional experience, he’ll still play a song for me and I’m like, ‘I hate you. I don’t know how you came up with that.’”