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Monday, February 04, 2008

myspace music monday: Nick Mckerl

Good day to you fine people out there amongst the series of tubes! I am thy seeker of obscurity in the form of audible enjoyment. Thou mayst call me thine writer of blog posts, or Cale. I have no preference as to what I am called, as long as I am called something. This week, you could perhaps call me "desperate," which, after last week's rather uneventful myspace music monday should come as no surprise. So this week, I have not found you an artist who is without flaw or quirky, but rather one that shows promise despite some glaring weaknesses. Enjoy!


Nick Mckerl

Nick comes to us either from Paris or Glasgow. His profile says both, so it's difficult to determine. Based on his English skills, I would guess that he is based primarily in Scotland. Now, Nick's skill as a vocalist is debatable. He can, at times, sound an awful lot like Ben Gibbard, which is a huge complement in my book. There's also other times when he's an unabashed Tom DeLong wannabe, complete with varying levels of bad hair-dos and emo sensibilities.

See what I mean?

With that being said, you'd really be doing yourself a disservice by not listening to the first song on his page, entitled "Regulating Air Traffic." It not only shows Nick's talent as a musician (he plays everything himself), but also his talent as producer. This stuff literally sounds like it has been done by someone who has been producing for years. It's a rich, layered song that is constantly evolving and always interesting. Unfortunately, there's not any way for me to download the song and upload it to Audio Overflow, so you're forced to visit his actual page if you wish to hear it.

His lyrics are strange, and more often than not it seems as if the music is at the will of what is penned. In other words, it feels like this is poetry that a song has been written to after the fact. Sometimes this can be good, and other times it just doesn't work. "Regulating Air Traffic" is an instance in which this plays out to our favor. "Bluebird?" Not so much. Due to his unquenchable need to sound mimic Tom DeLong, I can't recommend listening to any song other than "Regulating Air Traffic," unless you suffer from bulimia and need some sort of motivation to vomit (ouch).

So why then did I feature Nick Mckerl? Well, I do think that there is a lot of talent hidden underneath all the teenage angst nonsense. There are a lot of electronic things going on in all the songs, as well as some pretty cool guitaring and pianoing (trademarked words, I'm afraid). He's definitely a talented musician. It just seems that a lot of that is going to waste. If he stopped crying for a few minutes and wrote something that didn't make 15 year old girls crave the razor, I think that he could be a very entertaining and impressive artist. "Regulating Air Traffic" is proof of this. Until then, though, we are left with hope that such a thing will occur. The sooner the better...

Srsly?
Links
Nick Mckerl's myspace Page

Please, for the love of Dog the Bounty Hunter hook me up with a sweet myspace artist to cover. I'm hurting here. If you happen to know of one, leave a comment below or email Audio Overflow at audiooverflow@gmail.com. Thx!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.myspace.com/thesailorsequence

these guys aren't bad.

Anonymous said...

weird thing going on google and being able to read about your music... i have to say... i do agree with most of the previous comments! the new songs should be to your liking if regulating air traffic was ! thx alot for the review although some parts werent very flattering, other were much appreciated
thx again
nick

Anonymous said...

hey there Cale, sorry for replying here but myspace wouldent let me send you a message,

thx alot for replying to the comment, it is in deed pretty strange since its the first time i check up on google to see if there's anything there on the tracks i have up. i completely agree with what you say on the first tracks and to be completely honest i cringe a little when i listen the vocal parts in them... and they are what i'd call slightly embaressing, but still a trial ! i appreciate the fact that you took your time to write a review concerning regulating air traffic for most parts. The newer tracks should all be along the lines of that one in terms of songwritting and production, beside's from a couple of country and folk tracks.
i'll let you know when i have them up and see what you have to say about them, good or bad i appreciate criticism ! exept if its just burning things to the ground for the sake of it
but yours are quite contructiv !
so thx for the tips and i'll keep you posted on new tracks or a cd release!
all the best
nick