PREVIEW
MICO
Wednesday, June 25
Ship & Anchor
It sounds harsh, but certain bands are so bad that they force you to question the point of their existence. Without any earnest consideration for either content or audience, it’s amazing that some of these bands can actually squeak by while presenting little else but an image, a boring self-indulgent yawn-fest on CD and, well, that’s about it.
On the flipside, you’ll find Calgary quintet Mico. The band has been the members’ main form of social protest for the last three years. Mico’s music may be escapist, but their lyrics are anything but – they offer a sobering dose of reality, a documentation of the struggles of humankind and a vehicle both to passionately vent and to inform their audience.
"It’s a direct reflection of the environment that we’re living in right now," says vocalist and guitarist John Stewart of his lyrics on Mico’s latest album, Outside the Unbearable Grows (on Winnipeg’s G7 Welcoming Committee Records). "We’re living in a time right now where the power and greed of governments – be it from the United States or from England or from wherever – it’s overwhelming. What’s going on in front of us, with people blatantly lying, stealing and (impoverishing) people that are already so poor that they can barely survive, going over and essentially becoming a dictatorship under the flag of the United States and going into a country and depleting all of its resources?
"These are things that, to me, are just completely obscene and immoral. I’m sure most readers of Fast Forward are, I’d like to think, pretty liberal folks in general and probably feel the same way. It’s important for me when I’m writing songs, writing lyrics, to raise these issues as therapy for myself – to try and grasp how to answer for these things that happen."
Mico has been around since 1998, and Outside the Unbearable Grows is a key release for the band at this stage. They’ve received a lot of hype, attention and "big band in town" praise. Needless to say, their success has also invited a ridiculous "they think they’re so hot" reaction from jealous types. Whether they know it or not, it was crucial that they delivered on this album – and boy, did they ever.
It’s always interesting to see whether a band will stay on top of its game and Outside the Unbearable Grows is a spectacular example of the way Mico has exceeded expectations. They’ve escaped being classified as just a band with a message because they are as vibrant and robust musically as they are lyrically. On this recording, everything has broadened in scope, from their sweeping musical arrangements to Stewart’s vocals. He has boosted his vocal power, widened his range and sounds more impressive than ever.
Stewart and guitarist Todd Harkness say that there wasn’t a specific strategy of where to take the sound with this record. Still, they’ve proved that they’re worth every ounce of hype that they get. The late nights and the hard work at the studio are palpable on the record – their inspiration, as Harkness says, was strong.
"Living in North America, it seems a little disrespectful – although I don’t know if that’s the right word – to just sing songs about how much you love your girlfriend or something like that," he says. "Why not actually do something meaningful if you’re going to do something as small as playing in a band?
"After September 11th happened, you actually saw the governments of the world in action and how much they were not for the people – like, how much of a non-democracy we’re truly living in. It was like, after that happened, all of a sudden, we’re given reasons to speak out.
"(In) this day and age, it just blows my mind, the amount of bands that sing about that cheesy Dashboard Confessional kinda crap that everybody does," continues Harkness. "I don’t understand how people turn a blind eye to what’s going on. The last thing I want to do is think that we would want to be a part of that too." |
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