Artist description Music that treats people like they matter in a world that says they don't.

Music Style Ape-ish alternative folk-rock with a storytelling bent.

Musical Influences talking blues, the sounds of modern machinery, and the rhythms of daily life.

Similar Artists Beck, Jonathan Richman, Ben Folds Five, Arlo Guthrie, They Might Be Giants, Steve Espinola

Artist History The Dan Emery Mystery Band is a very entertaining Brooklyn-based alternative-folk-rock group featuring guitar, piano, spoken-word, and the unusual sound of the melodic short-wave radio. In the words of MIT's student paper, the Tech, they play with "passionate conviction, a tangible sense of honesty, and an air of good natured humor that is absolutely engaging."Dan Emery grew up on a North Idaho farm before coming to New York City to play and teach guitar. Keyboard and short-wave radio player Steve Espinola recorded with members of Phish and opened for Michelle Shocked, The Muffs, Pansy Division, The Magnetic Fields, cub and They Might Be Giants with his home-built 19-string electric tennis racket. He is also the sometimes-keyboard-player for Steve Wynn (ex-Dream Syndicate). Chuck Rudolph, the drummer, is an NYU film major from Wisconsin. He beat out almost 50 other candidates for the job by leaping out of the audience at a Mystery Band show and playing a drum solo on a chair. He replaced original drummer Andy Morris, who left the Mystery Band to tour Australia with Chubby Checker. Bassist Orion Thompson of Maine is a sophomore at NYU. He is also "available". The group's second CD, Natural Selection, has just been released by the clever New York City company Home Office Records. The CD has a cover picture of a big scary vicious T. rex acting bossy while the meteorite which will smash its race into extinction falls in the background.The album features songs about the intersection of human feeling and the modern world, with production by Nathan Rosenberg, who owns a gold record for his work on "Hello" by Poe.

Group Members Dan Emery--Guitar, lead vocals; Steve Espinola--piano, shortwave radio, electric tennis racket; Orion Thompson--bass; Chuck Rudolph--drums.

Instruments Guitar, Bass, Piano, Short Wave Radio, Drums

Albums "Natural Selection" (Home Office Records, 2000), "Love and Advertising" (Mekkatone Records, 1998)

Press Reviews "More simian silliness comes from the Dan Emery Mystery Band and their new CD, Love & Advertising (Mekkatone). The cover* of this beautiful product has two gorillas French kissing. I'm not kidding. It's so erotic it makes me want to spank my monkey. The music, however, is a different story. It's sorta spoken-word/rap Beckish-Arlo Guthrieish cool hip rock 'n' funk. Sorta. Kind of like my local faves, Jesus Chrysler. Oh, and the lyrics, words, whatever, are hysterical. especially on "Her Favorite Bra" and "The Only One Who Loves You." I like this disc a lot. It pisses off politically correct people right away. Which gives it four stars, automatically."-- George Tabb, NYPRESS. ..... "[Among] my Top 10 albums of 1998... Dan Emery first incorporates spoken word into his straight forward pop-rock songs, and then adds huge dallops of irony, Gen-X cynicism, and slacker cool to create a thoroughly subversive album. Immediate classics abound, such as Her Favorite Bra, a piano driven ditty which talks about wanting to be a bra to support to a girl. Catchy melodies, excellent lyrics, think Ben Folds Five collaborating with the Smiths. Yep, Dan's the man. Essential for twenty-somethings." Xiao Jinhong, ROCK & RAP CONFIDENTIAL/BIG O MAGAZINE. ..... "These verbose local guys do songs about laundromats and student loans and bras and other people's tongues, but their best one is the one that sort of sounds like if Red Dark Sweet covered "The Gift" by the Velvet Underground, only not as noisy and with monologue parts about divorced moms, Starbucks, and finding Quiet Riot and John Lee Hooker in the cutout bin."--Chuch Eddy, VILLAGE VOICE.

Additional Info *Note: the French-kissing ape photo in the background is the cover of the "Love and Advertising" CD, used by the kind permission of Dr. Frans de Waal, copyright 1993. Buy his books "Good Natured", and "Bonobo: The Fogotten Ape"!

Location Brooklyn, NY - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).