Artist description ROCK AND ROLL artist from the Pacific Northwest.

Music Style Seattle Pop - the famous PACIFIC NORTHWEST BEAT

Musical Influences Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Nick Lowe, Squeeze, They Might Be Giants, Posies, Beach Boys, Dr. Dre, Elvis Costello, Reverend Horton Heat, Joe Jackson

Similar Artists Badfinger, Squeeze, Posies, They Might Be Giants, Sloan, Beach Boys

Artist History M.F.E. could be called a drummer's side project, but doesn't that sound a little condescending? Gabé Grieser (four days junior of Craig David) began recording his compositions in high school using a 2-track mixer and some cassette decks. At this point he played only drums and some keyboards. He soon picked up a bass and learned some guitar chords. Using the name "Rev. Gabriel A Grieser and His Orchestra," he recorded his first cassette, a primitive mess of original compositions entitled "Island of Jaywalkers." He later recorded the eclectic rock effort "Rev. G.A. Grieser Gives Up," containing such gems as "Red Tuxedo" and "In The Freezer." He began recording a follow-up, "Scan Evaluate Act," which would have been more cohesive and polished than anything he had completed earlier. In 1998, Gabé created a new CD for his "Senior Project." At this point he impulsively selected the moniker Minneapolis Funk Explosion after almost deciding on another name such as the Endorsees or Torbert Flink. (The Endorsees implies an ensemble, and Torbert Flink would pose an alphabetization problem. Two years later, Gabé finally created the self-titled Minneapolis Funk Explosion record. Although it received a warm response from a narrow pool of listeners, Gabé hasn't been happy with the way the record turned out and kind of "gave up" on promoting it, despite the fact that it contains "Hearts in the dirt," the little song with big potential. That leads us to his artistic breakthrough, "Touchy Feely!" When asked what the record sounds like, MFE responds enthusiastically, "Uh, imagine Hearts in the Dirt twelve times!"

Group Members Gabriel Alexander Grieser.

Instruments piano, guitar, bass, mandolin, melodica, ocarina, drums

Albums Touchy Feely (2002), Minneapolis Funk Explosion (2002), Minneapolis Funk Explosion (1999)

Press Reviews Wow. I was back ther with Nico and Lou and the guys. Mr Warhol was in the corner smoking a "J" and we were well sorted. Lovely 60's "indie" feel. Simple and catchy. I wouldn't change a single gram of this track. I LOVE it. well done ! Good job all the way around. Instantly likeable tune. The performance is good. The background harmony is a nice touch. And it's all under 2 minutes! I want to hear more. Love drumstick count-ins Problem is, the rest of the song went downhill from there. Not to say it itsn't a good song, just that it went downhill from the count-in. Better luck next time. You're the kind of group that a person would write a song for, and you'd play it 10 times better than him. Keep up the good work! Smile, you're on Hullabaloo! Happy little diddy. Definitely early Beatles influence. Kinda like the mellower Foo Fighter's stuff as well. Well arranged, the music plays off the vocal well & vice-versa. I especially like that little Breakdown section at the end that feeds off the previous lyric. Vocals are OK- good melodic ideas, but intonation needs to be cleaned up. Deep six the portamento keys at the end- too distracting. Otherwise a solid effort. Good luck to ya. Sounds like a bad Midwestern band... The singer actually has an interesting timbre to his voice (very Paul Simon), but the song does nothing for me. It sounds like an amateur Midwestern band raised on classic rock. I do like the accordion solo (kinda interesting), but I think the singer's vocal tone is the only strong point.

Location Seattle, WA - USA

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