Underrated Band: The Melismatics – Unique, High Energy Sound

The Melismatics formed in 2001 in Minneapolis. They consist of lead vocal husband/wife duo Ryan and Pony Smith. Mark Wade is on bass and Ron Charon on drums.

I don’t even know where to start with these guys. Their sound is honestly SO different. It really is. I often wish I could take a peek inside of their heads to see just where it all comes from.

Their sound has certainly evolved over the years, but it has stayed true to a few basic things: quality, high energy, brilliant lyrics, and the inability for anyone to stay seated while their music plays.

From “take me to another place, drop out of the human race” on The Acid Test released in 2008, to “You were there for a cosmic reason, thrown into the lions den”  on Rising Tide released in 2013, they never fail to come up with something so interesting and engaging, not to mention a little out there at times (in the best of ways!)

Probably the best example of some more “out there” lyrics, and also one of my favourite Melismatics songs, is Industry of Cool

Another reason I really like this song is because it really demonstrates their ability to not always take themselves too seriously. I mean, it’s a song about vampires, in the industry of cool! And yet, it’s an awesome song with an insanely catchy chorus that I can (and do) listen to on repeat for ages.

Comparing this to a much newer song such as “Crawl Baby Crawl” You can really see that they’ve changed, evolved, grown and improved; and yet there are many elements of their old selves woven in there as well.

One thing that really stands out to me about to me about this band, is the drummer. He’s incredible. He does what a drummer should and beyond. He manages to give the songs a heartbeat of their own. I can get so lost in this band’s music sometimes, and I think it’s largely because of those incredible drums.

I found this band when I was very young – I was in grade eight so I was 12 or 13. That was a LONG time ago, and I’m still totally in love with this band. I remember showing them to my friends, naively thinking they’d share my opinions, because how could anybody not? But I was mostly met with odd stares and uncomfortable smiles.

Back then, I couldn’t find anything about them on the internet. I sometimes questioned if they were even actually real! It seems they’ve picked up some momentum in recent years, but they are not nearly as big as I’d like them to be. This is probably because of the somewhat “out there” nature of their music, but I think if more people just gave them a chance, they’d see that there’s really a lot of enjoyment you can get from them.

Have you ever listened to anything by the Melismatics? Let me know! I’ve actually never really met another fan!