PureVolume

Landing on the Moon


The name was decided upon and became official on the evening of Monday, November 22, 2004. "Landing on the Moon..." was what she said, when the band's pianist/keyboardist, Megan Morgan blurted out the words to describe what thoughts went through her mind while playing through one of the group's ideas. As the phrase rolled off of her toungue, it ended the search for the answer to the relentless question hammering all of our minds, which was..."what are we going to call this band?" I suppose we officially became a band then.
The band is entirely made up from natives of Omaha, NE. Based out of Omaha, the band consists of a brother, a sister, a husband, and two childhood friends.
Megan, a UNO Music grad and formerly of the quiet type, is, in fact the piano player for the band and wife to drummer, Oliver J. Morgan of Little Brazil(also, formerly of the quiet type, ravine, reset, revilo). The bass player is Megan's brother, Eric Harris. Eric is a veteran musician of at least a decade, who until now has only performed as a solo accoustic singer/songwriter very quietly over the years for only a handful of small, but lucky audiences. Then there is guitarist, John Klemmensen of Microphone Jones (also, formerly of Reset, Groove Champion, Jive Monkeys, Blenny). His four year old son happens to be the Godson of Eric. John has been a life-long friend and musical peer to Oliver, a half life-long friend to Eric and Megan, and a life-long dedicated musician/songwriter from Junior High age, on. The final component is guitarist, Shawn Cox of No Blood Orphan and Life after Laserdisque(also formerly of Revilo, Reset, Microphone Jones, and the quiet type). Shawn has been friends with Oliver and John since Junior High age and is one of the most respectable guitar players that Omaha has ever produced.
This band wanted to form a long time ago. Actually, we even tried it a few times before. We tried different members in different spots at different times. Strange how all five of us have been around eachother since the early days of High School, and we all came back together like this now... the correct formula for the band Oliver had been trying to form since August of 2003. The finished product... a brand new innovative and unique indie pop-rock band with very classically-influenced and psychedelic overtones. It's quite cosmic! And somehow now, for more strange reasons than one; together, the five of us are Landing on the Moon.


Without a doubt the music on their just-completed 5-song self-recorded EP befits a band that's both looking back and looking to the future. In an era when indie rock is beginning to percolate into the mainstream, Landing on the Moon is moving away from mopey jangle-pop instead embracing a traditional rock ballad style that no one in the band is old enough to remember.

Songs like the Megan-fronted "She's Moving Out," and the Klemmensen-sung chestnut "She Wants" are pure rock theater reminiscent of "Love Hurts"-era Nazareth or John Steinman-penned Meat Loaf -- the kind of songs kids used to slow dance to at their high school proms.

"We didn't go in that direction intentionally," said Megan, the band's primary songwriter whose day job as choral director at Bryan Middle School had to have an influence on her style. "I try to write music with classical roots that also rocks. Deep down people want to listen to fun music, and everyone relates to a good rock song."

"We're all tired of whiny cry-yourself-to-sleep indie rock," said Oliver. "Megan and I knew after The Quiet Type broke up in 2003 that we had to move away from the mathy/indie sound and focus on something that featured more emotion in the music and lyrics."

Morgan's other band, Little Brazil, also is a departure from run-of-the-mill indie rock, influenced instead by late-'90s college bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Superchunk.

While members of Landing on the Moon perform in other bands -- Klemmensen is in Microphone Jones and Cox plays in Life After Laserdisque and No Blood Orphan -- Little Brazil easily is the most time-consuming and successful, having already completed a number of national tours, including one with critics' darlings Tegan and Sarah.

With Landing on the Moon currently shopping their new EP to labels and Little Brazil about to enter the studio to record the follow-up to 2005's You and Me, how will Morgan keep one band from distracting the other?

"I want to do what Tim Kasher does with The Good Life and Cursive," he said. "Cursive is a machine that lives and breathes on its own. Little Brazil runs itself as well. I think the two bands can co-exist."

Scheduling tours shouldn't be a problem, he said, since Landing on the Moon will focus its touring on the summer months when Megan is on school break. While all have day jobs, hers is the most career-intensive, and would be the toughest to leave should a label pick up the band. It's a move, however, that she says she's willing to make.

"It'll be a big deal when I leave my job, because I love it," Megan said. "It'll be hard, but if I could play music 24 hours a day, it would be worth it." - Tim Mcmahan The Reader ~www.lazy-i.com