Go see Mk.gee if you can

[OffYourFace]

Currently on tour. I saw him on night 1 at The Fonda in LA (two nights, both sold out).
It was crazy. The Fonda is pretty big and loud so it was extra exciting.

I witnessed the most exciting guitar sounds i've heard in decades. Mike and Andrew Aged are both amazing guitarists and seeing them both on stage together is amazing. Mike's AO Jaguar is the biggest Jaguar I've ever heard. I won't say too much, just go if you can.

[staytuned]

Mike is mind blowing. Jaguar with baritone Flatwound strings, Tascam portastudio as a preamp, tasteful 80s throwback chorus sounds, and that crazy Rainger FX gated reverb. Inspiring to see someone doing something different!

[andy_tchp]

Jealous. Hope he tours over here some day.

[OffYourFace]

Mike is mind blowing. Jaguar with baritone Flatwound strings, Tascam portastudio as a preamp, tasteful 80s throwback chorus sounds, and that crazy Rainger FX gated reverb. Inspiring to see someone doing something different!

Don't forget the Roland VG8 guitar synth (used by both Mike and Andrew). The strings are THESE and he omits the .011.

The live clips you hear on YT and IG and wherever else don't do the show justice. The show I saw was pretty fukn loud, it was like MBV meets pre-crazy Kanye. But it's also very dynamic and beautiful so you're not blasted all the time.

The one odd thing I noticed was the FOH engineer looked like just the house-guy at the Fonda and he was just sitting there reading stuff on his phone. Then he walked away for about 2 songs. I guess they just have a simple set-up and just leave everything the same the whole time. But he wasn't even keeping track of his vocal mic. Unless Mike has a monitoring engineer taking care of that... that's different if that's the case.

Meanwhile he's got a couple guys doing lights and a film crew (could be just for LA tho). I wish I could see the show somewhere that's not LA (or NYC). It was a very LA show with many celebrities and industry people. Everyone loves Mk.gee I guess, he's a big time crossover artist atm.

OTOH, I haven't seen so many people excited about an artist and his guitar playing/sound in I don't know how long. It's pretty wild.

[OffYourFace]

Oh and in case people are curious, the other guitarist Andrew Aged was in a band called Inc. with his brother Daniel. They were on 4AD around 2012-2014 i think. They were called Teen Inc. originally.

Daniel is an amazing bassist and works as a musical director for people like Frank Ocean. The two brothers are insanely talented.

[javier-san]

He played in San Francisco last night, but it had been sold out for a minute. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it happen.
I would love to see him next he comes round.

[BoringPostcards]

I’ve tried his music, and I don’t get the hype at all. I was bored to tears. Guitar sounds good, but the music is very boring to me.
I had the same reaction to Kraungbin when everyone was gushing over them. Just plain boring.
YMMV

[OffYourFace]

I mean if that’s what you hear in the surface I get it.

There’s a huge range of influences on the record from ambient music, Aphex Twin, hip hop, Prince, Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac, a bunch of stuff I’m missing etc.

One thing I find really intriguing about new artists like him is the influence from non music related things like liminal spaces in video games etc. I had to look this stuff up and I think “liminal spaces” is a good description for some of the sounds we were looking for in the mid 90s. It just wasn’t a phrase we had kicking around in everyday life.

IDK, I’m definitely not trying to change your mind. I think these days I’m just way more open and I perceive things differently than I used to.

Another interesting thing is that he’s become so popular with very sparse promotion, especially from himself. Most artists are posting crap every day and he’ll go weeks with posting on IG etc. That’s quite the feat.

[BoringPostcards]

I mean if that’s what you hear in the surface I get it.

There’s a huge range of influences on the record from ambient music, Aphex Twin, hip hop, Prince, Phil Collins, Fleetwood Mac, a bunch of stuff I’m missing etc.

One thing I find really intriguing about new artists like him is the influence from non music related things like liminal spaces in video games etc. I had to look this stuff up and I think “liminal spaces” is a good description for some of the sounds we were looking for in the mid 90s. It just wasn’t a phrase we had kicking around in everyday life.

IDK, I’m definitely not trying to change your mind. I think these days I’m just way more open and I perceive things differently than I used to.

Another interesting thing is that he’s become so popular with very sparse promotion, especially from himself. Most artists are posting crap every day and he’ll go weeks with posting on IG etc. That’s quite the feat.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought the guy sounded great and had a ton of talent, just found the few tracks I heard to be boring. I’ll try more of his material and see how I feel.
It’s good to hear he isn’t the typical IG fiend. He got big on his own merits. That’s hard these days for sure.

[andy_tchp]

Agree with you about Khruangbin though.

[OffYourFace]

I love Mark Speer! I think he’s an amazing guitarist and his Rig Rundown is probably my favorite of all time

So yeah I love Khruangbin but it’s a certain thing. It’s perfect background music for most things, just like the music they borrowed from.

[interceptör]

I had a listen and honestly didn't get it at all, I was just staring at the elapsed time and wondering when the song was going to start. There was some interesting stuff going on somewhere in the background, but this ain't my cup of black coffee. (And I fully agree with the above comments about Khruangbin.)

[sal paradise]

The album reminds me of Ben Howard, although missing a bit of magic. It’s got some great moments & is v clever how he borrows from huge artist’s sounds without sounding like he’s stealing. (Except maybe using Prince-esque sounds without the groove- I would have done it the other way round, especially as his earlier stuff had a lot less straight beats.)

Overall I prefer it to his ‘Bon Iver meets funk/r&b’ sound. It’s just kinda flat. And his thing of repeating a riff over & over for most the song doesn’t work when it happens in so many tracks. Crazy talented songwriter. Maybe it’s the fact that he blends influences together in such obvious ways that feels a bit odd.