On first spin, Moon Maan’s self-titled debut sounds eerily reminiscent of ’90s alt-rockers the Afghan Whigs, from the RB influences to the thick guitar riffs to the desperate, last-call vocals. Yet none of that should be too surprising, as Moon Maan leader Rick McCollum spent 15 years playing guitar for the Whigs.
“I learned how to write songs with them,” McCollum says. “And I’m not the guy who sits there and strums an acoustic guitar. I’m not Wilco. That’s just not the way I write. I like to groove with a good drumbeat first and build riffs on that. That’s how soul music is written. And when you can feed into your inner self, you come up with words more comfortably, and you really believe in them.”
The 11 spirited tracks collected on Moon Maan’s debut feature McCollum front and center. He sings, plays guitar and even employs the theremin, the electronic instrument best known for its use in scoring old horror and sci-fi movies.
And after a gestation period of several years, McCollum, who has lived in Minneapolis since 1994, is ready to bring the band to the masses.
“Moon Maan” hit shelves earlier this month, on the same day as “Unbreakable (A Retrospective),” a new compilation of Afghan Whigs singles. Moon Maan has a CD-release gig Friday at the Triple Rock.
We talked to McCollum about his past and present endeavors.
On making Minneapolis his home: “I moved up here with my girlfriend in 1994. It was time for me to get out of (the Afghan Whigs’
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base of) Cincinnati. We’ve since broken up, but I’ve kind of got my roots here now. I still never want to call anyplace ‘home,’ but I’ll be here for a while.”On the genesis of Moon Maan: “I had been doing a residency solo thing for about a year, a sonic-landscape thing (to accompany silent films) with a theremin, guitar and sampler. That led to a showcase at South by Southwest in 2004, and I decided to put a band together. I got it together somewhat quickly, and South by Southwest was our first-ever show. We weren’t the tightest, let’s just put it that way.”
On Moon Maan’s first local gigs: “Probably eight months later, we started doing shows around town. We opened for Franz Ferdinand at the Fine Line, did a few shows with the Violent Femmes and occasionally headlined at the 400 Bar. We were four people about the same age but with different backgrounds and different experiences. And we wanted to capture something that was kind of raw but still mainstream and catchy.”
On finding Moon Maan’s sound: “We don’t yet have our own sound, per se. But that happens over time with any band. I think the next album will be more interesting and less influential of the Whigs. All four of us, whoever is involved in this thing, will shape what’s next.”
On the theremin, an instrument played by placing one’s hands in the empty space around two metal antennae: “In rock music, a lot of people don’t use it to play actual notes - it’s more of a noise thing. It’s very exacting, and you have to home in on those notes and pick them out of space. But I think it was the next progression from playing the slide guitar. There are tons of people who play great guitar, there’s a few people who play great slide guitar and even fewer who can play great theremin.”
On launching Moon Maan through an independent label: “A lot of the stuff that’s involved is new to me. I was never much into the business side with the Afghan Whigs, but now I’m taking the forefront with a lot of this. It’s such a different music business now. It’s not the same thing where a major label will pick you up and nurture you. You have to work to get people’s attention now. But I think the true testament is that if you’re doing something that people like, they’ll eventually come around.”
On spreading Moon Maan’s music: “I’m pretty happy with (the record), and we did a supercheap video that we put out on YouTube. It’s a great product; now, it’s a matter of getting it out to the people. We’ll start touring on it in the fall and hopefully we can create a buzz. I just want to play everywhere. Having been in this once before with the Afghan Whigs, I miss that whole thing of playing out to a lot of people.”
Ross Raihala can be reached at rraihala@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5553. Read more about the local music scene on his blog, “The Ross Who Knew Too Much,” at blogs.twincities.com/ross.
Rick McCollum made a name for himself on the national rock scene as lead guitarist for Ohio’s The Afghan Whigs, but he’s lived in Minneapolis for more than a dozen years . So when the Whigs broke up in 2001 he naturally drew on local talent when he decided to step into the role of frontman and songwriter in his new group Moon Maan\,including Push On Junior guitarist/singer Bryan Knisley,Signal and Report bassist Mark Pakulski,and Balloon Guy and Polara drummer Erik Mathison. McCollum’s lived-in vocals lend Moon Maan a bluesie,rawer feel than his old band- though it certainly shouldn’t alienate any Whigs fans- and his frequent use of a spacey theremin add a nicely spooky aura.Moon Maan headlined at Triple Rock for the cd release party for its self -titled debut Moon Maan on June 22nd which came out on June 5th, the same day as the Whigs retrospective set Unbreakable..
Anybody dress uP?anybody fess up? any wanna guess how many lines that missed out oft to fail yr ornery and esteemed manner ma’am ?certainly not !but yr certainly hot !so instead of what it brings but luck, to bring it nearer, to make it clearer ,and to endear her ,oh stop the jeers here .. just a minute to soak my tears for when im in it ,assault the limit , for peddlers and sinners who look so infinite will savor the sell,and the mirror will share just a glance to cheer their own life once cherished from chance less forced in the saddle for fear of the dance that’s laid to rest best ..what matters is fatter than shattered unfettered immaculate chatter ..the conflicts arise to stage such a fallen impestuous virtuous justified chalice that shines out the beauty of miraculous balance too meticulous & ridiculous too congestive too oppressive -is it worth something so emphatic but rather ecstatic - what cant be in their own lives to complicate measures to channel a jive and go with the ride forever which has gone together with nothing as steadier as rain that gentles the waves that settles .. too careless to barely fair well and care to tell such a drama past seen to perish from obscene and credible stardom just tell me the time where it tarnished yr power and failed to just cower and dry up yr shower of goals and objectives please make what u started and finish the dish for the sweetsthey will meet u in the end .
the cd is out so jump on it and u won’t regret it .. its a patische of love and happiness but hate and sadness all in one ..be sure t o come back to the site for daily blogs and weekly artwork .. moon maan has landed and the world we so tend t o treat as a garbage can is an interesting one so jump on board ..
Afghan Whigs Guitarist Rick McCollum Set To Release Moon Maan’s Debut - March 27, 2007
Moon Maan is set to unleash their debut CD on June 5 on Catlick Records. The brainchild of former Afghan Whigs guitarist Rick McCollum, Moon Maan, is a ghostly, groovy, grisly, and bluesy sound that emerged along city streets and in the shadows of skyscrapers, where darkness and loneliness linger and cracks of hope appear like broken glass in the asphalt below.
For frontman McCollum, who contributes vocals, guitars and Theremin to the four-piece band’s Zeppelin- and Whigs-inspired debut, that kind of layering of experiences to create an entire world—and an entire sound–makes sense. “I love things that require a lot of tracks to make one sound,” he says. “I like to think of myself as a Maximalist Purist. I’m inspired by artists like Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. I like using all these little things, all these voices, all these sounds, to try to make something else.”
Two years after the Whigs broke up, McCollum was alone for the first time in his life, searching for a family, longing to play music again. After playing the Theremin live (with 90 minutes of recorded original music) along to D.W. Griffith’s “Broken Blossoms” at the Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis in 1997, McCollum caught the eye and ear of an audience member, who seven years later asked him to play in the SXSW showcase that following spring of 2004. “When I was offered to do an improv set with the Theremin and guitar, I figured why not get a band together instead to bring down to Austin?” Hence Moon Maan was born …
McCollum put a band of talented Minneapolis-music vets together and began playing around the Twin Cities. Bryan Kinsley (Push On Junior, Snapperhead) joined on guitar and vocals; Erik Mathison (Balloon Guy, Polara, Mark Mallman, Jesse Greene) on drums; and Catherine Clements (Bayern Kurve, Dynamo Hum) on bass.
For McCollum, Moon Maan is the next logical step, the next layer, in his life and aural experience. “This new band has made me blossom a little bit being the main songwriter frontman,” he says. “With the Whigs, it was this safe family I never had. This is kind of the next step in the growing process. Maybe it is trying to find that parent that was proud of me. I don’t know. But I know that music is all I know how to do, and I’ll just have to be strong with that. Go with what you know by the time your feet hit the road.”
