Melchior's Broke Revue, Dan

Melchior's Broke Revue, Dan

Lords Of The Manor

In The Red

It’s been a long time since the world heard from Dan Melchior’s Broke Revue. Their last album, O Clouds Unfold!, was recorded in 2004 and was posthumously released in 2009. During their five year existence, the band’s sound evolved from raw, blues-based rock ’n’ roll to a more experimental / post-punk style. Since the band disbanded, Melchior has carried on with a solo career that has been prolific, to say the very least. The volume of singles, albums and cassettes that he’s churned out over the past decade has been staggering.  Now, after a ten-year hiatus, Melchior has reassembled the Broke Revue and (in record time) recorded a new album. Lords of the Manor takes a very different turn from the band’s last album. O Clouds Unfold! was an voluminous showcase of Melchior’s infectious and melodic songwriting, with layers of extra instrumentation spanning 23 songs. Lords of the Manor is an entirely different beast; song structure and instrumentation are stripped to the bare bones, melody is ditched in favor of repetition, Dan’s usual lyrical style is jettisoned for a far more minimal approach and the band’s previous penchant for tightly-crafted two-to-three-minute rock songs has given way to long, sprawling improvisations. The result is dark, relentless and incredible.

Melchior's Broke Revue, Dan

Bitterness, Rage & Scorn

In The Red

***Anything even remotely blues-influenced was thought to be pretty much beyond the pale until a short while ago. Dan Melchior has been playing his own twisted and driving take on barebones rock'n'roll for several years now, making appearances on over 20 commercially released recordings while constantly honing his own lyrical attack and idiosyncratic way with a tune.  Influences as disparate as Creedence, The Fall, and William Blake blend seamlessly, especially in his most fully realized work to date, Bitterness, Spite, Rage and Scorn, the second album on In The Red Records by Melchior and the Broke Revue. With Bruno Meyrick Jones on guitar, Brad Truax on bass, and Greg Anderson on drums holding a rock-steady yet fluid groove behind him, Melchior holds forth with an uncompromising and extremely articulate vision and voice. The playing of the band is suberb, disciplined yet funky. Longtime collaborator Jones really shines on this recording , while Truax and Anderson shift effortlessly from one muscular groove to another.  The engineering expertise and general sonic know-how of Mike McHugh helps the band push their sound into unexpected avenues, resulting in eclectic but cohesive album, delivered with the intensity and fire In The Red fans have every right to expect.  Like his buddy Wild Billy Childish, Dan Melchior plunders elderly American musical styles … and then rams 'em back home to us as outpourings of some eccentric and curmudgeonly Brit weirdo who's sorta like an overamped Doc Boggs.… Melchior … freely combine[s] second-hand Delta...

Melchior's Broke Revue, Dan

Heavy Dirt

In The Red

***DAN MELCHIOR has collaborated with BILLY CHILDISH and THE HEADCOATS, and recorded and toured extensively with HOLLY GOLIGHTLY of THEE HEADCOATEES. His solo releases draw from the work of maverick American folk musicians like Skip James, Fred McDowell, Dock Boggs and Robert Wilkins, while retaining a sense of adventure and passion lost in over reverent interpretations. In his recent work with the BROKE REVUE—GREG ANDERSON, BRUNO MEYRICK JONES, and B.L. TRUAX—Melchior marries a love of country blues and R&B to a new sonic extreme, utilizing the misanthropic fury of '70s punk and the drive of classic '60s catalysts. Recorded at JERRY TEEL's Funhouse studio in New York, this album ups the stakes, pushing Melchior's hard-driving minimalist approach into new places altogether. The result is vitriol-fueled rock 'n' roll with brains and big balls—or bollocks, if you will.