It wasn’t so long ago that Michael Bond and Matt Dennewitz packed up their respective keyboards and guitars and headed for Chicago after plying Cincinnati fans with their eclectic vision of droning noisy Dance Punk. As Coltrane Motion (“More Roscoe P. than John C.” as is stated on the duo’s MySpace page), they've crafted a sound that blends sheets of distorted guitar racket with a palpable keyboard atmosphere, itself a hybrid of ’60s Phil Spectorish girl groupisms, ’70s Soul, ’80s Synth Pop and contemporary lo-fi bedroom laptop flights of fancy.
Like a bizarre mind meld of New Order, My Bloody Valentine and They Might Be Giants, Coltrane Motion has created a fascinating and vibrant tumult in the studio which is amped up to almost seismic proportions in front of an audience, as the two launch themselves around the stage with frenetic abandon, inspiring audiences to follow suit and join the adrenalized fray.
The past couple of years have been hectic for CM. The duo’s debut full-length, 2007’s Songs About Music, was a critical smash, prompting at least one blog to predict the duo’s imminent appearance in an iPod commercial. The duo’s recent blasts of touring have been punctuated by cool single releases, the most recent being “The Year Without a Summer” b/w “Maya’s Tune” and CM’s spin on two Bruce Springsteen tracks, “I’m Going Down” and “I’m On Fire.”
Bond and Dennewitz still make regular pilgrimages back to Cincinnati — they did a show with The Seedy Seeds back in May and they tore shit up at their MidPoint Music Festival slot in September — but don’t take their presence for granted. It’s just a matter of time before Coltrane Motion gets noticed in a major way and their indoor musical maelstroms make them a buzzy sensation on the coasts. You’ll wish you’d seen them when, which is now ... for free at the Northside Tavern.
(Get show and venue details here.)