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My roommates' band practices in our apartment about twice a week. Shockingly, that statement is usually responded to with pity "That's gotta suck." Fortunately, that band is Medic.
Could I be any luckier? The three-piece first met and began playing together in October 2003, just weeks before I moved to town and showed up in their rehearsal space to meet my new roommate. Upon being offered a space in the open loft and warned of the constant flow of musicians, I murmured, "These guys better be good."
Texturally rich with complex structures and dynamics, powerful lyrics, moody ballads, singular sounds per song and body-bouncing good hard grooves, Medic has become one of my favorite bands.
How amazing is it that my favorite CD was created in my apartment as I witnessed its recording, production and songwriting process? Yeah, I'm lucky, that such a talented group of guys found each other. So how did these classically trained musicians with such similar Rock styles and goals come together?
Drummer Brian Kelley and bassist, keyboardist and producer Matt Parmenter (my roomie) were acquainted from playing shows together with their previous bands. A mutual friend of Parmenter and frontman John Guia spoke endlessly of the fact that the musicians needed to meet. Many months later, the fateful date occurred and the love affair began.
"As soon as I saw John play in person, I knew this was it," gushes Parmenter.
The two shook hands and started jamming minutes later, recording everything their improvisational first takes produced. Guia had several skeletons of songs to offer and Parmenter eagerly hopped on his bass (and occasionally piano). Two days later, Kelley showed up in the studio apartment to lay down a few drumbeats on the bare kit available.
Guia heard the demo before meeting Kelley.
"I put the disc in and just listened on repeat over and over, pacing, ignoring the guest at my place for hours," Guia recalls. "A lifelong friend approached after the first listen and said 'Congratulations, this is it for you, man.' " Two weeks after the recording of their first demo and the subsequent airing of "Lights in the Sky" on local radio, the boys finally all got together for the first time.
All three musicians have an impressive list of previous musical credits: Kelley spent several years with the acclaimed Over the Rhine before joining Anonymous Bosch; Guia was the frontman and one stable member of the rotating roster for Mike; and Parmenter band hopped throughout Cincinnati and Chicago before settling in with the late local Rock group Semi-Automatic. All three musicians feel this collaboration marks the epitome of their musical careers.
"It's so refreshing to play with professional musicians who listen to each other — and share a vision," says Guia. "Initially I was ginger with my distortion, but each rehearsal I'd thrown in more and fortunately they ate it up."
Like most songwriters, Guia found that previous endeavors fell short of manifesting the music in his head. "But these guys hear what I do and make it 10 times better," he says. It's also refreshingly evident, both in performance and in the songwriting process, that no egos inform their wholly collaborative creations.
Lyrical themes are primarily spiritual (as in "God You Make Me Sick") highlighting subjects like dreams, death and destiny, with a smattering of political statements ("Agent 105" and "Dirty Mouth") and one love song to Guia's ailing cat ("Copper Eyes").
The summer proved to be busy for Medic and now their debut CD is mixed and ready to go, awaiting packaging for a projected late September release (probably around Halloween, in lackadaisical music industry terms!).
MEDIC (
 Medic
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My roommates' band practices in our apartment about twice a week. Shockingly, that statement is usually responded to with pity "That's gotta suck." Fortunately, that band is Medic.
Could I be any luckier? The three-piece first met and began playing together in October 2003, just weeks before I moved to town and showed up in their rehearsal space to meet my new roommate. Upon being offered a space in the open loft and warned of the constant flow of musicians, I murmured, "These guys better be good."
Texturally rich with complex structures and dynamics, powerful lyrics, moody ballads, singular sounds per song and body-bouncing good hard grooves, Medic has become one of my favorite bands.
How amazing is it that my favorite CD was created in my apartment as I witnessed its recording, production and songwriting process? Yeah, I'm lucky, that such a talented group of guys found each other. So how did these classically trained musicians with such similar Rock styles and goals come together?
Drummer Brian Kelley and bassist, keyboardist and producer Matt Parmenter (my roomie) were acquainted from playing shows together with their previous bands. A mutual friend of Parmenter and frontman John Guia spoke endlessly of the fact that the musicians needed to meet. Many months later, the fateful date occurred and the love affair began.
"As soon as I saw John play in person, I knew this was it," gushes Parmenter.
The two shook hands and started jamming minutes later, recording everything their improvisational first takes produced. Guia had several skeletons of songs to offer and Parmenter eagerly hopped on his bass (and occasionally piano). Two days later, Kelley showed up in the studio apartment to lay down a few drumbeats on the bare kit available.
Guia heard the demo before meeting Kelley.
"I put the disc in and just listened on repeat over and over, pacing, ignoring the guest at my place for hours," Guia recalls. "A lifelong friend approached after the first listen and said 'Congratulations, this is it for you, man.' " Two weeks after the recording of their first demo and the subsequent airing of "Lights in the Sky" on local radio, the boys finally all got together for the first time.
All three musicians have an impressive list of previous musical credits: Kelley spent several years with the acclaimed Over the Rhine before joining Anonymous Bosch; Guia was the frontman and one stable member of the rotating roster for Mike; and Parmenter band hopped throughout Cincinnati and Chicago before settling in with the late local Rock group Semi-Automatic. All three musicians feel this collaboration marks the epitome of their musical careers.
"It's so refreshing to play with professional musicians who listen to each other — and share a vision," says Guia. "Initially I was ginger with my distortion, but each rehearsal I'd thrown in more and fortunately they ate it up."
Like most songwriters, Guia found that previous endeavors fell short of manifesting the music in his head. "But these guys hear what I do and make it 10 times better," he says. It's also refreshingly evident, both in performance and in the songwriting process, that no egos inform their wholly collaborative creations.
Lyrical themes are primarily spiritual (as in "God You Make Me Sick") highlighting subjects like dreams, death and destiny, with a smattering of political statements ("Agent 105" and "Dirty Mouth") and one love song to Guia's ailing cat ("Copper Eyes").
The summer proved to be busy for Medic and now their debut CD is mixed and ready to go, awaiting packaging for a projected late September release (probably around Halloween, in lackadaisical music industry terms!).
MEDIC (medicsound.com) performs on Sept. 15 at The Mockbee (themockbee.org) with johnnytwentythree.
