Mellow Drunk Before & After Then

UK vinyl orders: Norman Records www.normanrecords.com/records/212594-mellow-drunk-before-after-then
Before & After Then is the first Mellow Drunk album to feature the San Francisco line up of the band. Leigh Gregory with Ricky Rene Maymi, Stephen Cavoretto, Daniel Dietrick and Sean Degaetano.
After a handful of low-key gigs and a run of opening slots for several touring acts, including Luna, The Church, The Trashcan Sinatras and Supergrass, Mellow Drunk earned a loyal following and began work on Before & After Then, later retitled Never Sleep At Night and released on CD in November of 2003 by Ochre records.
Tip Top Recordings issue the album as an expanded double vinyl release, (slightly) re-imagined, remastered, repackaged and re-christened Before & After Then, with bonus material from the subsequent EPs released before the follow up album, One Thousand Lights.
All Music:
"... Mellow Drunk are a really enjoyable band with good songs on offer. Brevity is the rule of thumb throughout the album -- the first four songs alone barely last longer than ten minutes added together -- and the band delivers such fine, full-on efforts as "The Top" and "Definitely" with aplomb. When the band takes the time to slow down a bit and lose itself in its own arrangements, as on "Before & After Then" and "Dead Sea Fruit," the results can be equally enjoyable. The jaunty "A Different Color on My Door" made for a smart choice as a single, winning and upbeat musically while not steering away from the band's general ethos. Moments of striking beauty abound as well, to the group's credit -- the lead-in to the instrumental break (and the break itself) on "Shone on Everyone" is a great example of rich guitar texture and steady rock drive working in tandem."
UNCUT:
“The likes of Interpol have long been employing the flavours of mordant early eighties “raincoat rock” in their music, but San Francisco’s Mellow Drunk are forging a new strain from the genre, drawing not so much from Echo and the Bunnymen and Joy Division as The Wedding Present, adding the literate social commentary of Black Box Recorder’s Luke Haines. Reviews to date cite The Church as an obvious touchstone, and there’s no argument here, but Leigh Gregory’s vocals are closer to Robyn Hitchcock, while the cinematic sweep of the guitars, in the hands of The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Ricky Rene Maymi, offer an evanescent counterpoint. File under: mindexpanding.”
MOJO:
“Expansive guitar layering of Television’s Adventure allied to the subdued grace of Yo La Tengo....Mellow Drunk’s romantic melodies as much in thrall to the doomed grandeur of punk rock fellow travellers The Only Ones as to The Byrds"
East Bay Express:
"...Mellow Drunk's second full-length is so soused on guitar pop worship that it works as a makeshift shrine to every great guitar band of the last twenty years. That the band is able to do this while simultaneously creating its own shimmering, incandescent melodies is a testament to not only a tight record collection, but a band at ease with its muse and its talents.
The SF-based group creates pop in the classic Roger McGuinn style -- crystalline guitar leads that split into literary narratives, break into spectral choruses, return to the leads, and quickly fade away. But the band doesn't sound like West Coast revisionists. Instead, it draws from something darker and distinctly singular. It could be Leigh Gregory's voice -- gentle, slightly stripped, and breathy, recalling David J on the early Love and Rockets records (you know, the good ones). It could be the guitars, which sort of bend, spiral, gleam, and generally circumnavigate the airspace before leaving surreptitiously through the vent. More than anything, it's Before & After Then's brevity, generating two- or three-minute pop songs that function as little rock 'n' roll businessmen -- they get in, establish the theme, and get the hell out with very little time for nonsense.
The best tracks are the ones that carry the least amount of adornments, songs like "There for You," "Before and After Then," and "Very Strange Times" -- acoustic-led numbers that show the band at its simplest, most direct, and most affecting. When the band gathers its strengths, muscles up, and starts venturing into more amplified headspace, it works just as well, as Mellow Drunk places more emphasis on clarity and tune than just sonic overload. All in all, the band's pop excavations provide more than a glimmer of hope to anyone who fears the legacy of the paisley vest has been forgotten."
Penny Black Music:
Musically Mellow Drunk aren’t dissimilar to the Church – highly melodic, layered guitar-based psychedelia being the order of the day. Fortunately they’re very good at it too. In fact, ‘Before & After Then’ is a lot more accessible and memorable than anything I’ve heard from the Church for a long time. The San Francisco band’s second album is a strong effort that deserves to get noticed. Standouts are ‘There For You’, its brass section so reminiscent of Love, the cascading guitars employed on ‘Definitely’, the multilayered hook-laden "Never Sleep At Night" and the sonic crescendos of ‘A Different Color On My Door’ are just a few examples. It isn’t made clear who plays lead or rhythm guitar so we’ll attribute joint praise to both Gregory and Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre) as the band sound at their most incisive when both guitars are interwoven to their full potential. Leigh Gregory’s voice is undeniably reminiscent of Steve Kilbey’s, but that’s not a negative criticism by any means. His voice also displays subtle hints of both Peter Perrett and Nikki Sudden too and collectively, whatever the influence, it adds substance to his evocative and occasionally dark and mysterious lyrics. All told, ‘Before & After Then’ is a richly intoxicating brew.