Mel and The Tall Boys Frontier Of Love (Lacy Records)
Mel and The Tall Boys, dubbed New York’s hardest-working bar band—as they like to call themselves—arrive with their debut album Frontier Of Love, which was released March 13 on Lacy Records.
Mel Johnston, with her Wanda Jackson attitude infused with punk rock and new wave, evokes a heady blend of sixties girl groups and surf rock (Baby Blues, Fall a Little Faster), not forgetting the Wall of Sound and the Brill Building songs (The Breeze) of her native New York, all delivered with a voice forged by the rough edges of the city that never sleeps.
She formed the band in the spring of 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, and since then they have played nearly every club of Manhattan, steadily forging a reputation.
Their approach echoes the ethos of English pub rock bands of the 1970s, playing every bar they could find and championing raw, unadorned R&B. It was with this mindset that Mel and The Tall Boys crafted the ten songs that make up the album.
“Rollin’” kicks things off with a bouncy bass woven into the funky guitar played by Kyle Lacy, who also produced and co-wrote the album, along with longtime collaborators Andy Bell and JC Myska.
If the record bets on the raw energy of rock ’n’ roll (“Every Night About This Time,” “Runnin’ Around”),
Mel and The Tall Boys also allow themselves to tug at the heartstrings, as on the epic title track “Frontier Of Love,” where you could swear you hear echoes of The Coasters’ “Down in Mexico” meeting mariachi trumpets—straight out of a Sergio Leone film—set against a backdrop of reflections on the artist’s life and romantic relationships.
Mel and The Tall Boys will play at Main Drag Music in Brooklyn on April 25.
More information is available here: https://melandthetallboys.bandcamp.com/album/the-frontier-of-love
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: Song Premiere: Mel and the Tall Boys “The Frontier of Love”
Musicians on the album are Mel Johnston on vocals, piano (9) and tambourine; Billy Aukstik on trumpet (4,8): Jesse Baskin on guitars (4,8); Andy Bell on bass (1,2,5,6,10); Kim Foxen on backing vocals (1); Kevin Hailey on upright bass (7); Camelia Hartman on violin (9); Kyle Lacy on guitars (1-3,5-7,9,10), bass (3,9), drums (4,8,9), organ and piano; JC Myska on drums (1,2,3,5,6,7,10); Adrian Moring on bass (4,8); and Cole Stone-Frisina on sax (7).
The album was produced, engineered and mixed by Kyle Lacy with tape engineering by Bily Aukstik; and mastered by Dan Millice with photos by Rosie Cohe.