Milo Greene Thrills the House of Blues

Elizabith Costey ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Milo Greene is a five member, Los Angeles based indie rock band that is quickly growing in popularity. As a matter of fact, you could say they are literally sweeping the nation as they hit the road for their North American tour with Bombay Bicycle Club. The two bands are arguably a very good pairing, seeing as both groups have very similar, but distinct sounds. If you’ve heard Bombay Bicycle Club’s music before, you’ll recognize the typically upbeat melody formed by steady, underlying base and catchy, leading guitar melodies. (And if you haven’t listened to them before—Why?) Striking a similar chord (get it?), Milo Greene creates a very soft, but percussion heavy sound, mainly lead by Curtis Marrero and carried by the four harmonizing lead vocalists. That’s right. Four lead vocalists- Marlana Sheetz, Robbie Arnett, Graham Fink and the lovely Andrew Heringer. It’s crazy. Courtesy of their unique set up, Milo Greene’s music is unlike any other. The band’s rhythms are fun, meaningful, and smooth. They produce songs you can sing along and dance to or simply put on in the background while you’re working.

The best way to categorize Milo Greene’s sound is as “Cinematic Pop.” Think movie soundtrack quality. In fact, you can find one of Milo Greene’s songs, “Perfectly Aligned,” from their self titled first album in the official trailer of Tim Burton’s upcoming movie, Big Eyes. According to Andrew Herringer, two hours before the trailer went live; Milo Greene received a call from Tim Burton’s sound department asking for the rights to use their song.

In general things seem to be going really well for a band that got started no more than four years ago. But what can you expect from a group with so much personality, strategy and energy? Take their group name for instance. “Milo Greene” was originally the name of the band’s imaginary manager. Why, you may ask? Because having a manager, even an imaginary (and therefore, free) manager made the band seem more legit and helped them get more gigs. Ah, clever, yes? And also perhaps a little funny…

Another clever idea that has helped in Milo Greene’s success is the idea of four lead singers. It may be slightly unconventional, but it’s definitely effective. Not only does having four lead singers (who also know how to play a variance of instruments from guitar to base to piano and so forth) make for a very clear and unique sound, but it also makes concerts a blast!

Milo Greene hit the stage at the House of Blues on Saturday, October 18th as one of two opening acts for Bombay Bicycle Club. The concert opened with a new band from New Orleans by the name of Luxley. As the crowd slowly gathered, Luxley immediately picked up the energy with their foot-stomping, indie rock music. Perhaps the most interactive of the three groups, Luxley’s lead singer leapt and danced around the stage like a mad man and even ran out into the crowd several times, encouraging the growing mass to get moving and to sing along. After several songs, Luxley departed the stage, leaving an eager crowd of new fans behind. Half an hour or more later, Milo Greene entered the concert hall. The burgeoning crowd erupted in enthusiastic applause– ready to go, and Milo Greene did not let them down.

Andrew told Emertainment Monthly, “We really make sure to focus our energy on getting to the show and giving the best show possible… [by] really focusing and giving our all to give the best show possible.” The group did in fact give a fantastic performance, playing several of their most well known songs off of their first album such as, “1975,” “Perfectly Aligned,” and “What’s the Matter” and even some never before recorded songs (“White Lies,” “Lonely Eyes,” “Lie To Me”) from their upcoming album. Wait, what’s this? A new Milo Greene Album?! Indeed, but more on this later. Their performance proceeded splendidly, with fantastic music and a lot of spunk and character from the members of Milo Greene. One minute the band’s jamming out and performing like there’s no tomorrow, and the next minute Graham and Robbie are laughing and teasing each other as if they were simply in rehearsal.

As they come to their last song before introducing Bombay Bicycle Club, Marlana looked out at the crowd and apologized for not speaking earlier in the band’s performance, confessing that it takes her a while to warm up and feel comfortable. Smiling, she owned up that all she’d been thinking during the performance was, “Oh, my God, double chin—Oh, my God, lipstick,” and other important matters along those lines. But now she’s good to go and ready to “dance the sh*t out of this next song.” Which was exactly what she did. As the saying goes, Milo Greene finished up their Boston performance with a bang (and rousing applause).

Now back to that casual ‘new album’ comment. Milo Greene’s new album, Control is scheduled to be released on January 27th 2015. The band has already released, “White Lies” as well as a “White Lies” lyric video.

Milo Greene has also stated that each month leading up to the release date of their new album they will be releasing a new song from said album. But, for anyone who must be the first to hear/have their new songs; the album can be preordered on the band’s website (and comes with a free download of “White Lies”).

So far, this new album looks like it is going to be absolutely fantastic! Their new songs are going to be more upbeat and “dance-y” with a bit of an 80’s rock/dance party vibe, according to Andrew. And, according to Milo Greene’s site:
“’Control’ came very naturally, and while it’s a new sonic landscape for us, it maintains the essence of this band – our four voices and our overlapping identities as songwriters and collaborators.”

So, in other words, while Milo Greene’s new album is made for hip moving, feet stomping, and/or at least some enthusiastic head bobbing, their new album will still stick to the roots of Milo Greene’s original sound—strong, smooth percussion and brilliant, harmonizing vocals.