My friend Eric Chial, whom I have known since we were both tykes of 12 attending Hannah Middle School in East Lansing, Michigan, has been urging me to urge upon my friends and followers the latest product of his creative drive, a CD of music titled Le Main Drag by a band called the Bon Mots. And I do so wholeheartedly.
Already, WXRT in Chicago has called Le Main Drag its "new favorite record by a Chicago band."
Eric's voice, on certain songs, sounds a lot like Elvis Costello's, which is no mean feat — after all, how many singers can you name who sound like Elvis Costello? — while the music, depending on whom you read, sounds like "the Shins, the Pernice Brothers, Teenage Fanclub, the Smiths, and the Lilys," or "the Zombies, the Byrds, and second-generation purveyors of cool [. . .] mid-sixties-informed creepy jangle such as the Bats, My Drug Hell, the Clean, Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Smiths, and the Church," or "the Go-Betweens meets the Lucksmiths, the Zombies meets the Byrds, Rufus Wainwright and Joe Jackson, the Smiths meet Elephant 6, both the Matinee and Parasol rosters smushed together, plus a lovely nostalgic feeling that is as much powerhouse eighties college rock hookfest as it is seasoned sixties pop sensibilities."
The CD is being distributed by Parasol, but you can buy it direct from the band.
Meanwhile, listen to this song, "Glistening" (sung not by Eric, but by the other half of the Bon Mots' songwriting duo, Mike Coy), while you look at this artsy pic of the Bon Mots rockin' live, lifted from the band's Web site, which Eric promises will, in two days' time, be "extremely swank" ("Swank = They can listen to the entire record, see pictures of the band live, working like ants during the week, and lunching al fresco on the weekends, as is our wont, and generally living the good life in the great city of Chicago. Also, our keyboardist plays with Nash Kato from Urge Overkill, and simply put, we're just very cool cats."):
