Myk Freedman and the Mykfreedmans

Nostalgic for a time that honestly wasn’t very nice, Myk Freedman and the Mykfreedmans search for equilibrium.  Rent parties, salons, NYC lofts, brothels, squeals and honks, musical feels, romantic melodicism -evocative beauty that cannot be ignored.  This band, led by Canadian lap steel player Myk Freedman, is in love with the memories of memories, but it is 2017.  People have been playing guitars using their kids’ broken dental appliances for decades.  The music must take that into account, but Coleman Hawkins!  Therein lies the circular mentality of the Mykfreedmans: they move forward, they move backward.  They let a song out of their hearts, they scream down a well, think in cut-time, think out of time, joyfully get lost in the murk of innuendo.

Myk Freedman and the Mykfreedmans, the debut album for both the band and the new Brooklyn label, happylucky no.1 records, is an adventurous mess.  In 11 short tunes the band pushes itself to the limits while squeezing into tight spots. Sticking their fingers in the warm pleasure centers of the mind, they caress with lush ballads, oblique genre gestures, klezmer melodicism, sounds of elsewhere –  and not so gently with wails and whirls from the most non-idiomatic lap steel player from the North and a band ready to lead from the wings honking and squealing in tandem.