Errand Boy

Before Errand Boy's internationally acclaimed debut, Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy, was released in 2004, bold, unashamed confessions of love and intentions to make out with Errand Boy were rare commodities -- whether from the same sex or otherwise. Suddenly, as if from nowhere -- but, in fact, from the dirt road in Torbay next to Metal World -- arrived a talent that was simultaneously modest but mighty, sass-infused but rigorously intelligent. Critics and audiences, from London to Tokyo to Toronto to Manuels, declared Errand Boy and creative linchpin Bryan William Melanson a songwriter of rare compositional and overwhelming super-brilliance. "[Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy] is one of the most melodically seductive and exhilirating records of recent times," wrote David Bowie in his private diary; R.E.M's Peter Buck and former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon haven't heard it, and they never will because they left some kickass bands and have no place in Bryan's heart... Bryan has recorded music in his bedroom/kitchen for the past 2 years using some programs he didn't pay for.

His follow-up, 2005's Bachelor of Commerce, will consolidate Bryan's reputation as a writer who, seemingly without effort, subverted the conventions of the love song, creating miniature electronic epics that cost a shoestring but sounded as if they were spun from gold. Comparisons to The Flaming Lips, The Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merritt and fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen make no sense, but nobody's said anything like that so this sentence is kind of a waste of your time.

Comfortingly familiar and yet a quantum leap beyond its predecessor, Bachelor of Commerce bears all the hallmarks of Russian Futurists Errand Boy recordings -- insinuating melodies, ingeniously grand low-budget arrangements, crap about loves lost and found -- but is fuller, wiser, sadder and giddier than before.

"Bachelor of Commerce was made in the same way as all my sandwiches: in my kitchen," says Bryan. "I've been doing songs long enough to know what works best for me, and doing it in my kitchen with little kids looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes is where it's at. I can avoid having to walk too far when I want some Oreos and i'm free to just make the music I want to make without over-thinking the Oreo retrieval process...."

Bring your hyperbole -- and a box of tissues. Errand Boy is up in that ass.

(99% stolen from the Russian Futurists bio...listen to them, they're better than me)

Read more at www.errand-boy.net.