If you’re holding this, you’re definitely interested in the not-not jazz band, Meg. They’re a beautiful group of three guys named Matt, Eddie, and Grant. If you haven’t noticed, their initials spell out the groups name. Clever, right? The name is in honor of the great 2018 Jason Statham vehicle, The Meg. All members of the band thoroughly enjoy the movie as well as the roll sharks have in the lives of humans. Jaws is another shark movie.
Now that we have met the band and have learned a little history about vicious sea creatures, I feel like I need to tell a little bit about me, the author. My name is Jon Foster. At my behest, Meg came together when I ordered them to. I forced Eddie to contact Matt to make a band. I have no idea what Grant was doing or how they found him. Some say he wonders the streets looking for keyboard jobs, others think he’s Rick Wakeman reincarnated without the cape.
The reason I wanted them to come together was because Winston-Salem needs a not-not jazz band. For years Winston (as the locals call it) has been inundated with cover bands, bland indie rock, and a smattering of hardcore and metal groups. If you look at the town’s musical history, most Winston bands can be traced back to Chris Stamey’s graduating class at Reynolds High School. Who else do we have, Ben Folds…George Hamilton? He’s not even that George Hamilton, the lizard-skinned guy from Zorro, The Gay Blade. No, our George Hamilton is the singer of the 1963 country hit, “Abilene.”
In essence, it was my vision to bring a not-not jazz band to Winston, much like that person who decided to bring all of those mattress stores and $20.00 burger restaurants to Winston. Me, the mattress people, the burger boys…all had a vision. More than anything, I needed something good to go and see the once a month I’m allowed out of the house. Of course that’s only on weekends, no way can I get out during a weekday.
Soon after I put them together, they started practicing. I think of myself as the modern day Don Kirshner, Malcolm McLaren, or Lou Pearlman. Wait, not the last guy…I’m hoping to get some money out of this arrangement, the fair way. There’s money in not-not jazz, right?
The gestation of the band didn’t happen overnight. The time from when they started practicing until their first show on October 17th, 2025 was about a year. During that time, I made sure that the band rehearsed every Wednesday and if they didn’t, they were fined forty dollars. For musicians, especially not-not jazz musicians, this sum is incredibly high. “Normal” musicians could easily incur this debt. At the end of every practice, I made sure to give them insight into their songs. I had to be sure that my Saturday out, six months from that time, was going to be worth. Strong IPAs are expensive. Ubers are expensive.
At first the band was somewhat reluctant to take my advice. Although they knew me as someone with painfully good taste in music, film, and books, I didn’t have the musical vocabulary. Not knowing musical terms or even how to play basic guitar, limited me…at first. I’d mouth something to Grant and he’d try it. Obviously, Matt was the most difficult. I had to push him to work a little harder. No one needed simple drum parts. If you can’t play in weird time signatures by the time you’re forty, you’re going to be stuck copying Abe Cunningham for the rest of your life. Eventually he learned my musical language and the songs improved. Eddie was somewhat more receptive to my immediate musical direction. He has multiple Sonny Sharrock t-shirts, so he gets it. Ask him about meeting Nels Cline that time, I’m sure he’ll tell you about it.
After about six months of practices, they had two or three songs they could work with. Since this is not-not jazz, three is more than enough considering there’s no real plan for ending a song in the not-not jazz philosophy. Write a good part, vamp on that part for three or for minutes, come back to the opening melody / riff etc., and then you’re done. Doing things in this way, allows showgoers to get all of the information they need in the first three minutes of the song so they can go to the bathroom in the last eight minutes of the song. It’s a considerate approach. Also, if a song is quite long, people think it’s more complex than it really is. Mozart had those long symphonies so people just assumed they were good, that’s why middle school symphonies play them to this day.
Not only am I the executive producer (my given title) but I’m also the art director. For this band, image is everything. Although the band was playing with big scary shark imagery, the brand identity was considered for everything. T-shirt designs, the most important part of any band’s identity (it’s annoying to play the music out loud on the street, but you can wear the shirt, get it?) was painfully scrutinized. Shark images were ruled out based on their level of ferociousness. No way could I put a nurse shark on the cover of a shirt since they pose no threat to humans. Only great whites, tiger sharks, and bull sharks could be depicted. These animals tend to bite humans (at least Australians in great numbers) in two. Shirt designs have to mirror the music. The music is based in sexual violent so a cotton poly blend t-shirt should mirror that.
The future is bright for Meg, as long as their willing to heed my advice. In the coming months, I will expect the songs to get more complicated as they push themselves at my behest. In not-not jazz circles, the top is attainable. Get a show or a couple shows with Tortoise and you’ve reached the top of the not-not jazz mountain. It’s a rarely visited mountain, most people don’t find it a pleasant stay. It’s not a tall mountain. You might call it a “butte.” Honestly, who wants to climb the Mount Everest of music with all of those frozen bodies littering the trail?
https://www.instagram.com/megisaband/
No comments:
Post a Comment