Dan Melchior, at this stage, is one of the most prolific singer/songwriters of all underground music. With over a decade of performing under his belt, 20 plus LPs, gobs of singles and easily the most recognizable voice of the subterrestrial landscape, he's a force that can't be ignored. Melchior's ability to craft songs that play with genres makes him almost impossible to pigeonhole, mixing acoustic, strumming guitar sometimes even over a disco beat. Often adding adventurous instrumentation like piano, organ, or even horns at times, it seems as though his approach to music is as playful as it is artful, and that really sets him apart from his peers.
On his latest release (as Dan Melchior und das Menace), The Pink Scream EP, released on Shake Appeal Records this month, he plays with the medium, a single-sided 12” record with an etching on the b-side in Melchior's scratchy, almost cubist illustration style. The music on the a-side highlights his sportive style of songwriting, opening a with a song that borrows the riff from the Peter Gunn Theme, something he does on another single released this year on Disordered Records. In the song “Cockroaches in Your Handbag” he flatly laments about smiling monkeys and “tall terrifying bookshelves,” painting an aural picture with short, oddly descriptive stanzas over a strumming, jangling guitar, and a zestful beat that conjures a sound that is almost contradictory of itself. Later he covers The Ikettes "I'm Blue" and pulls it off effortlessly with his odd and instantly polarizing voice. You can pick up the Pink Scream EP directly from Shake Appeal HERE.
