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Artist
The Arts and Sciences
10+ albums
about
The Arts and Sciences are solo artist Paul Melancon and his band, together at last. Purveyors of literate and melodic indie pop music, the band calls Atlanta, GA, home and originated as Paul put together a band to tour in support of his acclaimed 2002 Daemon Records release Camera Obscura . Good players are all fine and well, of course, but the most important consideration when forming a band is "can we spend time in the van together?" This band is van-tested, from extensive touring along the east coast and two stints touring with the Indigo Girls. (Favorite road activities include getting a local dial-up number, visiting historic places, and checking out Shrimply Tuesday at Red Lobster). In many ways, Hopeful Monsters is the antithesis of Camera Obscura. Where Camera took a year and a half to record, Hopeful Monsters was recorded over the course of two weeks at Rob Gal's (Josh Joplin Group) studio. The band recorded it virtually live, with only vocals and the occasional solo overdubbed later. The goal was to record something much more immediate and personal than the last record and the result is a sometimes painful and raw exposure of personal weaknesses. While it still shares the same core influences as Camera, the band and Hopeful Monsters have more in common with Elliott Smith and Death Cab for Cutie than Michael Penn and Elvis Costello. However, both still retain the trademark of Paul's unusually gifted voice, this time perfectly complemented by Erin Bradley Dangar's
