Melodyguild

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Melodyguild (often misspelled as Melody Guild) is a Los Angeles-based Dream Pop/Indie Rock band begun in 2002 by former Love Spirals Downwards vocalist, Suzanne Perry, and ex-members of The Von Trapps, Matt Gleason and John West.

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[edit] History

Melodyguild performed locally - including several shows at Club Violaine (where Cocteau Twins founder, Robin Guthrie, has also been known to perform) - sporadically between November 2002 and January 2004. During that period, band membership changed several times with the final lineup including founder of The Von Trapps, Rodney Rodriguez, drummer Nicholas Pallos, and Cris Miller, of Clairecords' band, Silver Screen.

The band premiered their first recorded song on March 20, 2003, during a live in-studio interview with DJ Wednesday on her seminal Gothic/Industrial radio program, Generation Death,[1] for KSPC 88.7 FM on the Claremont College campus.

Internationally renown Dark Wave/Gothic label, Projekt, which was Perry's former label, has announced a summer 2008 release date for the Melodyguild 4-song EP, titled 'Aitu'.

The band is currently located online at www.myspace.com/melodyguild. An archived version of the band's original website is available on the Internet Archive.

[edit] Releases

The works released by Melodyguild to date include the single "Panamint" on a Projekt maxi-single, and a recording by Perry, Miller, and Pallos of Danny Elfman's The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack piece, "Sally's Song," on Projekt's 2004 Holiday Single 2.[2] The 3-song various artist cardboard sleeve CD-Single is a limited release of 1,000 copies. Projekt Records is scheduled to release Melodyguild's EP, Aitu, in the summer of 2008.

[edit] Background

Love Spirals Downwards has long been hailed as a cornerstone of the American Ethereal movement -- usually mentioned in the same breath as English Ethereal legends, Cocteau Twins -- and Perry is often mentioned as a comparison to other vocalists of the genre then and now.

The Von Trapps evolved out of the Los Angeles Ethereal/Dream Pop band, Elysium, and were embraced by Dewdrops fanzine and record company as well as the popular Indie Music magazine, Losing Today [3]. Von Trapps bandleader, Rodney Rodriguez, contributed acoustic guitar to a track on Love Spirals Downwards' final 1998 album, Flux, and accompanied the band on second guitar for concerts in promotion of the CD.

[edit] Trivia

  • Melodyguild was interviewed for the Winter 2004 Gothic Beauty magazine, Issue #15. The issue is now out-of-print. [4]
  • Melodyguild's website was designed by former-Von Trapps keyboardist, Nick Marshall.
  • Some of the bands Melodyguild performed with were Bethany Curve, Mercurine, Alu, and The Arrogants.

[edit] References