Melodyguild

Melodyguild
Origin	Los Angeles, California
Genres	Dream pop Indie rock
Years active	2002–Present
Associated acts	Love Spirals Downwards

Melodyguild (often misspelled as Melody Guild) is a Los Angeles-based Dream pop/Indie rock band begun in 2002 by Love Spirals Downwards vocalist, Suzanne Perry, Matt Gleason, John West, and Nicholas Pallos.

History

Shortly after forming, 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, the live performance lineup included Rodney Rodriguez (The Von Trapps) 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 renowned Dark Wave/Gothic label, Projekt Records - which was Perry's former label - announced a summer 2003 release date for a Melodyguild 4-song maxi-single, to be titled 'Aitu'. After pushing the date back twice, the release disappeared from Projekt's release schedule, but the Aitu EP [2] was eventually released on April 22, 2008.

In 2005 Melodyguild bassist, Rodriquez, joined in as live second guitarist for Lovespirals, which is the new incarnation of Love Spirals Downwards with vocalist, Anji Bee. [3]

The band is currently located online at myspace.com/melodyguild. An archived version of the band's original website is available on the Internet Archive. Melodyguild's website was designed by former-Von Trapps keyboardist, Nick Marshall.

Some of the bands Melodyguild have performed with are Bethany Curve, Mercurine, Alu, Veil Veil Vanish, and The Arrogants.

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.[4] The 3-song various artist cardboard sleeve CD-Single is a limited release of 1,000 copies. Projekt Records released Melodyguild's EP, Aitu[5], in the summer of 2008.

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 [6]. Von Trapps bandleader, Rodney Rodriguez, contributed acoustic guitar to a track on Love Spirals Downwards' 1998 album, Flux, and accompanied the band on second guitar for concerts in promotion of the CD.

References

• Melodyguild site on InternetArchive.org