by Christina Wagner
What: Tres Bien and the Hatch
Where: Jack Rabbits (San Marco Blvd.)
When: Thursday, February 6th
I didn’t know what to think the first time I met the boys from Tres Bien!. They were young, wore matching suits, and I heard they were going to be in some new reality show. I felt the dirty inner music snob in me fighting to get out. My presumptions were inaccurate. You should never judge a book by its cover, or a band by their reality show appearance.
Dice up some Brit pop, add 2 cups of Garage Rock, a pinch of Soul and turn it up on high. If you’re into the Hives, Rolling Stones, or Pink Spiders do yourself a favor and check out Tres Bien’s Myspace page (myspace.com/tresbien). You’ll find that every song on their player is determined to attach itself to your skull. Mikey B’s vocals possess just the right amount of vibrato and distortion. Cody Michael Wilson plays the bass and contributes to the vocals, Michael James Crowe plays lead guitar and Ryan Parker Metcalf plays the drums and does some singing too.
Nothing in this group feels overdone. There are no show dogs, just the perfect recipe for any occasion. Every song sounds like a classic hit, timeless yet progressive in its own way. There’s never been a band that has deserved the exclamation point like Tres Bien!
EU: How was the Sweet Dick Dude tour?
Cody: It was great. We’ve never played with such great bands on a tour before. Great crowds at all the shows.
Mikey: Probably the most fun we’ve had on tour thus far.
Crowe: It was cool.
Ryan: The name of the tour pretty much describes it.
EU: Any special man-on-man moments?
Crowe: We witnessed many, but experienced none. Our record is clean.
Ryan: Stay away from Josh. Or stick with him. Depends on your mood, really.
Mikey: Besides all the “Sweet Dick!” comments? Well, it was definitely the least hetero tour we’ve been on, despite our best efforts.
EU: You guys are currently unsigned. Is that by choice or are you actively seeking support?
Mikey: We aren’t opposed to being signed to a label as long as we have the freedom to write the kind of music we want to write.
EU: You boys bade it pretty far on the Fox TV series, The Next Great American Band. A decision like that can be kind of risky as far as street cred goes. What made you want to sign up?
Ryan: Street cred scremeeat cred. Of Montreal is on a freaking outback commercial. Band of Horses hawks cars now.
Mikey: Selling out is the new not selling out. In the ever-declining music industry, you have to do want you can to get your music out there. Yeah, even by reality television.
Ryan: Don’t hate.
Mikey: To us, it was just a great marketing scheme.
Ryan: Don’t hate.
EU: Has the exposure helped recruit new listeners?
Ryan: If you ask me, yeah definitely. If you ask Cody, he’ll swear it did nothing for is. He’s goofy.
Mikey: Either way we’re still not getting laid.
Ryan: What the hell Mikey, we’re trying to be professionals here.
Mikey: Dude, I’m drunk.
Ryan: Oh. Sweet dick dude.
Mikey: Thanks man! I really appreciate that.
EU: If you had to do it all over again, would you? Why?
Mikey: Eh, uh, yeah. That’s a tough one. I guess half of us would and half of us wouldn’t. We can’t even believe it happened yet. In fact, did it happen? What are we talking about?
Ryan: Holy fuck we were on TV.
Mikey: Lol.
Ryan: Lol.
EU: You boys lost to a bunch of kids. Why do you think that is?
Mikey: Their hair is silkier and shinier than ours.
Ryan: They had sicker riffs.
Mikey: And Kid Nation had better ratings than our show anyways.
EU: Mikey and Cody were formally in hardcore bands before crossing over to Tres Bien! What prompted the jump?
Mikey: Um, common sense.
Ryan: Dude, I still play hardcore. Morto Ralphie in da HOUSE. Besides, everyone was in a high school hardcore band.
EU: Besides the usual upcoming tour and hitting the studio shenanigans, what’s in store for the near future?
Mikey: More TOUR! And the first EP to go triple-quadruple-platinum.
Ryan: You’re insane.
Mikey: NO way dude, we have at least four hits on there. Three... You can purchase it at myspace.com/tresbien
Ryan: Yeah.
EU: If you were all stranded on a deserted island, who would you sacrifice for food and why?
Mikey: Cody. He could feed us for weeks
Ryan: Come on, that’s not nice.
Mikey: He wants to die anyways.
Ryan: Man, no wonder we’re not signed.
Catch Tres Bien at Jack Rabbits fresh off the tour bus from New York, Boston and seven dates down the East Coast.
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