Dan Melchior

Hot on the heels of underground momentum that was hopefully spurred by last year’s outstanding Hello, I’m Dan Melchior, the outspoken Brit with the New York-based pen in his hand is back to scribble his poetic thoughts and observations on the boldest wall in sight with vitriol and retro pop/rock moves to spare. Melchior’s long-running band the Broke Revue are considered one of New York’s best garage rock bands, and he’s worked extensively with the likes of Billy Childish and Holly Golightly, but Fire Breathing Clones picks up where Melchior’s self-recorded solo debut left off, mining the timeless depths of catchy songwriting and injecting them with a serious dose of reality — namely Melchior’s. This time around, he brings in a pile of friends to help out with instrumentation, which ranges from stripped down garage rockers ("A Poet’s Life”), bluesy bar brawlers ("All You Experts”), sparse meditations on isolation ("City Song”), and the occasional crawling Neil Young-style guitar excursion ("(Just Plain) Goodbye”). Fire Breathing Clones is considerably more sombre in tone than Hello, making it sort of like the On the Beach to Hello’s Harvest. This is seriously informed songwriting for seriously informed minds. All others need not apply.