There are certain rungs on the ladder to indie-rock success, like performing at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, being invited to recording sessions for Daytrotter and opening shows for higher-profile, critically respected acts.
And The Moneynotes have climbed these rungs. Whether the band will reach the top of the ladder — and what awaits it there — isn’t clear. But, for now, the 7-member collective is committed to making it.
Whatever “making it” is.
“Now it feels like a Pitchfork review wouldn’t hurt,” says Mitchell Williams, one of the band’s two primary singers and songwriters, referring to the influential online publication.
ATM should find out soon enough. On May 5, it will release “On The Town, On The Vine,” a digital and 7-inch vinyl EP. It follows the 2007 EP “This Year We Hunt,” under the former moniker Dr. Horsemachine and the Moneynotes, and 2008’s “New Cornucopia!”
“This Year We Hunt” introduced a band finding its way through a mishmash of Gypsy swing, vaudeville and folk — sounding, according to Popmatters.com, “on occasion like either music hall sing-alongs or lost field recordings from a lunatic asylum” — and “New Cornucopia!” displayed a band in transition welcoming new members and a second singer/songwriter. “On The Town, On The Vine” represents And The Moneynotes as the band is here and now: solid and confident, with two distinct personalities, one found in the two songs sung by Mitchell Williams — manic, and slightly David Byrne-esque — and the two sung by Mike Quinn, rooted in the country-rock tradition of Bob Dylan and The Band.
The EP will be the band’s third release on Scranton’s Prairie Queen Records.
“It’s tighter, and there’s more going on,” says percussionist Brian Craig, and bassist/singer Pat Finnerty adds, “There’s more editing in the band now.”
Like “New Cornucopia!,” “On The Town, On The Vine” was produced by Nick Krill of The Spinto Band, except for the track “Souraina,” which was recorded during And The Moneynotes’ second Daytrotter Studio session. Krill’s Spinto Band, which often shares the stage with And The Moneynotes, is a few rungs above them on the ladder. He’s impressed with Scranton’s ATM.
“They’re some of the most talented musicians I’ve met through my touring and recording,” Krill says. “I know they’ve got enough talent. The songs they were writing were more exciting than any songs I’d heard in a while.”
‘ABSOLUTE JOY’
During a recent well-attended Sunday night show at The Bog in Scranton, the band’s unofficial headquarters, five members — Williams, Mike Quinn (guitar, vocals), Finnerty (bass, vocals), Jeff “Setty” Hopkins (drums) and Craig (percussion) — crowd the tiny stage, angling for elbow room as they blast through numbers like “A Pirate’s Confession III” and a cover of “Poison Ivy.” A sixth member, Mitchell’s brother Roy Williams, and his piano are set up on the floor, with no room on stage. A seventh, fiddle player Coleman Smith, is in Texas, where he is from, performing at the Bob Wills Day Festival.
The band formed in 2006. The early sound was heavy on Gypsy swing and theatrical stage antics, like a costumed Hopkins shouting through a megaphone. In 2007, after the band finished tracking “This Year We Hunt,” original bassist Austin Smith, Coleman’s brother, moved back to Texas. The band added two new members — and voices — in Quinn and Finnerty, cousins and both former members of disbanded Scranton group Okay Paddy. Craig was Okay Paddy’s drummer, and Roy Williams was in a late version of that band as well.
With the new lineup, tighter sound and more serious approach came a new name: And The Moneynotes.
Finnerty and Quinn decided to join the band after Okay Paddy played a show with Dr. Horsemachine and The Moneynotes.
“There’s an absolute element of joy in this band,” Finnerty says. “Okay Paddy lost its joy in the end.”
That infectious joy is palpable during the live show, with band members hollering choruses, swapping instruments and working crowds into frenzies.
“As the band grew in numbers, I think we got more diverse in our listening as well as our playing,” says Smith by phone. “We’re drawing from more different backgrounds. There’s the hardcore aspect of Brian Craig, there’s the ridiculous knowledge of music from Pat Finnerty, who draws from every style of music and makes it hip. Personally, Roy and I share a love of improvisational music. There’s the songwriting genius of Mike Quinn and Mitchell Williams. I just think the whole thing has gotten very broad.”
ON THE TOWN, ON THE ROAD
And The Moneynotes have built a solid fanbase in the Scranton area, with shows at The Bog and all-ages venues like Northern Light Espresso Bar in Scranton, Caf� Metropolis in Wilkes-Barre, and until it closed last year, Scranton’s Test Pattern. The band is also pleased with a recent show at Bart & Urby’s in Wilkes-Barre.
The local clubs primarily book cover and hard rock bands, so ATM keeps its local shows to a minimum, partially by design and partially due to demand.
But the septet has cast its reach beyond Northeastern Pennsylvania, first with a slew of shows in Philadelphia, State College and New York City, and then tours of the Midwest and South.
During a gig at The M Room in Philadelphia earlier this year, ATM was invited to perform at a showcase at South by Southwest in March. With more than 1,500 acts descending on Austin, SXSW is an opportunity to get noticed by labels, booking agents and press. It’s also easy to get lost in the large sea of performers. The band played at Headhunters Club, and with little advance hype, did well.
“The people that came in came in because they heard the music,” Hopkins says. “I really think we go out and give people the same type of intensity no matter where we’re playing.”
“Even if it’s a disappointing amount of people there, you get two or three people that are going to hopefully be blown away,” says Quinn.
The band is playing to the right crowds, playing decidedly un-trendy music at shows headlined by some of media’s biggest current crushes.
Last October, And The Moneynotes opened a sold-out Ra Ra Riot show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in hipster haven Brooklyn. Ra Ra Riot, friends of ATM, are longtime associates of Vampire Weekend, with whom they are working on a side project, Discovery.
In September, And The Moneynotes will play at the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion in Tennessee. Other acts on the bill: Dr. Dog, Jason Isbell, formerly of Drive By Truckers, and Justin Townes Earle.
CATCHING ON?
The group’s hometown has had an influence on And The Moneynotes’ music, with NEPA colloquialisms sneaking into songs, like “batchries” (batteries) in “Wait I Get Ya” and “sour, heyna?” appropriated into the title of “Souraina.”
ATM’s homebase has also meant some uphill climbs.
“We get more radio play in Greensboro, N.C., than we do in Scranton, Pa.,” Craig says.
“We need to have our record played on Rock 107,” Finnerty says, and Craig and the Williamses break up laughing. “You can absolutely print that. But honestly, I’m not saying I want to be played on Rock 107, but … The music that interests me is my f----n’ friends, and I think there’s something real to The Minor White and The Sw!ms and what was Okay Paddy, and this band, of course.
“I just think that local music is not harnessed around here. ... We have a strong pop sensibility in these songs. If you take a song like ‘Bolinda’ that has an instant pop feel to it — every one of our songs has a catchiness to it — if ‘Bolinda’ was to be played on 98.5 KRZ in somewhat decent rotation, now you’re cultivating something in your own hometown, instead of people hearing f----n’ ya know The Fray one more time. Just take The Fray out once a day and put in one of our songs.”
Roy Williams, at 21 the band’s youngest member, shares a similar but more serious sense of confidence. He prefaces a comment with “I don’t want to come off as cocky,” then says, “There’s nothing I feel we can’t do.”
There’s a sense in the room that he’s speaking for all of his bandmates, too.
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To hear “On The Vine” from “On The Town, On The Vine” and an ATM Daytrotter session, as well as view the trailer of “Local Band,” a film about ATM set for a June release, visit the cover story at www.theweekender.com. The band will play an all-ages record-release show Tuesday May 5 at 7 p.m. at The Vintage Theater (222 Wyoming Ave., Scranton). Cover: $6.
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