NIPP: Mayday

Mayday

	Bio
Mayday is the brainchild of Omaha mainstay Ted Stevens, and while he has put in time in a number of influential acts, this is the one that sees him presenting all his own material in the most personal manner he’s ever attempted. Stevens began his esteemed career in the brooding chamber pop outfit Lullaby for the Working Class, an act whose trio of late-‘90s full-lengths pushed the boundaries of quiet melodic dirges and complex orchestration. After the act’s 1999 swan song Song, the members parted ways without officially disbanding, and Stevens found himself replacing Steve Pedersen on guitar and second vocals in Omaha’s Cursive. After settling in on the group’s breakthrough hit Domestica, Stevens went on to assume an even more commanding role with his powerful vocal presence, as well as to become a touring member of his Cursive bandmate Tim Kasher’s the Good Life; but the quieter work of his past was clearly not out of his system yet. Named after an annual concert that Stevens and his friends threw on the first day of May, Mayday sees the songwriter return to his earlier style of composition, and it also features a number of his Lullaby for the Working Class reprising their earlier roles. Brothers Mike and A.J. Mogis, who’ve gone on to careers as revered studio engineers, as well as violinist Tiffany Kowalski, have all returned to the fold and the result is a natural progression from where Lullaby left off. With a cast of players that also includes members of Azure Ray, Now It’s Overhead, Bright Eyes, and Cursive, as well as a musical palette that is almost as diverse as the company, Stevens put together the “group’s” incredibly solid 2002 debut Old Blood. A mix of the lilting and quiet sounds of Lullaby and some stranger tangents that run the gamut from Spanish flavored guitar workouts to the absolutely astounding sea shantey themes of “Captain,” the disc was clearly a release for years of Stevens original material that had been gathering in the vaults; and the subsequent full-band tours proved that this could easily be much more than a one-off solo project.

Bio

Mayday is the brainchild of Omaha mainstay Ted Stevens, and while he has put in time in a number of influential acts, this is the one that sees him presenting all his own material in the most personal manner he’s ever attempted. Stevens began his esteemed career in the brooding chamber pop outfit Lullaby for the Working Class, an act whose trio of late-‘90s full-lengths pushed the boundaries of quiet melodic dirges and complex orchestration. After the act’s 1999 swan song Song, the members parted ways without officially disbanding, and Stevens found himself replacing Steve Pedersen on guitar and second vocals in Omaha’s Cursive. After settling in on the group’s breakthrough hit Domestica, Stevens went on to assume an even more commanding role with his powerful vocal presence, as well as to become a touring member of his Cursive bandmate Tim Kasher’s the Good Life; but the quieter work of his past was clearly not out of his system yet.

Named after an annual concert that Stevens and his friends threw on the first day of May, Mayday sees the songwriter return to his earlier style of composition, and it also features a number of his Lullaby for the Working Class reprising their earlier roles. Brothers Mike and A.J. Mogis, who’ve gone on to careers as revered studio engineers, as well as violinist Tiffany Kowalski, have all returned to the fold and the result is a natural progression from where Lullaby left off.

With a cast of players that also includes members of Azure Ray, Now It’s Overhead, Bright Eyes, and Cursive, as well as a musical palette that is almost as diverse as the company, Stevens put together the “group’s” incredibly solid 2002 debut Old Blood. A mix of the lilting and quiet sounds of Lullaby and some stranger tangents that run the gamut from Spanish flavored guitar workouts to the absolutely astounding sea shantey themes of “Captain,” the disc was clearly a release for years of Stevens original material that had been gathering in the vaults; and the subsequent full-band tours proved that this could easily be much more than a one-off solo project.