Mikal Cronin | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Playing garage-accented pop that reveals more than a passing influence of indie rock from the 1980s and 90s, Mikal Cronin was raised in Laguna Beach, California, where as a teenager he developed a passion for both surfing and rock & roll. While attending Laguna Beach High School, he fell in with a handful of like-minded music fans and formed a band that played local parties. Cronin left California for a few years to attend Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, but returned to continue his education at the California Institute of the Arts. While attending CIA, he joined the surf-influenced garage band Charlie & the Moonhearts as bassist; they became simply the Moonhearts after the departure of drummer Charlie Moothart, and in 2010 the band released a self-titled album through Tic Tac Totally Records. Cronin also began collaborating regularly with Ty Segall, releasing a collaborative album, Reverse Shark Attack, in 2009 and playing in Segalls road band. According to Cronin, his first solo album began as therapy after finally completing college and making his way into the real world; full of noisy pop and garage influences, the self-titled LP (featuring guest appearances by Segall, Moothart, and John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees) was issued by Trouble in Mind Records in September 2011. While still playing with Segall, he released a second solo album, MCII, for Merge in the spring of 2013. He embarked on a solo tour after that, taking time during 2014 to write and record his third album. Adding some new instruments to the fold, including the traditional Greek instrument the tzouras, and making a concerted effort to make his sound "bigger," the album was split into halves, with one side straight-ahead pop songs and the other a thematically linked set of songs meant to tell Cronins coming of age story. The record, titled MCIII, was released by Merge in the spring of 2015. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 5 Title: Reverse Shark Attack Released: 2009 Tracks: 8 Duration: 25:08 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 I Wear Black (02:14) 2 Drop Dead Baby (02:29) 3 High School (01:50) 4 Ramona (01:24) 5 Doctor Doctor (01:25) 6 Bikini Babes (01:30) 7 Take Up Thy Stethescope and Walk (03:58) 8 Reverse Shark Attack (10:18) |
| Reverse Shark Attack : Allmusic album Review : Rust never sleeps and neither does Ty Segall. The Bay Area garage sensation has been known for his prolific nature, constantly releasing several albums a year under his own name, along with endless collaborative side projects and one-offs. Reverse Shark Attack originally materialized in 2009, a short eight-song team-up between Segall and one of his longtime friends and co-musicians, Mikal Cronin. Though the albums brief running time is well under half an hour, its a strangely arranged and distributed track listing. Six incredibly trashy garage rockers speed by in a matter of minutes, all drenched in fuzz with a malfunctioning analog delay unit going berserk on processed vocals. The sound is more that of a four-track in a practice space with all the knobs turned to ten than any subtleties of a recording studio. The songs are spontaneous, fiery, and fun. While nothing reaches the heights of inspiration of Segalls more widely known solo albums, unhinged tracks like "High School" and "Doctor Doctor" are enjoyable blasts of blown-out garage punk merriment. The album takes a strange turn near the end with a surprisingly precise cover of the early Pink Floyd track "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk," followed by the ten-minute title track, a distorted collage of kitschy psyche, low-lit acoustic folk moments, and surfy noise. Reverse Shark Attack is a loose, carefree collection of insane sounds. You get the sense that it was a lot of fun to make and there probably werent a lot of second takes or arguments in the studio about getting a perfect guitar tone. Equal parts tossed-off riffs and bizarre experimentation, the album sounds like two friends having a blast and letting us look in on the process. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 5 Title: Mikal Cronin Released: 2011-09-20 Tracks: 10 Duration: 33:57 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Is It Alright (03:28) 2 Apathy (02:38) 3 Green & Blue (03:36) 4 Get Along (03:52) 5 Slow Down (01:59) 6 Gone (03:54) 7 Situation (01:55) 8 Again & Again (04:15) 9 Hold on Me (03:05) 10 The Way Things Go (05:15) |
| Mikal Cronin : Allmusic album Review : That Moonhearts bassist/Ty Segall collaborator Mikal Cronin knows all sorts of examples of what can be described as classic pop/rock is obvious from the first notes of "Is It Alright" -- harmonies out of the Beach Boys, a building burst of melody that the Raspberries could have loved, and an echo-swathed verse thats both Phil Spector and the Jesus and Mary Chain. But by the time the keyboard drone pop of "Slow Down" arrives, its clear that Cronins debut release, however tied together by his singing, seeks to not simply be yet another power pop showcase above all else, whether served up clean or with layers of scuzz. The Suicide-meets-Can growl that opens "Green and Blue," for instance, may be a familiar element in other revivals, but Cronin puts enough of a hooky spin on the feedback rampage to help make it stand out as the albums first down-the-line success. In turn, "Hold on Me" has a bit of late-50s tearjerker ballad feeling to it in notable sonic contrast. Theres also something late 80s about the album, in the way that any number of acts were playing around with psychedelia in their own right, like Love and Rockets and the Ophelias, a kind of shadowy echo of an echo but one with its own splendid and involving air. Credit as well for calling a song "Apathy" but having the title line actually be "I dont want apathy." | ||
 | Album: 3 of 5 Title: Violitionist Sessions Released: 2012-03-12 Tracks: 3 Duration: 07:56 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Get Along (03:45) 2 Am I Wrong? (02:17) 3 Situation (01:54) |
 | Album: 4 of 5 Title: MCII Released: 2013-05-07 Tracks: 10 Duration: 37:12 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Weight (03:50) 2 Shout It Out (02:55) 3 Am I Wrong (02:33) 4 See It My Way (03:52) 5 Peace of Mind (04:06) 6 Change (03:43) 7 Im Done Running From You (02:50) 8 Dont Let Me Go (03:31) 9 Turn Away (05:07) 10 Piano Mantra (04:45) |
| MCII : Allmusic album Review : If you only know Mikal Cronin as a member of Ty Segalls band, you might be in for a shock on his debut album for Merge, 2013s MC II. If you picked up Cronins self-titled 2011 album on Trouble in Mind, you might also be in for a bit of a surprise. See, Cronin doesnt go in for noise freakouts or skuzzy garage rock -- hes more of a power popper with an ear for a pretty melody. Hes also cleaned up his sound quite a bit on this record with far less reverb and surface noise scuffing up his songs. Cronin and producer Eric Bauer go for a very layered approach that mixes acoustic and electric guitars and features Cronins nice falsetto harmonies over the top. It makes for a very adaptable sound, perfect for uptempo rockers (like "Shout It Out" or "Turn Away"), midtempo janglers ("Weight," "Am I Wrong"), or introspective ballads ("Peace of Mind.") And despite Cronin playing all the instruments (save the occasional guitar solo by Segall, some drums, and occasional violin), its a very live and direct feeling record with none of the sterility you often find with one-man band projects. Much of the rest of the album looks to the 90s for inspiration, touching on Matthew Sweets punchy power pop or gently biting Sloans rambunctious, but keenly melodic, sound. Check "Am I Wrong" for something that a track that could have been on One Chord to Another, "Peace of Mind, too, has very Sloan-sounding vocal harmonies. "See It My Way" is a little close to being generically 90s though and tips too far in the grunge-lite direction. Its a minor stumble on an album made up of super hooky, really fun tracks and its not enough to wreck the good-time vibe. Indeed, Cronins second album is a step forward from his debut and shows off a guy with enough talent to step out from behind Segalls shadow and make it on his own. | ||
 | Album: 5 of 5 Title: MCIII Released: 2015-05-04 Tracks: 11 Duration: 39:30 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Turn Around (03:50) 2 Made My Mind Up (03:34) 3 Say (04:22) 4 Feel Like (03:59) 5 Ive Been Loved (03:44) 6 i.) Alone (03:27) 7 ii.) Gold (03:44) 8 iii.) Control (03:10) 9 iv.) Ready (03:46) 10 v.) Different (02:10) 11 vi.) Circle (03:44) |
| MCIII : Allmusic album Review : Going big is usually the stumbling block for any artist or band who started off small. Blowing up the arrangements, slicking up the production, or adding scores of extra instruments often does more harm than good, shining a harsh light on a lack of songwriting ideas or just making things seem so huge that the human element gets lost in the shuffle. Mikal Cronins third album, MCIII, is the result of his efforts to go big, and in his case the gamble pays off big-time, resulting in his most pleasing record to date. MCIII is split into two thematic parts, with the first side being huge, hooky pop songs filled with pianos, strings, earwormy guitar lines, and some of the most straightforward and impressive melodies Cronin has committed to tape yet. Almost any one of them could be hit singles, especially the loping "Made My Mind Up," which has a solid 70s Tom Petty feel, and the stomping "Say." "Turn Around" may not have the same kind of hooks as those tracks, but it shows off Cronins growth as a songwriter and producer as he crafts a melancholic wall of sound buttressed by some seriously lyrical string lines. The other side tells a coming-of-age story in six parts, with a less produced, more direct approach that harks back to the last albums sound. Balancing paint-peeling guitar rockers ("Gold," "Ready"), jangling pop songs ("Control," "Circle"), and string-heavy ballads ("Different"), the side is an affecting piece of work. Cronins emotional honesty is bracing and the songs hit hard and stick, much like the first side but with a bit more power. The album isnt a huge leap from MCII, since that album was already very solid, but its enough of one that its worth mentioning. Cronin could have just kept cranking out the same album over and over; that he chose to take a risk and go big showed some real guts. That he was able to make it work as well as he did shows some real skill and should make anyone who liked the first two albums really happy. | ||