I'm Not A Pilot ... Or Maybe He Is....

[this article was originally published for Suburban Bully, April 30th, 2010]

If you’re one that holds the accusation that Milwaukee doesn’t have much to offer as far as indie music talent goes, you may have, at one time, been right. I mean, sure we rested on the laurels of Les Paul in the 1950’s and didn’t really produce any real talent here again until The Violent Femmes shocked the world out of its complacency in the 1980’s. In the late 80’s we gave birth to The Gufs, and in the mid-90’s The Promise Ring. Though we did offer some good ones here and there, for the most part Milwaukee never really had the Seattle, San Francisco or Cincinnati level reputation for being a powerhouse of musical talent. This city has no shortage of ‘80’s cover bands and teenage thrash metal ensembles, and so one can hardly be blamed for not wanting to bother sifting through so many oysters for the occasional pearls.

However, if you’ve frequented Linneman’s Riverwest Inn on Locust, or were at Club Garibaldi in Bayview on Friday night, April 30th, you might have had the same realization that I’ve begun having: Holy crap! Where have all these awesome Milwaukee bands been hiding? How come no one told me? How come I didn’t notice that this indie music revolution was going on in our own fair city! I dare say that the once weedy musical garden of Milwaukee has somehow, right under our noses, grown a bevy a flourishing local talent with potential that none of us would have imagined.

One such shining example, among many, is singer/songwriter Mark Glatzel’s band , I’m Not A Pilot. The group is comprised of Glatzel on piano and lead vocals, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Cellist Peter Thomas, Glatzel’s brother Matt on bass guitar and Steve Vorass (of Stukenberg fame) on drums. No, I didn’t forget the guitar player - there isn’t one! With the strength of Glatzel’s song writing, coupled by the superb musicianship of the other members, the usual need for a lead guitarist is made completely unnecessary - and the absence of one goes entirely unnoticed. In fact, while having a drink with Glatzel at Garibaldi’s on Friday before Pilot’s set, this was a topic of immediate interest.

“It never really crossed my mind that we needed a guitar player,” Glatzel says, “so I guess that’s why we don’t have one.” Granted, it’s not all that unusual; bands without guitar players are everywhere - but ones that can successfully make it work are few and far between (Morphine immediately comes to mind as a good one). For the most part, it’s seen conventionally as an essential rock band instrument - right up there with a drummer. It’s the bass players that typically get afflicted with “invisible man syndrome”. Come on, have you ever seen a band without a bass player? Yeah, probably... but did you really notice? If you did, then you might also be the type to notice that I’m Not A Pilot, technically, has two (cello and electric bass)! How’s that for going against the grain.

“We have a unique sound,” Glatzel says, “but it’s not totally out there or anything.”

True. The sound is based foremost around Glatzel’s intricate piano playing and the melodic harmony of Thomas’s “guitar simulated” electric cello. It’s with this technique that they can pull off a fantastic cover of The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind?” that severely challenges the integrity of the original. Vorass’ drumming is equally intricate, stapling the bands “baroque arrangement” sound together with precision and skill. They evoke the Top-40 piano pop of The Fray and Coldplay, but Glatzel’s knack for pop hooks, his melodic harmony specific voice and crescendous (is that a word?) singing could easily make him the love child of Regina Spektor and Freddie Mercury (yeah, try to get your head around that... or don’t - it could cause synapses to misfire.)

Aside from the eclectic style, what’s with the equally unusual name: I’m Not A Pilot? “It came to me while writing in my journal about the idea of being in control of your life,” Glatzel explains, “Whether [there’s a] higher power that one believes is in control, or if you’re the one in control. It’s a reference to where the pilot of that plane is or isn’t taking himself... and where he should be.”

The band began in the winter of 2008 and has since recorded and released, on the Florida based Branch Records label, their first self-titled EP. In May of this year, they plan to head into the studio to record a full length album. I’m Not A Pilot performs primarily in Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago, and can be heard on a number of local Milwaukee radio stations - like 88.9 Radio Milwaukee and 89.7 WUWM. Upcoming shows include a debut at Summerfest this year, Bastille Days and Summer Soulstice.

For those who still think Milwaukee is overdue to produce another truly unique band, the time has come to look around and change your mind. Listen to I’m Not A Pilot’s “No Heart”, and you’ll have no doubt there is unquestionable appeal and major label potential - and there’s at least a dozen more spectacular bands here in the queue right behind them!

The show at Garibaldi’s featured performances by four bands: Revision Text, Lost In A Name, Blane Fonda and, to top it all off, I’m Not A Pilot. Revision Text opened with a set that positively floored me. They do have a guitar player - and two at that - but they were comparatively ingenious with their immediately catchy chord progressions and heavily rhythmic drumming. The $5 full length album for sale at their merch table, entitled Modern Science, was cleverly (and sarcastically, considering the album’s title) packaged to look liked those archaic floppy disks that were the data storage standard from the mid 70’s until about 1992. Brilliant! Lost In A Name took the stage next, and though they suffered some technical difficulties at the expense of the bass player (it was, in fact, noticed - he isn’t the kind of bass player you can ignore once you’ve heard him play) they were no less impressive. Blane Fonda followed , and the night closed with an expectedly rousing set by Pilot.

Despite your past impressions of Milwaukee’s music scene (or lack thereof), do yourself a favor and start checking out some of the talent here now. It’s exciting, it’s creative, it’s a shining beacon of hope for a revival of the indie music scene that has been for too long stuck in the shadow of the overproduced, corporate sellouts the major labels have been shoveling at us. After experiencing bands like I’m Not A Pilot, Revision Text and the like, there’s no doubt that it’s time to start taking notice. Milwaukee is geared and more than ready to challenge the influential, the era-defining, the truly original alternative rock bands like those that poured out of Seattle in the 1990’s like the place was some kind of clown car... and we don’t need no stinking guitars!