Posted 04/04/07

Give Us Your Socks!
In Memory of Pluto takes Earth by storm

Jon Taylor l managing editor
jtaylor@smcvt.edu

Click here to view a video of In Memory of Pluto.

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The Turtle Underground is an open mike night held on Saturdays at St. Michael's College’s North Campus that is moderately attended by students seeking an evening of relaxing music.

On this particular Saturday night, however, there was a strange occurrence that left more questions than answers.

In Memory of Pluto during a rehearsal - (From left to right): Seth Gallant, John Flanagan, Ryan McGrath, Zach Jandl, and Bill Jandl - Mike Morris, photo

The usual round of acoustic troubadours had played their sets for the easygoing, coffee-sipping crowd of about 20 people. Without much notice, the gentle flow of the singer-songwriters’ musings disappeared from the air, crushed by a wall of electric sound.

“Give us your socks!”

The Plutonians had arrived.

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Zach Jandl’s battle cry demanding socks echoed throughout the room as In Memory of Pluto, a new band on the St. Michael's College music scene, took to the stage. There aren’t too many hard rock bands that play the Turtle (as it’s known to the regulars), so with songs like “Give Us Your Socks” and “We Came to Rock,” this group was poised to give the small crowd the hardest rocking they may ever receive in their lifetimes.

But perhaps the most intriguing part about In Memory of Pluto is its shtick, which tends to draw a lot of attention its way. Its laid-back guitarist John Flanagan, 20, explains the band’s mission as a narrative of sorts.

“We have a death-ray that feeds off the power of socks. So in order to power the death-ray to get back home, we rock peoples’ socks off.”

18-year-old bassist Jandl puts it in simpler terms.

”We’re from Pluto and we need socks.”

Also included in the five-piece band are drummer Ryan McGrath, 21, electric mandolin and synthesizer player Seth Gallant, 21, and Zach Jandl’s 20-year-old brother Bill on guitar.

In Memory of Pluto got its splendid name from obvious sources, seeing as Pluto was recently downgraded from planet to dwarf planet and then quickly removed from the standard known universe. The initial inspiration for the name, however, came from a tacky T-shirt featuring the solar system that Flanagan wears “in memory” of the former planet.

Although the five members were friends beforehand, Zach Jandl says that the idea behind starting the band was fostered during a fateful trip to Daddy’s Junky Music, a New England music supplies store.

Mandolin and synthesizer player Seth Gallant playing "Four Letter Words" Mike Morris, photo

“On our way to driving there, we’re like, ‘Maybe we should get a little practice amp, so we can maybe play some music.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know if I really want to spend the money.’ But when we get to Daddy’s, I just see this huge bass amp — ridiculously loud — and I had to have it, so we bought it. Then we called up everyone and decided we should rock out that night.”

Flanagan was there when the Jandl brothers returned from their escapade and was slightly unsatisfied with the situation.

“We thought the amps looked weird without any beers on them, so we bought a bunch of beers, got all of our instruments, and just rocked out in Billy’s room for a few hours. That was the first time we all played together.”

After a night of jamming, In Memory of Pluto was launched.

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The consensus among In Memory of Pluto is that good ole’ fashioned rock n’ roll has definitely fallen by the wayside on the Vermont music scene, which Gallant characterizes as “rock-deprived.” The band is currently planning gigs around Burlington, Vt. to not only publicize itself, but to bring back this kind of music.

Even so, it would be inaccurate to simply place this band under the standard rock n’ roll banner.

During their Turtle performance, Zach exclaimed that In Memory Of Pluto was a “soft metal” band, but the band members find themselves hard-pressed to decide exactly how they would categorize their music. Eventually, they settled on an invented genre — “eclectic rock.”

Eclectic is one word for it.

In Memory Of Pluto’s music could be filed somewhere in between the up-tempo funk strut of the Talking Heads and the loud crunch of My Morning Jacket, with a hint of the Killers’ synthesized harmonies. When this band releases a record, store clerks are going to have a hell of a time figuring out where to put it.

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The friendships between band members help drive their amusing give-and-take songwriting style, leading to elaborate dueling guitar leads, loud-soft dynamics, and an overall harmonic cohesion not seen in a lot of music lately.

Guitarist John Flanagan rocks while the Jandl brothers harmonize on "We Came to Rock" - Mike Morris, photo

“Harmony is a part that’s left out of a lot of songs today,” Flanagan says. “[Current music has] a pretty basic formula. Whatever drives some emotion out of a song in the quickest way is what songwriters tend to go for now. I guess we never really planned it, but Bill and I tend to interplay the parts that go well with each other.”

In a traditional five-piece rock band, there is usually one lead guitarist and one rhythm guitarist. It’s to be expected that these Plutonians don’t follow that structure.

Bill Jandl and Flanagan switch off guitar parts, but don’t usually stick with the lead-rhythm setup. They instead tend to play complicated lead parts together at different octave levels, heightening the vibrant solo work. (This style of guitar can be heard on The Eagles’ “Hotel California” and Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova.”)

During songwriting sessions, everyone has an integral part in the process, particularly 21-year-old Gallant, whose addition of electric mandolin and synthesizer creates unique depth in the band’s music.

“There’s not too many rock bands utilizing mandolins,” he says. “And then the synthesizer is, I don’t know, really versatile. What I hope to do as a Plutonian rocker is play a lot of different instruments to make a lot of different noises.”

The real aim of the various instruments, according to Zach, is to have a pronounced sound that “really messes [the genre] up.”

McGrath (who is unusually quiet for a drummer) is also involved in the writing process, even though the stereotypical drummer just “shows up and plays.”

“It’s hard for drummers, who can only add so much into a song, like rhythm. The first time we practiced, they showed up with music and said ‘What can we do with this?’ So to the extent that a drummer can be involved in the music, I’m pretty involved.”

While not all of their songs have lyrics currently, Zach assumes the position of lead singer and bassist. This is not permanent, however. All except McGrath can sing and each plan on contributing their own voice to In Memory of Pluto.

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For having performed only once in public, In Memory of Pluto certainly has an impressive, if small, fan following.

Tom Kingston, a St. Michael's employee and one of the Turtle’s regular performers, attended the band’s first performance and has since sat in on In Memory of Pluto’s jam sessions on the keys.

“I think it’s really funny that we have a cult following and we haven’t really played anywhere yet," Gallant says. - Mike Morris, photo

“The performance was phenomenal because the orchestration of the various instruments was rich and full of enthusiasm," he says.

While the band shops around for gigs their fans can attend, there are plans to record demos for a possible EP that Bill promises will be “post-apocalyptic.”

As for now, In Memory of Pluto will have to revel in its low-level popularity. Gallant and his fellow band mates seem pleased by it.

“I think it’s really funny that we have a cult following and we haven’t really played anywhere yet.”

Maybe it’s the name, the story, or the members, that have drawn people (this writer included) to In Memory of Pluto. Even money says it’s the complex, catchy music that really brings out the Plutonian in all of us.

They will indubitably gather socks, but hopefully few enough pairs to make In Memory of Pluto’s stay on Earth an extended one.