Me & Mountains

Before hitting the stages in the Dayton music scene, Me & Mountains took their time crafting a sound and batch of songs they were happy with. The band drinks from the same water as Bob Pollard, so they posses that slightly off-center Pop core and are rich with melody-loaded songs, but M&M adds a dash of New Wave/Power Pop quirkiness to the formula. - Midpoint Music Festival

"With years of shared friendships between its members, Me & Mountains came together at various intervals during the course of just over a year’s time. Currently comprised of Pete Bowser (drums), Tim Collette (guitar), Burris Dixon (bass/vocals), Marshall Norman (guitar), and Roger Smith (keyboards), the band’s hum- ble beginnings start as so many band tales do: in a basement." - Dayton City Paper

Few local bands appear on the scene as fully formed as Me & Mountains. When the group made its debut last summer it already had developed a dynamic collection of hook-heavy songs that fall somewhere between Weezer and The Killers.

The pop-rock apprentices of Me & Mountains — Burris Dixon (vocals, bass), Marshall Norman (guitar), Tim Collette (guitar), Rodger Smith (keyboards) and Pete Bowser (drums) — gathered together recently to discuss the group’s origins and their impressive self-titled debut. - Active Dayton, Don Thrasher (Drummer of Guided By Voices)

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I was positively biased towards Me & Mountains before I ever heard a note. I met M&M primary vocalist, bassist Burris Dixon in a bar some time back, and we’ve since struck up a pleasant and casual friendship. So when I found out he was in a band, my predisposition for them was already pretty sunny. By the end of my first M&M set, I’d decided they’d be a solid conversation point when anyone asked me about the highlights of the current Dayton musical landscape. I have to admit, I was initially disappointed when I realized Me & Mountains debut included only six cuts. However, when I found a surprisingly complete collection, with a far better strike rate than many other indie pop bands out there, I quickly change my mind. Though opener “Foxy Friends” isn’t my favorite cut on the record, it is a catchy and genial rock opener that conjures Sam’s Town-era The Killers. “Rock King” is a whimsical slow burner in the vein of Spoon that takes a swipe at hipsters with lines like, “You wear all the right clothes/Listen to all the right notes/And all your friends wanna be just like you/Congratulations” sung with wry sarcasm. “Heartattack” begins with a sharp synth line, but unfolds into a noisy cacophony that sounds a bit like The Strokes doing a take on Muse. The vocals have an affected gravitas that lends itself well to a fist pumping chorus of “Heartattack/You nearly gave me a heartattack/Winds on your back/I thought you might fly away.” “Wake Up & Feel The Magic” is a sweet and affable bit of rock melodrama that contains a lot of the same swing and swagger of Dayton forebearers Captain of Industry, which can likely be attributed to confident frontmen with a proclivity for capturing magic melodies. “Blackbird” is a moody outing with a buoyant rhythmic backbone and sleek vocal harmonies on the verses, and a bombastic, drum heavy chorus, and closer “Tell Them” is a more straight forward rocker with a sexy and simple guitar line bookending the verses. This debut is full of irrepressible, and sophisticated pop hooks that are sometimes flashy, and always gratifying and uncastrated. While a lot of other indie pop bands drown themselves in empty bluster and derivative messiness, this band seems to be both a deliberate and significant addition to the local, and hopefully national, indie rock landscape. - youindie.com