Melodyguild

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Melodyguild (often misspelled as Melody Guild) was a Los Angeles Dream Pop/Indie Rock band begun in 2002 by former Love Spirals Downwards vocalist, Suzanne Perry, and ex-members of The Von Trapps, Matt Gleason and John West.

1 History
2 Releases
3 Background
4 Trivia
5 References
6 See also

[edit] History

Melodyguild performed locally - including several shows at Club Violaine (where Cocteau Twins founder, Robin Guthrie, has also been known to perform) - sporadically between November 2002 and January 2004. During that period, band membership changed several times with the final lineup including the founder of The Von Trapps, Rodney Rodriguez, and Cris Miller, of Clairecords' band, Silver Screen.

The band premiered their first recorded song on March 20, 2003, during a live in-studio interview with DJ Wednesday on her seminal Gothic/Industrial radio program, Generation Death,[1] for KSPC 88.7 FM on the Claremont College campus.

Internationally renown Dark Wave/Gothic label, Projekt, who was Perry's former label, announced a summer 2003 release date for a Melodyguild 4-song EP, to be titled 'Aitu'. After pushing the date back twice, the title mysteriously disappeared from Projekt's release schedule and never surfaced. The last mention of the EP was on Melodyguild's now defunct website (accessible through the Internet Archive) on January 26, 2004:

"Regarding the E.P. that you've all been waiting for....believe it or not, we are still hard at work in the studio. We are hoping we can post some music soon, but we haven't decided yet what to post or when. We promise we will make a decision soon as we know you are all waiting!"

[edit] Releases

The only song released by Melodyguild to date is a recording by Perry and Miller of Danny Elfman's The Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack piece, "Sally's Song," on Projekt's 2004 Holiday Single 2.[2] The 3-song various artist cardboard sleeve CD-Single is a limited release of 1,000 copies.

[edit] Background

Love Spirals Downwards has long been hailed as a cornerstone of the American Ethereal movement -- usually mentioned in the same breath as English Ethereal legends, Cocteau Twins -- and Perry is often mentioned as a comparison to other vocalists of the genre then and now.

The Von Trapps evolved out of the Los Angeles Ethereal/Dream Pop band, Elysium, and were embraced by Dewdrops fanzine and record company though neither band acchieved great acclaim. Von Trapps bandleader, Rodney Rodriguez, contributed acoustic guitar to a track on Love Spirals Downwards' final 1998 album, Flux, and accompanied the band on second guitar for concerts in promotion of the CD.

[edit] Trivia

Melodyguild was interviewed for the Winter 2004 Gothic Beauty magazine, Issue #15. The issue is now out-of-print. [3]

Melodyguild's website was designed by former-Von Trapps keyboardist, Nick Marshall.

In 2005 Melodyguild bassist, Rodriquez, joined in as live second guitarist for Lovespirals, which is the new incarnation of Love Spirals Downwards with vocalist, Anji Bee. [4]