D Nuts || October 8, 2007

Not sure why it is that Pleasant Grove can be heard every once in a while on NPR; perhaps someone at Badman Records is chummy with Terry Gross? At any rate, you can catch PG punctuating American public radio interludes once in a blue moon, and that's the only logical connection I came up with when I received some news from drummer Jeff Ryan this weekend.

Turns out his bedroom solo project, Myopic, is now the headline artist at NPR's Open Mic site. Having said that, I don't know too many local bedroom-popsters who get Stuart Sikes' help with recording, but that's neither here nor there. The site hosts one of Ryan's old demos, "As Much As You Can III," with Ryan narrating its intro, and the song sounds, well, exactly like NPR sez: "Bells play complicated patterns to create a subtle melody while synth phases in the background." Wanna write for Dd, Open Mic? We don't pay, and I bet you're used to that.

The site reports that Ryan has a full-length album in the works, so I suppose Dd would be wise to start a pool to see which'll be out first: Ryan's album or PG's? If a little healthy competition can't speed the process, I dunno what can. -SM