Austin – Mister Heavenly is an indie rock supergroup of sorts spearheaded by Nick Thorburn of Islands and featuring Man Man’s Honus Honus and Modest Mouse’s Joe Plummer. But I’d imagine if one were to do an informal poll of the crowd, the findings would be that the majority of people in attendance were there not because of a fondness for those bands, but for one sole reason: they wanted to see a celebrity play in a band. Yes, Mister Heavenly also features Michael Cera aka George Michael Bluth, aka that guy from Superbad, aka Scott Pilgrim. And much like Scott Pilgrim, Cera plays bass in this group.
The curiosity factor was very high, with one girl outside wondering if Cera would even be playing with them tonight and another guy musing on whether all of their lyrics would come in the form of awkwardly phrased sentences. I spoke with two guys who had seen them play earlier that afternoon (I think at The IFC House?) who told me after the first song that they sucked, adding, “all their songs sound like this.” I wondered why they would come see them again if they already knew they sucked, but kept my wouth shut on that matter as I wanted to watch a band, not get into a debate.
So, did they suck? No, but it wasn’t quite what I expected either. In interviews before the band had even really recorded anything, Thorburn described the project as “doom wop,” and not having heard anything from them, I was expecting 1950s style harmonies over slow, droning, doomy riffs. I was expecting Cera to be laying down some thick bass sludge Geezer Butler style. This was not the reality. I could certainly hear the ’50s influence in a lot of the melodies, but not quite the doom part. Still, it was pretty decent stuff and I look forward to hearing the new album when it comes out.