Mike Tyler

New Single ‘Money Grows On Your Knees’

Out April 16^th on The Art Can Not Be Damaged

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‘It’s worth forgiving this gratuitous double entendre. There’s something of Lou Reed’s deadpan style and the flippancy of Jonathan Richman.’

– Bloomberg, 4/5

From the album ‘Erection’, that sparked euphemistic reviews across a wide variety of the press, from indie tastemakers, to global news networks to porn mags, Mike Tyler presents the new single ‘Money Grows On Your Knees’ featuring brand new B-Side ‘Corny Song’.

Mike Tyler is a poet and musician from the New York City tradition of Lou Reed, mentored in a bar by the American poet Delmore Schwartz, Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine of Television. All of Mike’s tracks are produced by BL’EVE – an artist with a scope of production ranging from artists like Wyclef Jean to Maino.

“I believe the sound of popular music is the sound of mutts barking; frictions, and strange conglomerations, mistaken identifications, and odd-ball pairings. Not Yin and Yang but Wham and Bam!” explains the man himself in that inimitably quirky way that earned him a running guest column for the 405.

Stand out moments of Mike Tyler’s career were catalysed by his way with words. Banksy stencilled his words “only the ridiculous survive” outside of London’s Paddington Station, while Beck fell under his charismatic spell when honing his song writing craft. He became known as The Most Dangerous Poet in America after breaking his arm during a reading, and his poem “The Most Beautiful Word in the American Language” is on people’s Facebook walls, MySpace pages, and blogs, not to mention fridge doors.

On his new offering, Tyler says:

“My new single is such a lopsided seductive beast. Deep deep bass with a pop frosting and a growling lead yawp. It can be kind of sweet in places and then a dungeon-door-slamming-echoed-thud takes over; a contradiction in tones. It’s the boiled pot of the gumbo stew of black and white that is America; greed and innocence, joy and exhausted hustle. Might explain why we decided the packaging of the single would include an actual puzzle.

The b-side “Corny Song” I wrote when I came back from London where we had a great reception for my album Erection, and the first single, Stuttering Song II. We did a gig at a space that at the same time had a show up of classic sex-film posters. Um, yeah! It felt “corny” how right everything went and great the night played. How the UK crowd seemed to understand what we were doing; even though it must have seemed well, different. Sometimes even a New Yorker, used to the hassling vibe of the dirty uphill climb, can accept something going just about perfectly. How corny!”

Mike Tyler-Singer/songwriter/poet reveals his Perfect 10.

(in the order I thought of ‘em)

Television, marquee moon

Scratch, scratch … scratch, scratch, itch

Big Star, #1 Record

Whoosh …

Ramones, Ramones

There’s somethin’ down there

Beatles, For Sale

For Play

Oasis, Definitely Maybe

Definitely, Yes

Massive Attack, Mezzanine

Bottommore

Denim, Back in Denim

Cake. Cake! CAKE!!

Teenage Fanclub, Bandwagonesque

The obvious can never be said enough, because it’s said so much

The Horrors, Primary Colours

Of the three, number two

Mgmt, Oracular Spectacular

Be wishful about what you’re careful of

thanks for asking, Mky

Checkout Mike Tyler’s debut UK album, Erection out in August

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Mike Tyler

Erection

Out August 20^th on Code7

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Mike Tyler is a celebrated non-academic, post-beat poet and musician in the American tradition. ‘Erection’ is his second album, creatively processed more like a novel than a recording. There is an incredible control over the work, with subtle musical innuendos and effects, as well as an incomparable sense of humour throughout. ‘Conversational Spanish’ has a false ending similar to Bacharach/David’s ‘The Look of Love’, the song ‘Man Alone’ is in, of course, Mono, and entertainingly facile lyrics like ‘I’d like to throw a pie in the face of remorseless piety’ and ‘I was standin’ by a Wilson Picket fence at ‘bout the midnight hour’ prop up album wide.

A recurrent theme of this record is a feeling of discovery and understanding, as if it’s laying a sympathetic palm on your shoulder and saying ‘there there. There there!’ There’s something comforting in an understanding that comes across as understanding itself. When he first met his producer Bl’EVE this was exemplified; different backgrounds, different musical tastes, but an incredible feeling of shared understanding.

It is a record about the feeling when you are over something that has broken you up. Your heart has healed but it has reformed jaggedly. The sadness of the blues is connected with the success of rock ‘n roll. This sets it apart from ISM (one of Mike’s own idiom creations meaning “Incredibly Sad Music” usually characterised by a back and forth of romantic wailing and a more modernist hard-edged disdain). Felt’s Lawrence, a cult hero of jangly ‘ISM’ (bands Girls and Real Estate both refer to him) is a major influence for Mike Tyler. As is the secretive poetic narrative of rock ‘n’ roll. He says:

“From the blues forward it has been as much about words as the music. Even an instrumental guitar track like Wipe Out would be nothing without, well, “ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, wipe out.” It can be a condensed language, it can be cryptic, it can be repetitive and rhythmic, yeah that’s right it’s poetry.”

Mike came from the New York City tradition of Lou Reed, mentored in a bar by the American poet Delmore Schwartz (who wanted poets to be as famous as baseball players), Patti Smith (a poet first) and Tom Verlaine of Television. Stand out moments of Mike Tyler’s career were catalysed by his way with words. Banksy stencilled his words “only the ridiculous survive” outside of London’s Paddington Station, while Beck fell under his charismatic spell while honing his song writing craft. He became known as The Most Dangerous Poet in America after breaking his arm during a reading and his poem “The Most Beautiful Word in the American Language” is on people’s Facebook walls, MySpace pages, and blogs, not to mention fridge doors.

Mike Tyler

Debut UK Single Stuttering Song II

Out June 11^th on Code7

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Mike Tyler is a celebrated non-academic, post-beat poet and musician in the American tradition. His new single Stuttering Song II is the first to be released in the UK. The track, taken from his forthcoming sophomore album Erection (out August 20^th) instantly portrays his inimitably quirky magnetism. Repetitive catchy chords provide the backdrop for his poetically devised (naturally) and hilariously undemanding lyrics. The single also features a B-Side called, well, B-Side. Arranged with drifting acoustic guitar, softly thudded drums and handclaps it’s very much melodiously devised, demonstrating that his poetic skill is equally matched by his musicianship.

All of Mike’s tracks are produced by BL’EVE – an artist more accustomed to the urban scene with a scope of production ranging from artists like Wyclef Jean to Maino. It was their different backgrounds and different musical tastes, but incredible feeling of shared understanding that makes their collaboration pretty exciting.

Mike came from the New York City tradition of Lou Reed, mentored in a bar by the American poet Delmore Schwartz (who wanted poets to be as famous as baseball players), Patti Smith (a poet first) and Tom Verlaine of Television.

Stand out moments of Mike Tyler’s career were catalysed by his way with words. Banksy stencilled his words “only the ridiculous survive” outside of London’s Paddington Station, while Beck fell under his charismatic spell while honing his song writing craft. He became known as The Most Dangerous Poet in America after breaking his arm during a reading, and his poem “The Most Beautiful Word in the American Language” is on people’s Facebook walls, MySpace pages, and blogs, not to mention fridge doors.

Limited edition superpaks including an imported 7″ record, CD and stencil will be available from erectionerection.com