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Sunday Morning Chameleon Hits the Watch

There really is nothing like leading the life of an unsigned local band in a large city like Chicago. You can expect late nights, little money (if any at all), and playing to many an empty room. Even the most talented musician can go unnoticed in a city saturated with promising and not so promising talent. But sometimes it's all about being in the right place at the right time, or better yet making the right music at the right time. So is the luck of Chicago-based rock quartet Sunday Morning Chameleon, a band who from the start garnered the interest of some important people in the Chicago music scene, giving the band a shining start to what will hopefully become a long and profitable career.

Sunday Morning Chameleon released their self-titled EP back in December of 2005. The band was relatively unknown, yet someone at legendary rock station WXRT took notice and evidently was a huge fan. The band was bestowed a spot on WXRT's year-end list of "Top 5 releases of the year by a Chicago artist," making them the only unsigned act to be included on the list. A few months later the band was asked to write a song for the full-length film Chasing October, and when the movie was released in March of 2007, Sunday Morning Chameleon had four songs included on the movie's soundtrack. For a band that was still so new and unknown, the attention that they garnered was an impressive feat for any band, signed or unsigned.

Yet all the attention is well deserved, as Sunday Morning Chameleon offers up some amazing music for all of Chicago to hear. The band went back into the studio earlier this year with famed producers Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron and Wine) and Sean O'Keefe (Fall Out Boy, Rachel Yamagata) and released in August their sophomore EP More Human. The new EP has received praise from New City, Illinois Entertainer and the Chicago Sun Times, rightfully so with their gorgeous dreamy pop melodies that are reminiscent of early Coldplay or Travis. The band's music shines with tight guitar riffs layered over shimmering cymbals and lead singer Ryan Flagstad's strong, clear, and concise voice that blends vocal comparison of Thom Yorke and Chris Martin.

Lucky for us Chicagoans, we can catch Sunday Morning Chameleon dishing out their swoon worthy pop music soon with two shows in the near future. The band will be playing at Lumino Magazine's "Jingle Your Bells 2" at Joe's on Weed St on December 21st, and will also have a show on January 4th at Subterranean, a venue that I'm hoping will provide the band with a perfect setting for their music. You can also check them out and purchase their new EP on their myspace [http://www.myspace.com/smcmusic], where you'll also find details on their upcoming shows as well.

Posted by Lisa White on Dec 11, 2007 @ 12:00 am