FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE - Five Guys named Moe (1990)

Country:
Canada/Scotland
Genre:
Rock
Style:
Pop Rock,Folk,Alternative-Pop

Members:
Meg Lunney - Vocals
Jonathan Evans - Guitar
Tom McKay - Bass
Graeme Murray - Drums

Original lineup of musicians was Jonathan Evans, Tom McKay, David Fairweather (Keyboards) and Matt Wood (Drums).

VIDEO:
"Shes On The Mountains"

Credits:
Bagpipes [Uilleann Pipes] - Ronan Browne
Banjo - James Kelly
Bass [Acoustic], Bass [Electric], Vocals [Additional] - Tom McKay
Bouzouki, Other [Bodbran] - Dónal Lunny (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B3nal_Lunny)Drums, Vocals [Additional] - Graeme Murray
Engineer - Richard Moakes/Engineer [Additional] - Gavin McComb/Engineer [Assistant] - Robbie Adams
Percussion - Noel Eccles (http://www.emirecords.co.uk/commonground/mi/eccles/eccles.html)Producer - Dónal Lunny* (tracks: 1 to 10) , Five Guys Named Moe Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Guitar [Electric], Guitar [Lapsteel] - Jonathan Evans
Vocals, Piano, Organ, Keyboards, Accordion - Meg Lunney

Tracklist:

01 Selfish Days
02 Breathing
03 Eyes Like Thunder
04 If I Were A Man
05 Good News
06 She's On A Mountain
07 What Fran Said
08 Loud Tie
09 Beneath The Willow
10 Fairvan
11 Pieni Suomalainen

Link to download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/139558797/fgnm_1990_.rar.html

Lyrics:
http://www.gamekult.com/pic/blog/227315_3.JPG

http://www.gamekult.com/pic/blog/227317_3.JPG

"This is not the musical--this is an early 1990s band from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This is lively, bouncy pop, very upbeat, with the quirky vocals of Meg Lunney and the more usual vocals of Jonathan Evans. (Neile)
(http://www.ectoguide.org/artists/five.guys.named.moe)

"I had the great pleasure of seeing Five Guys Named Moe when they supported Martin Stephenson and The Daintees playing in Derby, back in 1990 on The Daintees "Salutation Road" tour. They were brilliant and, I thought, destined for great things.
I bought this album as soon as I could find my way in to record store and have loved it ever since.
I originally bought it on cassette and, thankfully, managed to buy a further cassette copy of it when the original got chewed up. Thankfully, I've now got it on CD for posterity.
Every single track on this album is wonderful, from the operning kerching of "Selfish Days" through the delicate beauty of "Good News" and the downright silliness of "Fran Said".
Buy it now and love it."

"This is a deceptively breezy collection of songs with an underlying take on the pains and oddities of human exsistence. A great album, sure to put a smile on your face on even the greyest of days."

"There must be numerous music crimes like this one out there. This CD single "Selfish Day" is taken from an eponymous album by Five Guys Named Moe released in 1990, a real gem of an album if you are at all lucky enough to find a copy of. The crime in question is that this band seemed to have dropped off the face of the planet, not acquiring great success or releasing anything else I'm aware of. (If anyone knows differently please let me know!) This won't be to everyone's taste. Some may describe it as too light or throwaway in its whimsical folk style. The sound is closest to Kirsty MacColl of the 'Kite' and 'Electric Landlady' era, or Sixpence None the Richer. Indeed 'Kiss Me' could have been easily written by Five Guys. There are shades of Lloyd Cole and Hothouse Flowers here too. 'Selfish Days' serves well as a sampler, being the opening track and one of the best from the album. What else can be said? The joint handling of lead vocals by male and female works well, the voices compliment each other. The real joy is the combination of beautiful melodies and slightly skewed lyrics that result in putting a big smile on your face. This is defiantly happy music and there's always room for plenty of that in the world, despite what cynics might say. On a personal note, if anyone involved in the band ever reads this I'd just like to say a big thank you and when are you next playing?"

UPDATED (25.04.2010)

FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE - Demos (1986)

Notes:
Recorded in Ottawa (45 min.long, and no pause between the tracks)

Tracklist:

01 Depend On Yourself
02 Fairvan
03 Driver's Seat
04 One, Two, Three
05 Listening
06 Day By Day By Day
07 Previous Dialling (Bedroom Adjoining Shower Jam Session)
08 Japan
09 Took Me By Surprise
10 Musical Arrangements
11 Easy Going
12 Be My One + Only

Link to download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/379762920/five_guys_named_moe_-_demos__1986_.rar

Million thanks to Angela (she is the original source) and Jack Marcheur who sent me the demo tape finally! This is a true gem folks! Warm and romantic, and i cant stop to listen to it.

And Fairvan is the only song which later appeared on their album, the rest are unreleased and rare. Just dont understand why they didn't put these awesome songs onto the album? The sound quality is not too good so i hope once they will release it in a remastered form.
Enjoy!

Biography:
A misleading name for this quartet of 3 men and one woman, this Glasgow based band from Wawa, Ontario achieved prominence in Scotland after moving to Britain in 1987. Lunny, Evans and McKay hail from Canada and Murray from Scotland.
The Ontario contingent first met when Evans and Lunney were neighbours and Lunney's sisters would babysit McKay. The trio went to the University of Ottawa where they formed the band The Five Guys.
Quirky, melodic and often humorous, their style was a blend of dreamy Mary Margaret O'Hara/Jane Siberry styled ethereal tunes. (http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Pop_Encyclopedia/F/Five_Guys_Named_Moe.html)

This Canadian group formed in Waba, Ontario, in the '80s, while most of its members were attending the University of Ottawa together. Five Guys Named Moe was actually made up of one woman, lead singer Meg Lunney, and three guys, guitarist Jonathan Evans, drummer Graeme Murray, and bassist Tom McKay. The pop band didn't find much success until it relocated to Britain. Around 1990, Five Guys Named Moe signed a deal with RCA Records. The result was two singles, "Selfish Days" and "She's on a Mountain," and the group's one and only full-length album, a self-titled offering that received little recognition. ~ Charlotte Dillon, All Music Guide

Tom Mckay:
"Five Guys Named Moe was born in Ottawa Canada in the mid 1980's. The noriginal lineup of musicians was Jonathan Evans, Tom McKay, David Fairweather (Keyboards) and Matt Wood (Drums). I knew Jon Evans because my older brother was friends with him. I started playing music with Jon one day when my brother wasn't around and his band The Privates needed a bass player. I was younger and could learn a lot from someone who was eighteen. We got along well when I was 15 and 16 and a few years later formed FGNM. The name came from the Louis Jordan song. We had a show but no band name and Jon opened up a song book and just chose a song title randomly. That was it. That was how we got our name. We played with this lineup for a year and a half and then Dave Fairweather left the band. We put an add in the University paper for a keyboard player and Meg Lunney met Jon and I in the Ottawa University bar for a few beers and to talk music. We got on well. I'd been going to Jon's house for years to record and rehearse or just to listen to records.We'd listen for hours and hours to The Smiths, The Beatles, Burt Bacharach, The Beach Boys, The Blue Nile, The Clash, Jimi Hendrix and other influential artists. We'd talk about arrangements and chords and musical "colours" and how Bacharach and The Beatles were such amazing writers and arrangers. After we'd been a band with Meg for awhile we made a demo recording and I went to Toronto to see if I could convince the major record labels to sign us. I was unsucessful. I returned to Ottawa sad but determined to find someone who would help us make a record. I picked up a copy of the NME on the way home from the bus station and started to realise that most of our band's influences were British and that we would fit in better in the UK. I told Jon and Meg and Matt this and they looked at me like I was insane. The idea of leaving University, home, North America to them seemed extreme. To me it made perfect sense. We would move to London and the whole world would embrace our music and we would be celebrated from end to end of that tiny island. This ridiculous naivete and youthful exuberance rubbed off on the others and I eventually convinced FGNM to move to London England....
We arrived in London hung over and giddy. With no connections and no real idea of what we'd gotten ourselves into we secured jobs at a pub inHolland Park and started to investigate the massive London scene. I dyed my hair black, bought clothes and assumed my new identity as uber pop bass man from Canada. I chased women, drank beer, smoked joints andbasically did what a 20 year old does when he moves to a new city... I went wild. After about 9 months Jon, Meg and I realised that London was too expensive a city to develop a career in...so we took an investigative trip to the sunny city of Glasgow. The people were very funny, friendly and generous of spirit so we decided to stay. With almost no money we were eating potatoes and green peppers every day for awhile. It was a hard time but we got through it and eventually a few months later found jobs and a drummer. That was when we met Graeme Murray. We had the lineup for FGNM and startedrehearsing. We booked a show at a bar called BAR LUXEMBOURG and advertised it as Five Guys Named Moe-From Canada-One NIght Only !!!!! We played a good show and that night we met our manager to be Mark Goldinger.... "

JonathanEvans:
"I started playing and writing songs with my best friend , David Fairweather, when we were about 14 yrs old. We played in various bands and Tom who was a few years younger used to come and watch us play. i think we inspired him to take up the bass. After highschool Dave and myself were attending university and we formed the original FGNM with Tom and a drummer Matt Wood. We were pretty successful and played several clubs around Ottawa , our hometown. Dave eventually left the group and Tom and I searched for a replacement. We saw Meg playing one night on campus and thought she'd be perfect for the group. We asked , she said yes, and the rest is history. Although we were all at university , we still had strong desires to pursue our musical dreams. We felt that Canada at the time was not the place for FGNM to make its mark so we looked to moving to the U.K. , the home of all our favourite bands. On the songs and melodies:I wrote all the songs on the album with the exception of "Selfish days" which Meg and I wrote together and " Beneath the Willow" which Meg wrote. I think i wrote a lot of those songs when i was a teenager well before FGNM formed. I always loved writing and singing harmonies. Meg and myself would just experiment and try various harmonies until we found something that worked. Trial and error .Our album was re-released in Japan a few years ago. If you can find a copy, buy it. It has all these interviews in it etc. Unfortunately I lost my copy but I think Tom still has few copies. I really love having the momento of the album but i think I'm a much better songwriter now than I was a teenager writing those songs. It is like looking back at diary entries you wrote when you were 16.....charming but slightly embarrassing. I am currently and very slowly trying to write an album. Very ambitious but i have to find the time to complete it. I still stay in touch with Tom but not as much with Meg. We were a couple when we were in FGNM but split up when we returned to Canada and as you can expect, we didnt stay in contact. "

Interview with the members:
http://www.gamekult.com/pic/blog/227313_3.JPG

http://www.gamekult.com/pic/blog/227314_3.JPG

MEG LUNNEY
an indipendent artist,owner of Big Deal Records (http://www.bigdealrecords.com/)
"Her album The Margaret Anns (1998) (featured two ex members of FGNM) is the only known album. It is a delightful mix of tempos and instruments. Meg’s voice is almost juvenile in what feels like playful naiveté. Thie rare albums needs to be lsitened to many times to truly appreciate it."In 2006 or 2007, she recorded with the band “Miss Bennetts” and published two songs on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/missbennets)

More info:
http://www.ectoguide.org/artists/lunney.meg

(http://www.last.fm/music/Meg+Lunney)


JONATHAN EVANS
the top music writer for Television in Canada,owner of Volcano music Inc (http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/golocal/Ottawa/Music-Film-Art-Handicrafts-Books/Music-Arrangers-Composers/Volcano-Music/listing/198515.aspx?kw=)

TOM McKAY
was a member of Joydrop (1999-2001)

"I've been a touring musician, a studio musician, a songwriter, a co-producer and a Producer since 1988. I've made my living from music since jump and continue to play live when I'm not in the studio.My first trip as a musician to a major label headquarters was when I was eighteen. I took the greyhound to Toronto from Ottawa Canada convinced the cassettes that FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE had so painstakingly put together with construction paper inlay cards would change the world. FGNM were listening to a solid diet of THE BLUE NILE, THE SUNDAYS, THE SMITHS, XTC, THE CLASH and any other cool UK imports we could get our hands on. I was so surprised when the Canadian labels didn't open up the coffers and offer us a deal. Apparently we didn't sound like Bryan Adams enough. Stunned I set about figuring out what the problem with the majors was. There was no thought of "what the hell are we doing" but rather a feeling of "we don't belong here".I bought my bible at the time (the NME) and dreamt of being in a place where people would understand our music (and women with accents) and then it struck me. We have to move to London England to get our record deal ! I felt that FGNM's music could nestle in with the current crop of UK Indie hopefuls more easily than in Canada.
After months of convincing the band to make the move, Jonathan Evans, Meg Lunny and I travelled to London laden down with guitars, keyboards, hope and expectation. London was an eye opener. A city with the coolest bands ever playing but we could rarely afford to go and see them. We lived in Holland Park in a pub called The Raj where I used to serve AHA and ASWAAD their pints. It dawned on us that London was too expensive a place to get our mission started so we headed for the sunnier climes of Glasgow Scotland. Once in Glasgow we secured a gig at a bar called Bar Luxembourg and played our first UK show. After the show Mark Goldinger and Phil Hay approached us and there began our affiliation with Miles Ahead Management. Miles Ahead got us gigs, bought us gear, supplied us with dough for our flats and got us on our feet for the first time in the UK. 7 months later I quit my job washing dishes and signed my first record deal with RCA in London. We released FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE, had some top 40's in the UK and Canada and toured our asses off. FGNM recorded in Dublin with Donal Lunney (Elvis Costello - Kate Bush +) producing, were mixed by Bill Price, Tim Martin and Julian Mehndelson and these initial contacts with Producers set my mind on fire. I freaked out when Bill Price told me about all the records he'd worked on. I couldn't believe a lot of what was happening at the time.
When FGNM broke up I returned to Ottawa and decided that I was destined to be a dishwasher. I would be the best dishwasher in Canada and would serve out the rest of my life as a dishwasher. Then I got the call for THE NIGHTCRAWLERS..." (http://www.tommckayproducer.com/music.html)

More info:
http://www.myspace.com/tommckayproducer

GRAEME MURRAY
"songwriter/musician/journalist"
"I'm one half of a pop duo who also feature my twin bro' Grant. We've been playing and writing songs too long, but can't really stop this train. Together we've performed under various guises including Divided and an earlier oufit called The Gathering. There's also been some solo shows too. Some people may remember us as The Bottlers, an affectionate nickname given to us by some wag, which hung around for a few years. I'll put up some new and old tunes whenever I get a free moment. The first is Asylum which I wrote a few years ago. I think the second one Holdin'On we wrote together." (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=135610312)

More FGNM info:
http://www.gamekult.com/blog/jackmarcheur/default.html?cat=11541

http://www.last.fm/music/Five+Guys+Named+Moe