Mission Man preview

Mission Man
Elbo Room, Chicago
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

In his press materials Gary Milholland, aka Mission Man, claims he chose his stage name because he is “on a mission to change the way people see hip-hop.” He succeeded with me – I may never be able to listen to it again.

I generally don’t feel *too* bad being negative toward a CD. The way I, and I assume most rock “critics,” see it is if a band/musician send their CD to a music publication, they’re asking for an honest opinion. If you can’t find it in yourself to be truthful, and sometimes a little mean, be a publicist.

That said, I feel kinda bad about the first paragraph. Milholland seems like a really swell, down-to-earth, guy who is really passionate about making music (he has written more than 130 songs). But he is also a bad instrumentalist (not sure he actually even knows how to play the bass, guitar, and keyboard that make up his songs), a worse rapper, and offensive singer. There’s home recorded, then there’s Mission Man recorded – where apparently you’re in the bedroom with the mic *really* close to your mouth and talking – “rhyming” – just loud enough to register in the mix, but not so loud as to wake up your roommate.

Despite this, Mission Man has self-released The Best Of Mission Man, 20 (!!) songs about high-school exams, dream dates (she had the lobster; he had the chicken parmesan), delivering pizza, playing basketball, and lifting weights that actually make The Best Of Young MC seem warranted.

Jennifer Lucrezio and Kyle Wade also play.

– Trevor Fisher

Click here for streaming Mission Man samples.

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly