The breakup was the result of growing tensionmore aesthetic than personalbetween Vernon's pop visions and the other guys' wilder proclivities. DeYarmond released two official albums and launched an ambitious residency at Raleigh's Bickett Gallery before disbanding in 2006. Around these parts, though, they first made an impression as DeYarmond Edison, the Raleigh-based, alt-country-leaning band also fronted by Vernon. Westerlund and the Cook brothers first played behind Justin Vernon in a big, reggae-and-pop-infused Eau Claire, Wis., combo called Mount Vernon.
It turns out that Megafaun is, in some ways, a calculating bandjust not in the way we have heretofore suspected. Phil's wife, Heather, took Ellis Bradley Cook into another room. The release of Megafaun's new albumtheir most traditional yetseemed like the perfect chance to get behind the conceptual encrustation and find out what they really care about. But if I say you're experimental and they listen to 'Carolina Days'. Whatever anyone feels like relating us to is awesome with us." Sanborn, who still discusses the band in the second person, joined in, "If I try to describe you guys as folk-rock, someone could listen to 'Impressions of the Past' and think I was crazy. "If you ask us what genre we are," Brad explained, "I would say we're confidently indifferent. As a result, many different agendas have been piled on them in the press. They're the kind of band whose calculus you want to decode. Megafaun is a band of family members and close friends, so jokes tend to run wild and fast the riff developed quickly, until the imaginary video had the baby riding on a Shetland pony beside Westerlund, both wearing diapers.Īs the hilarity fitfully subsided, I considered how startling the band's lighthearted demeanor might be to fans of their albums: Megafaun's music incorporates folk, rock, jazz, the blues and even avant-garde classical. With practice winding down, Phil and Sanborn joked about making a video for "Get Right" that would feature Westerlund riding a horse, his hair streaming in the wind. "Bail on listening," Brad replied, gently, "and we'll match you."
"Sorry, son," he muttered to the half-dozing child in his arms after one particularly effusive yawp. Phil took the lead on "Everything We're Headed For." The pitches weren't perfect, thank Godcatches in his voice broke the melody open, a cornucopia of fruit bursting forth. "Gonna end real slow." The vocal harmonies were a constant negotiation, with each member using his strengths to bolster the others' weaknesses. " they all sang, lightly stomping, letting the beat pull them along rather than pushing it forward. Brad strummed open chords on an acoustic guitar. Phil kept to his feet, cradling Ellis in his arms.
#PHIL COOK MEGAFAUN MAC#
Fleetwood Mac and The Allman Brothers Band stood in places of honor atop nearby record stacks.Īs I watched, Megafaun continued to calibrate the dusky rainbows of harmony that anchor their unique Americana. The Catherine Edgerton paintings that adorn the cover of Phil's solo album, Hungry Mother Blues, lined the walls. And newest member Nick Sanborn, from Milwaukee, perched on a piano bench, his fresh face traced by a five-o'clock shadow. Bradley Cook, Phil's mustachioed younger brother, lounged in a wingback chair beside the painted globes of a hurricane lamp.Īt his left was Joe Westerlund, who'd flown in from California, his long, tawny mane and prophetic beard in tow. Well into their third hour of vocal practice before a European tour, his bandmates sat in a parlor crowded with instrument cases. Tall and gregarious, with a ready smile and a booming laugh, Cook showed me inside. Phil Cook was breast-feeding when I arrived at his home in Durhamor so the Megafaun member quipped as he answered the door with his 2-month-old son, Ellis, clutched to his chest.
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