Landing Gear

It’s late and you’ve been drinking whiskey. You’re by yourself and the stereo is on. Break-up Songs
For Relationships That Never Happened the debut full length by Minneapolis’ Landing Gear is
playing- the third time in a row. The track you’re listening to now is called “Surprise, Surprise” and
under all the crystalline guitar riffs, muscular bass, and soaring choruses is a thinly veiled melancholy
that’s a perfect compliment to the whiskey.
Landing Gear is a band of diverse elements and distinctive personality. Guitarist Mykl Westbrooks
blends the best aspects of the early 90’s “shoe-gazing” movement with the brittle intensity of a Tom
Verlaine. Robbie Robello’s fluid bass playing is a perfect foil to David West’s air tight, muscular
drumming and the two rhythm players are the bedrock to the Landing Gear sound. Singer,
songwriter, guitarist Jay Hurley writes melancholy, yet romantic pop nuggets that are instantly
digestible, but reap the rewards of repeated listens. His vocal mannerisms have been compared to
Ken Stringfellow of Poises’ fame or a more aggressive Zombie front man Colin Blundtstone. In
summer of 2003 the Gear added multi-instrumentalist Jon Hunt to the fold and his excellent
arrangement skills can be heard all over the new CD.
Landing Gear formed in 1998 with members Jay Hurley, Mykl Westbrooks, Robbie Robello, and
David West playing locally and recording whenever time and money permitted. In 2000 the band
released an untitled five song CD to critical acclaim and the song “Atmosphere” aired on the WB
show Roswell.
The next four years were spent crafting the songs that would be used for Break-up Songs. Initially,
there were a variety of distractions and roadblocks facing the band as they worked on the project.
Label interest, management issues, soaring studio bills, and Landing Gear’s own determined
perfectionism all lead to the CD’s delay. However, in late 2002, the group literally took matters into
their own hands and built Studio 9, their own Pro Tools studio bunker, and began to work in earnest
on “Break-up Songs”.
“Break-up Songs” isn’t high concept. The songs deal with missed chances and the ruminations that
can come from those chances: events remembered, situations dissected, personalities captured. The
music is a distillation of the lyrical themes and multitude of influences Landing Gear is so adept at
distorting and calling their own. “Columbus, OH” is pure Beggars Banquet era Stones without the
Jagger ironic affectations. The punk-funk rhythms and jagged guitar figures of “Take the Ride” recall
Gang of Four or an amphetamine fueled Duran Duran. “Atmosphere” is the perfect modern rock
comedown with its spaced-out swells and understated vocals.