33-year-old songwriter Andrew Benon attributes his career choice to one particular evening as a youth, sitting in the backseat of his parent’s car in a Pizza Hut parking lot. Suffering from stomach problems, little Andrew Benon was in pain until Hall & Oates “Kiss On My List” started playing on the car radio. That’s when he realized that he wanted to be a rock star.
Many years later, Benon, a Minnesota native, has released his debut, a compact 7-song CD titled Rock and Roll Moves. Before pontificating on the actual music, let me just say that for a debut by an artist not known out of his own zip code, 7 songs is the PERFECT length. Bravo on that alone, Mr. Benon. Bravo.
The music on the CD is an homage to mid-80s FM pop radio. Benon’s vocals sound like Bowie’s from the “Let’s Dance”/”Blue Jean” period of Ziggy Stardust’s career while the music falls somewhere between the new wave Brit-pop synth keyboard sounds of Duran Duran and the booty-shaking funk of the almighty Purple One, Prince. In other words, this is the ideal soundtrack to an afternoon at the roller rink. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that members of Tapes N’ Tapes, Mike Doughty’s band, N.E.R.D. and Prince’s band lay down the smooth funk sound on the CD? Dig it my brothers and sisters, dig it in all of it’s 1985 glory.
Visit Benon’s MySpace page to hear a handful of tracks from Rock and Roll Moves or download “Secret Hideout” below.
MP3: Secret Hideout
I am actually an 80’s person. I love songs during that genre. 80’s rock!
Wow. The first listen, I was like, “Is this guy for real?” By the second I was convinced and by the third I was hooked. I put in on while getting ready to go out and feel like Molly Ringwald except hipper.