Album Notes

SCREAMING FROM THE TOP OF MY BUNK BED's nine brash and occasionally ferocious songs are all original compositions from the band's namesake singer/guitarist, Melanie Louise.

This intense debut album contains a gripping blend of alt.country, singer-songwriter, and floaty pop elements, layered with expressively raw lead vocals, female backup harmonies, and rhythm guitar over detuned cello and inspired lead guitar from Austin's Kevin Carroll. Written over the last ten years, SCREAMING FROM THE TOP OF MY BUNK BED's high-stim songs jump from irreverent to vulnerably evocative.

Melanie Louise's first band experience was as lead vocalist for a Louisiana punk band at 16; she then screamed and songwrote her way through Southern California's late 80s pop-punk scene. In the early 90s she relocated to Austin, where she has performed with Austin-based musicians Jon Dee Graham, Tony Scalzo (of Fastball), Ryan Carter, and saxaphonist Johnny Reno. Some of the famed Austin venues where she's performed include the Continental Club, Hole in the Wall, and Stubbs. She also sings the part of Keely Smith in Louis Prima tributes.

SCREAMING FROM THE TOP OF MY BUNK BED was recorded in South Austin, amidst Cedar Creek Recording's nine tree-lined acres (where the Dixie Chicks recorded HOME, and where Uncle Tupelo recorded the seminal alt-country album ANONDYNE, with Lloyd Maines and Doug Sahm). With its rough-hewn wood and limestone walls, collection of excellent mics and vintage tube gear, Cedar Creek was the ideal setting to create the MellieLou CD.

The album's vocals were captured by Neumann tube mics and a Blue Bottle, then routed through the vintage Neve board that Elvis kept at Graceland and used for his final three albums. The backing vocals and cello mix went through Neumann mics and Manley/LA-2 tube compression, and all was recorded and archived by Steinberg's Nuendo at 24-bit/96kHz before CD mixdown and a real-time, direct-to-glass pressing by LA's GrooveHouse Records.

Several days after longtime Cedar Creek owner Fred Remmert mixed and mastered the Chicks' LIVE FROM THE TOP OF THE WORLD DVD, he turned his attentions to mastering the SCREAMING FROM THE TOP OF MY BUNK BED CD. The CD was recorded and mixed by Adam Odor, also a mixing engineer for the Chicks' DVD releases.

A portion of MellieLou's profits fund research for child onset diabetes.