By Ellen Eldridge
Michael Benjamin Lerner is the man behind the band Telekinesis. At 26, he has weathered through life’s ups and downs and recorded his thoughts across three albums. Dormarion succinctly completes a sort of circle around his previous two albums, 2009’s self-titled debut and 2011’s 12 Desperate Straight Lines.
The haunting echo of strummed guitars remains on songs like “Symphony,” but the opening track always gives away a taste of an album’s thematic content. Lerner opens his third release with “Power Lines” that flows full of hopeful lines and pop melodies. The title comes in the line, “When we were kids I swear we were power lines,” and this works well as double entendre, but the immediate feeling is one of energy and inspiration rather than a dangerous situation, even though allusions to war and damaged personalities exist in the lyrics.
Fans might enjoy contemplating the track titles and their inherent meanings because “Power Lines” seems juxtaposed against track four’s “Wires,” while the second track, “Empathetic People,” contradicts what one would expect from the third track, “Ghosts and Creatures.”
12 Desperate Straight Lines eerily alluded to problems with manic depression or uncertainty about a direction in life, but Dormarion closes the cycle with more certainty about just who the songwriter is. The finding of one’s self often surfaces in a third release. Telekinesis keeps its grounded feel with simplistic elements that allow listeners to connect to the mood of each song.
Lerner road-tripped over the summer and made the record in two weeks with Spoon drummer Jim Eno in his Austin, Texas studio, Public Hi-Fi, located on Dormarion Lane.
“It’s a beautiful-sounding word, and if you Google it, nothing but this one tiny street comes up,” Lerner said, “Although this is obviously about to change. “No origin, no description. I can’t tell you what the word means. It’s like something from Lost.”
When you see Telekinesis perform this year, Lerner will be backed by Erik Walters of The Globes on guitar, Say Hi’s Eric Elbogen on bass, and Rebecca Cole of Wild Flag and The Minders on keyboards.
Telekinesis plays Atlanta’s Drunken Unicorn Saturday May 4. Grab your tickets TODAY!
