L.E.O. is a 2006 project by Boston musician

Bleu Bleu or BLEU may refer to: * the French word for blue * '' Three Colors: Blue'', a 1993 movie * BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy), a machine translation evaluation metric * Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union * Blue cheese, a type of chee ...

and collaborators which produced ''Alpacas Orgling'', a 2006 album of original songs similar in style to

Electric Light Orchestra The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood with drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop, classical ...

(ELO), the

Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Originating from an idea discussed by Harrison and Lynne during the sessions for Harrison's 1987 albu ...

, and 1970s

AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmi ...

pop music.

Formation

In 2002

was chatting with the former frontman of

Semisonic Semisonic is an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1995, consisting of Dan Wilson (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), John Munson (bass, keyboards, backing vocals, guitar), and Jacob Slichter (drums, percussion, keyboards ...

, Dan Wilson. Wilson retold details from producer

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popu ...

about

Jeff Lynne Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder of the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was formed in 1970. As a songwriter, he has cont ...

's studio methods and techniques. Bleu, interested in these techniques and ELO in general, wanted to make songs similar to Jeff Lynne using his studio methods for fun. Gradually those songs would develop in to the album ''Alpacas Orgling''. Mike Viola joined the project after an onstage cover of ELO's "

Telephone Line A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or oth ...

" by Bleu and Viola at the Paradise Lounge in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. The name "L.E.O." is based on the letters in "ELO". However according to Bleu, the letters in L.E.O. could stand for "Little Electric Operas", or "Little E-mail Operas".

''Alpacas Orgling''

Their debut album, ''Alpacas Orgling,'' features major contributions from

Matt Mahaffey Matt Mahaffey (born June 9, 1973) is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, composer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self and his composer collective Cake In Space. Personal Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee ...

Self The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhood ...

Andy Sturmer Marvin Andrew Sturmer (born March 11, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and composer who co-founded the rock band Jellyfish in 1989. He was the group's lead vocalist, drummer, and primary songwriter. Following their break-up in 1 ...

Jellyfish Jellyfish and sea jellies are the informal common names given to the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella- ...

Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler), ringname of an American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English rock b ...

, Mike Viola, and members of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. The album was remotely recorded by the musicians over the course of 4 years in 12 different studios. The album's name is an acknowledgement of alpaca farmer and

Extreme Extreme may refer to: Science and mathematics Mathematics *Extreme point, a point in a convex set which does not lie in any open line segment joining two points in the set *Maxima and minima, extremes on a mathematical function Science *Extremop ...

's bassist

Pat Badger Patrick John Badger, (born July 22, 1967, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist in the band Extreme. He has also performed in groups like Daemon, In The Pink, Super Trans Atlantic, Trib ...

, who previously gave Bleu a place to live. Bleu would go on a release tour for ''Alpacas Orgling'', tour venues included T.T. the Bear's Place. The album was well received. ''Alpacas Orgling'' was number 8 on ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

's'' "must list". Brian Mansfield of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virg ...

'' said, …"Bleu McAuley's supergroup side project does the Electric Light Orchestra better than

Klaatu Klaatu may refer to: *Klaatu (The Day the Earth Stood Still), Klaatu (''The Day the Earth Stood Still''), the protagonist in the 1951 science fiction film and its 2008 remake * Klaatu (band), a Canadian progressive-rock group formed in 1973 ** Klaa ...

did

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...

". In his 4 of out 5 star review, Stewart Mason of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

wrote, …"''Alpacas Orgling'' is the single best album any of its major participants have ever taken part in". '' CityBeat'' gave the album an A−, praising Bleu for infusing his own "creative spark" with "a timeless pop era". ''Prefix Magazine'' dismissed the album as a "terrible idea". In January 2007 "Ya Had Me Goin'" peaked at 57 on the

Tokio Hot 100 J-Wave is a commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, covering a wide range of formats. The station is considered the most popular among FM broa ...

in Japan. ''Select'' 2007 ''in the 年 field. Select'' 1 ''in the 月 field. Select'' 5 '' in the 回放送日 field and then click GO.''

Formation

''Alpacas Orgling''

Discography

References

External links