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

Bleu Bleu or BLEU may refer to: * '' Three Colors: Blue'', a 1993 film * BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy), a machine translation evaluation metric * Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union * Blue cheese, a type of cheese * Parti bleu, 19th century ...

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 multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangement ...

(ELO), the

Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys were a British-American supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 1988, consisting of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. They were a roots rock band and described as "perhaps the biggest sup ...

, 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 music, rock band formed in Minneapolis in 1995, consisting of Dan Wilson (musician), Dan Wilson (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), John Munson (bass, keyboards, backing vocals, guitar), and Jacob Slichter (drums, pe ...

, Dan Wilson. Wilson retold details from producer

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (, ; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popularize hip hop by produci ...

about

Jeff Lynne Jeffrey Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. He is the co-founder and, latterly, sole member of the rock band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) which was formed in 1970. He has written all of ...

'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 Michael Anthony Viola (born September 26, 1966) is an American producer, musician, songwriter, and singer, best known for his work with Panic! at the Disco, Andrew Bird, Ryan Adams, J.S. Ondara, Mandy Moore, and Jenny Lewis. His original music h ...

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 is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. 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 is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, composer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self (band), Self and his composer collective Cake in Space. Early and personal life Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, T ...

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

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, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...

Hanson Hanson or Hansson may refer to: People * Hanson (surname) * Hansson (surname) * Hanson (wrestler) or Ivar (born 1984), American professional wrestler Musical groups * Hanson (band), an American pop rock band * Hanson (UK band), an English ...

, and members of

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. 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's bassist

Pat Badger Patrick John Badger (born July 22, 1967) is a musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the bass guitarist in the band Extreme. He has also performed in groups such as Tribe of Judah and Dark Desert Eagles. Early life Badger was born in ...

, 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 online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...

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

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

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

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

". 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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 an commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM broadcasting, FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, including J-pop, C-pop, and Western music, covering a wide range of formats ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. ''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