Gil Mantera's Party Dream

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Gil Mantera's Party Dream
Gil Mantera and Ultimate Donny
Background information
Origin	Youngstown, Ohio
Genre(s)	Synth-pop, Electronica
Years active	1999 – present
Label(s)	Fat Possum Records
Website	www.partydream.com
Members
Gil Mantera Ultimate Donny

Gil Mantera's Party Dream is an electronic synth-pop party band hailing originally from Youngstown, Ohio. Consisting of brothers Gil Mantera and Ultimate Donny, the Party Dream is known for their over-the-top live shows and updated channeling of 1980s synth-pop à la Tears for Fears. Their music blends synth-heavy electronic dance music with heavy basslines, distorted guitar, and even a few progressive rock influences.

They have toured several times with successful artists as varied as Grand Buffet, An Albatross, GWAR, and Art Brut, and most notably were invited several times to play New York City with The Rapture. Originally a regional phenomenon, the Party Dream signed to Fat Possum Records, a primarily blues label that is also the home of The Black Keys and The Fiery Furnaces, and have begun extensive national touring. In mid-2006, they were invited to play the SXSW concert series in Austin, Texas, garnering enough attention at their three garish live shows to warrant a "Best Show [SXSW]" award from the Village Voice. They were also featured by Spin magazine as a Spin.com band of the day and warranted a recommendation on Timothy McSweeney's publishing house website.

The Party Dream is well-known among their fans for their pseudo-performance art approach to playing live, with sets that include not only musical performance, but also improvised stage patter, dance, and at times even elements of striptease. Driven by Gil's synthesizer arrangements and Donny's wildly over-emotive vocal stylings, the Party Dream produces danceable, electronic music with recognizable hooks that are often performed by Gil, who sings exclusively through a vocoder. After originally focusing on improvised performance, the Party Dream has now matured into a dance band with recorded musical offerings that while not directly comparable with their frenetic live shows, has placed them in a position to expand on their regional success and join the indie/post-punk revival from a decidedly different angle than their peers.

[edit] Biography

Gil Mantera's Party Dream spawned from a three man act called "Party Talk" that played a one night show in August 1998 in Youngstown, Ohio at Cedars Lounge. The act consisted of Richard Elmsworth (Ultimate Donny), Glen Whiteweather (Gil Mantera), and Brian Gage (Tartron). Ultimate Donny described the band as, "A joke band called Party Talk, playing retro '80s-style dance music and pretty much making jackasses of ourselves." [1]

The group disbanded after Brian moved to California. With Gil and Donny, Party Talk regrouped a few months later to play a CD release show at the club, despite the fact they had no CD in the works. With the departure of their third member, Party Talk evolved into Gil Mantera's Party Dream, and the duo gained a powerful reputation for their anything-goes live shows. [2]

Here is the biography from Party Dream's website circa 2001:

How the Dream became Reality

Sometime in late June of 1998, three brilliant musicians put aside their differences and formed the group "Party Talk." Party Talk was a theatrical/musical menace that pushed rock 'n' roll's and magic's limits to the very edge of dementia. The group was only able to put on one show before separating. Even though it was only one show, it was one very unforgettable show for both the members of Party Talk and the audience. The players in this one-time-only performance were Gil Mantera - keys/guitar/bass/magic, Dustin O'Hara - vocals/dancing/guitar/magic, and Brian Gage - vocals/dancing/guitar/magic.

Shortly after the performance, Brian left to live his life in San Francisco, CA. This left Gil Mantera and Dustin O'Hara in a bit of a jam, for they knew Party Talk could never be the same without the third member. So they hung up the act knowing in their hearts that their roles in rock 'n' roll history were yet unfulfilled.

One day Dustin received a call from Tommy of the Unflushables announcing that all of their opening acts for that very night had cancelled and that they were in a bit of a jam. Tommy asked Dustin if he could put on some kind of show. He thought it over for a few minutes before blurting out, "I'll do it! I don't know what I'll do, but I'll do it anyway." The moment after Dustin hung up the phone he picked it right back up and called Gil Mantera who just happened to be in from Sweden with his friend - the keyboard. Dustin told Gil about the show he was about to give, and without even being asked Gil said, "Count me in!"

That's it. Gil Mantera's Party Dream was officially formed and ready to take on the world. Dustin decided to go by his given name - Donny, and Gil Mantera just kept on being Gil Mantera. They put on a show that night, December 24, 1999, at the Nyabinghi in Youngstown, OH and stunned the crowd with their stage performance and musical wizardry. Fans and critics alike realized that Gil Mantera's Party Dream was one of the most refreshing acts to hit the music scene since the Backstreet Boys, and they also realized something else - YOU CAN'T STOP THE PARTY DREAM.

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