Who are these guys?

Shanghai Love Motel formed in 1990 when bassist/songwriter/singer Bill Millard and guitarist Glen (G. Rod) Arden reunited after a one-off gig with their old college cover band, enlisting blues and swing veteran Mark Hennessy on drums. Mark and Bill had played together since the early eighties, having originally anchored a large, continually mutating New Brunswick band known variously as Immaculate Conception, the V-Men, and (in a later Markless incarnation) the Fabulous Bohemians. Mark's pedigree also includes long-term membership in the Voodoo Rhythm Kings, New York's well-known New Orleans-style swing band; Echo 8, a modern rock band fronted by Persian Gulf's Jonathan Adams; and the Chevrotains, the Stingers, and the Van Dorens, all well-received Brooklyn- and Manhattan-based blues and rockabilly outfits.

Along with his prolific songwriting and bass/vocal work with Boston's Pepitones and the V-Men/Bohemians/etc., Bill Millard also spent several years as the Forbes Newspapers chain's award-winning music journalist, gaining recognition for broad musical knowledge and an acerbic critical voice. He still writes the occasional article about things other than music. Bill is rumored to be some form of doctor, but it's unwise to ask him for prescriptions, as he inevitably recommends massive doses of Thomas Pynchon and James Ellroy, no matter what the diagnosis.


Guitarist/songwriter/singer Bryan Brown, formerly with the Justice League of America and occasionally seen around NYC and Southern California over the years as a solo performer, became a Shanghaier in 1997. At a mutual friend's publication party, Bryan and Bill started talking shop, and right about the time Bryan described his own material as a cross between the Stones and Monk, the idea of a collaboration with SLM started looking like a great idea. A jam or two later, SLM became a quartet, doubling its quotas of monster guitarists, distinctive songwriters, and world-class aficionados of NRBQ.

The 21st-century lineup of SLM includes guitarist Adam Russell, who's adeptly taken over Glen Arden's slot (G. Rod assumed emeritus-guitarist status in 2000, reportedly returning to classified work for the CIA, then eventually to a stint as lead guitarist in the Genesis tribute band Hogweed). Adam slugged his early years on the Jersey shore with the bizarro pop group Finster, playing original aggressive melodic rock; following Finster's finale, he sat in as hired gun for various acoustic coffee-house hipsters, Dead cover groups, and the occasional bluegrass jug band. Among the elements he brings to SLM is an alarmingly encyclopedic knowledge of Dylanology.

About that band name: SLM was known for a while as Always Already, until they decided they'd overdosed on French post-structuralist literary theory and their listeners probably had as well. Before that they were the Trilateral Commission, but that's hard to pronounce after a few drinks and might attract political weirdos. So they're Shanghai Love Motel.
SLM also turns out to be the only non-famous band to get name-checked in the recent mystery novel Murder on Theatre Row by Michael Jahn (NY: St. Martin's, 1997). SLM recommends this book highly, and would even if they weren't in it. One of the suspects in the book's bizarre crossbow murders is a rock critic. Hmmmmm . . .

Photos: Mark, Bill: Paloma. Bryan: Jim Morgan. Adam: Anonymous Friend of Adam's.
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