Jazz Articles about Thinking Plague

Thinking Plague: Decline and Fall

by Glenn Astarita
June 5, 2012

Thinking Plague cofounder/guitarist Mike Johnson penned the lyrics and composed the music for the group's meticulously engineered sixth album. Considered one of the premiere Rock in Opposition units, Johnson's lyrics presage an anarchistic domain with offbeat allusions to life's injustices. As band newcomer, vocalist Elaine Di Falco summons notions of an angel in despair throughout these complex pieces, spiced with dour implications and contrasting thematic flows, modeled with odd-metered cadences. Di Falco harmonizes with the instrumentation amid some ...

Thinking Plague: A History of Madness

by AAJ Staff
October 5, 2003

Too much texture can be a dangerous thing. Thinking Plague, nominally a sextet, picks up five extra players for parts here and there on A History Of Madness, and the end result is a multi-layered creation.

Fortunately the combination works quite well. It ends up sounding full-bodied and detailed, with plenty of understated polyrhythms to go around. All sorts of unusual instruments pop in and out, including Mike Johnson's four guitars and assemblage of miscellaneous percussion, Dave Willey's ...