The New Standards is a “revelatory” (Star Tribune) Twin-Cities-based trio with a global following. Formed in 2005 as an off-shoot project between three Minneapolis-based musicians and friends, The New Standards has grown into a globe-spanning adventure—filling theaters and clubs around the world and spawning several CDs, videos, cartoons, and dance and theater projects that have charmed and delighted an ever-multiplying legion of faithful fans.
The three core members of The New Standards all come from illustrious Twin Cities bands. Chan Poling founded the seminal Punk/New Wave band The Suburbs. John Munson was an original member of Trip Shakespeare and the chart-topping Semisonic. Steve Roehm started on drums in the Texas punk outfit Billygoat and the avant-jazz Electropolis. Sensing a lack of interesting jazz trio repertoire beyond the usual “old standards,” they got together originally to play and sing their favorite songs—from every era, particularly post 1960’s pop music—in a stripped-down acoustic setting, making room for solos and arrangements with the freedom of jazz, and yet never fully abandoning the modest soul of pop and rock.