Style Rider: Milo Greene Can’t Travel Without Rainboots

All photos courtesy of Milo Greene

Milo Greene is a quartet from Los Angeles, none of whom go by the name of Milo Greene. The moniker first belonged to their fictitious booking agent, a character they dreamed up to help them land gigs before they scored a real agent. It worked.

It isn’t the first time the experimental ­pop band has taken a different persona for a spin. They released their twangy, tambourine­-punctuated self­-titled debut in 2012, just before the radio­-friendly folk moment propelled The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons, and their twee hand­clapping contemporaries into an inescapable spotlight. For their follow­up, they decided to take a drastically different direction, leaving behind their harmonious sing­along choruses and sleepy love songs for 80s-­steeped synth pop: less Laurel Canyon, more downtown L.A. Their sound is, of course, not the only thing that changed; their style got a refresh, too. Out are the dudes’ flannel shirts; in is an all- black uniform of expensive jeans and leather jackets. Marlana Sheetz, the solo girl in the group, ditched her floaty floral dresses and her straw sun hat for a glam-­rock look much more suited to their new shimmery dance­pop songs.

Next week, they’re stopping through NYC for a few shows before heading to SXSW. We grabbed a minute with Marlana to find out what she’ll be packing for the whirlwind trip that’s taking the band from Manhattan’s snow­packed streets to sunny Austin, Texas.

Also, can we tag along?

“We spend anywhere from 6 to 12 hours a day driving in the van. My iPad can make the time feel cut in half. Currently reading 1Q84.”

“The game changer of this tour. They make loading and unloading our gear so much more tolerable in this winter weather. Sometimes I walk through puddles just because I can.”

“This tour, we have been averaging about five hours of sleep per night in the hotels. I owe all van sleep to my amazing king size pillow.”

“For those rare occasions we have time to hit the hotel gym. It feels so good to workout after sitting for hours upon hours.”

“After the show is over, it takes us about an hour and a half to pack it all up again. It's close to 2am before we even get to the hotel. I'm so tired that every night is a struggle just to floss. Thank god for makeup removing face wipes for making the 'before sleep' routine that much faster.”

Casey Lewis does this every week. She's on Twitter - @caseymlewis.