As students, we all think we know our professors pretty well. We think we know what’s going to be on our professor’s next test or pop quiz, but many people would not guess that Simpson College’s own Clint Meyer, assistant professor of biology and environmental science, is in a rock-and-roll band.

The Monday Mourners have played in several shows in the Des Moines area.

Students may think Meyer is just another biology professor, but under that professional suit and tie is a musician in black fingernail polish and tight rocker jeans ready to crank out ballads from his guitar.

“I have been consistently involved somehow in music since childhood,” Meyer said. “I spent a lot of time listening to my dad’s Hank Williams and Johnny Cash records as a kid, played trombone and bass in high school, sang in high school and college choir and have been playing in bands for several years.

“More recently I have gotten involved in song writing. For me, it’s a great outlet for creativity and a productive type of stress relief.”

Meyer knew starting a rock-n-roll band in the Midwest, let alone Iowa, was not going to be an easy task.

“I responded to an ad in Craigslist several months ago,” Meyer said. “The ad was asking for people to start a roots rock/Americana band. We got together and everything fell into place quickly from there. At a typical show, we play mostly original music, rock and roll with an alt-country feel and a healthy dose of twang thrown in the mix.”

Meyer reached out to his colleagues in the Biology Department first to help him gain exposure for his band.

“Since he’s from Nebraska, I knew that he had to have magical skills beyond expert identification abilities with pest insects and green plants,” Ryan Rehmeier, assistant professor of biology, said. “I wondered when he was going to unleash his musical powers on the central Iowa populace. Finally in September, he informed his colleagues in biology that his new band, the Monday Mourners, was ready to roll.”

Meyer and his group have performances going on in Des Moines regularly doing openers for bands from all over the nation.

“Our most recent show was at the Vaudeville Mews, opening up for The Weight, a band from Brooklyn,” Meyer said. “It was a fun show because The Weight was on their last night of a three month tour, so they were letting off plenty of steam before their long drive back east.”

The group will perform at the Vaudeville Mews again on Nov. 29.

Since Meyer hasn’t played in Indianola yet, many students have not been able to see one of his shows.

Meyer is hoping to get a gig closer to Simpson so more students can come. In the mean time, students can check them out on MySpace.

“I went and checked them out on MySpace a few weeks ago after I heard one of my friends in the Biology Department talking about it and I was really surprised,” senior Octavia Burrell said. “It is definitely what the Midwest needs, something to really rock out to. It definitely goes to show anyone can be a rockstar.”

Meyer and his band hit it off well with their first performance. With the support of his colleagues and the Simpson community, Meyer and the Monday Mourners may be rocking out Simpson College sooner than we know it.

“If you do go to their show, be sure to wear good footwear, because they’ll probably rock your socks off,” Rehmeier said. “They ended that first show with a rousing rendition of the victorious “East Bound” from the movie, Smoky and the Bandit, and it was epic. You should become a fan of the Monday Mourners on Facebook.

“There’s an imbedded YouTube video of that closing performance on there, and Meyer’s heroic guitar solo on East Bound brings a tear to this Nebraska boy’s blue eyes.”

Meyer encourages everyone to come and check out his band.

Become a fan on Facebook or go try to catch Meyer rocking out in his office, you never know where you may see this rockstar.

“If you’d like to see some good live, original music, come out and see us,” Meyer said. “If you do, stop and talk to us afterward. We’d love to see you out. We will keep updating shows and rough recorded demos of some of our songs on our MySpace page, and we would love to see you out at a show in the near future.”