Month: November 2014

VIDEO OF THE WEEK: The Bulls “Come Unwound”

The Bulls - photo by Josh Giroux

Happy day after Thanksgiving. Let’s fade away from sweaters and forced family relations and return to head-in-the-blogosphere normalcy with a viewing of Los Angeles duo The Bulls “Come Unwound.” Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll is a cliché for a reason, the trio go together like turkey, stuffing, with a dollop of gravy. Stick with weed and red wine for this one, as far as this video is concerned sex and rock ‘n’ roll are a delicacy to be savored rather than substance to be abused. Yet speaking of abuse, the bondage-themed video uses shibari (the ancient Japanese form of rope bondage) to illustrate the ethereal sounds of Anna’s voice paired with Marc’s strumming. An anonymous woman dressed in a ghostly white body suit and dominatrix black heels sways to the lovely music as beautifully intrinsic knots tie across her body with bold red rope. Laced through the bondage scenery is Anna, singer and multi-instrumentalist and Marc the guitarist in leather jackets in an empty warehouse that just as easily could have been used for a Kink.com shoot. Like that time I wrote about group sex while wearing a gingham sundress and my hair up in a bun, the video uses (my favorite) artistic technique of meshing the traditionally beautiful with the perversely taboo. In The Bull’s case, it’s a blonde playing the violin with arms tied in scarlet bondage ropes. The soft shoegaze yings as BDSM imagery yangs. Take a break from Black Friday online shopping and watch the video below (then talk dirty in French).

WILLONA ON WAX: Heartbreak and Poetry

New Vinyl

Ben Howard
I Forget Where We Were
Island

BEN_HOWARD_UMGI_Vinyl-12_Gatefold_6mmSpine_OUT.inddBritish singer/songwriter Ben Howard’s second full-length album, I Forget Where We Were, is a melancholy and musically-complex record. Howard experiments with tones and effects on each intricately crafted song. Instrumentally the work here is advanced and emotional, and Howard’s poetic lyrics add texture and depth.

The album opens with “Small Things,” featuring an electric slide-guitar melody that sounds like the reverberating echo in the chambers of Howard’s broken heart. My two favorite songs don’t come until Side D: The head-bobber “Conrad” and “All Is Now Harmed,” which gathers the energy of the album’s upbeat tunes and soars with India Bourne’s angelic backing vocals.

Although it wasn’t, Howard’s album feels like it was arranged specifically for vinyl because each side of the double LP ends on a dramatic note. The vinyl release even includes a bonus final track: “Am I In Your Light?”

My recommendation: Get the album and a bottle of red wine.

“Small Things” (live acoustic version)

Packaging: Double LP. Strangely uninspiring artwork. Lyrics are included. Digital download code included.

Where to Get It: Order the limited edition vinyl from here.

 

Vintage Vinyl

Moss Icon
Moss Icon – Complete Discography (reissue)
Temporary Residence

moss iconI found out about this Moss Icon reissue (which came in 2012) by accident. I was giving an old, double LP by Explosions in the Sky one more chance to wow me (it didn’t) when I pulled out the tiny little booklet advertising the Temporary Residence catalog. I couldn’t believe that one of my favorite band’s slender collection had been reissued on vinyl.

Hailing from Annapolis, MD, Moss Icon’s schizophrenically emo, art rock, post-hardcore sound gained a following in the D.C. scene, where they played alongside dischord bands like Fugazi, Soulside and Ignition during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but they only released fewer than 20 songs.

Moss Icon’s music is something of a performance art piece. Jonathan Vance mixes guttural vocals with esoteric musings. My favorite is the 11-minute epic “Lyburnum – Wit’s End (Liberation Fly),” which begins as gloomy as an early morning funeral and builds to an emotionally climatic ending.

I’ll admit that in some ways Moss Icon’s sound is stuck in time, but it takes me back to a place I like to visit.

Bonus: Moss Icon is playing a few reunion shows in December in D.C. and New York.

Packaging: Triple LP. The cover art is the same as the original releases and there is a customized etching on the sixth side. Digital download code included.

Where to Get It: You can order the album from Temporary Residence.

TRACK OF THE WEEK: A Place to Bury Strangers “Straight”

Last week, Brooklyn’s own A Place to Bury Strangers announced their fourth studio album, Transfixiation, due out Feb. 17th via Dead Oceans. The first single off the upcoming record is the hard-hitting, noise-laden gem “Straight” — so good we chose it for our track of the week!

“Straight” is the first single from APTBS since the release of the trio’s 2012 album, Worship, and it’s a doozy. The track begins right away with an electric guitar coming into focus, quickly evolving from muffled to blaring, and from there the song is unrelenting. Oliver Ackermann’s guitar screeches, whines, and growls while the singer himself puts on a blase tone, half-speaking through the three-and-a-half-minute-long track. The breakneck beat, courtesy of drummer Robi Gonzalez, makes “Straight” immediately danceable—certainly you won’t be able to resist headbanging along, at the very least.

APTBS will celebrate the release of Transfixiation at The Music Hall of Williamsburg on Feb. 17th. Until then, enjoy “Straight,” below.

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LIVE REVIEW: Milán @ (le) poisson rouge

Friday night at the self-proclaimed “art and alcohol” gallery of (le) poisson rouge, Maria Neckam, aka the Brooklyn bred and jazz trained Milán infiltrated the far too sparsely populated space like fluorescent spheres of a bubble gun for her self-titled EP release party. Created in junction with DJ Brian Lindgren (Pax Humana), drummer Chris Berry (Holy Ghost!, Ghost Beach) and drummer Tommy Crane (Half Waif) the 11/11 release merges of the mind of Maria filtered through the creative production skills of Jim Orso (drums for Hot Chip, Holy Ghost! and Rush Midnight).

Milan at LPR

In a “let’s do this” moment her thin heels and leopard-print blazer were removed and Milán was unconstricted to align movement with alt-electro beats. Her finely tuned style and quirky dance moves evoke the endearing appeal of Björk, and fans of the Annie Clark-personified pop of St. Vincent will be looking to snag the self-titled EP.

Milan at LPR 1

With an almost unaware intensity, she let the focused crowd intimately in with the seductively vulnerability of “How could I ever let you come so close, to my heart?” in “Miles Apart.”

In a thrashing “DK6” that leaves you curious and craving what’s next, “Nobody asked you to move in here, nobody asked you to be become me…can’t you see that you hold me back?” jabs Milán.

The energy slowed down for the steady rhythms accelerated by the driving eclectic vocals of the haunting yet soft “25.” “When the world gets too close I can’t feel myself…” 

Milan at LPR 2

Like the teeming undercurrents of the up and coming next Brooklyn neighborhood, Milán has mainstream appeal for the next era 2015 of kink-tones.

Photos by Cody Orrell 

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LIVE REVIEW: Low Fat Getting High @ Cake Shop

low-fat

 

Grow your hair. Throw a beer. Break a bridge, chuck a cymbal. Hold your Jazzmaster with its busted bridge up to the foam ceiling insulation to get more feedback. Play through stacks jacked up so loud you drown the house PA. I don’t know if Brooklyn’s Low Fat Getting High read a book on how to be the most rock n’ roll, but they sure as hell could write one.

 

Low Fat has been making strides in the underground rock circuit as of late, receiving praise from the likes of Brooklyn Vegan and the Village Voice, the latter calling them NYC’s Best Rock Band. Now while that’s a hefty medal from a source past its prime, Low Fat certainly do kick ass. The proof was at the Cake Shop last Thursday, where the trio shared a record release party alongside label mates The Black Black. Both groups have fresh vinyl out on NY’s own Money Fire Records, Low Fat’s being a self-titled 12 song ear-ripper that could sit on a shelf next to 90’s Queens of the Stone Age; no shortage of muddy bass and aggro drums here.

 

The Money Fire boys split the bill with Dead Stars and recent Seattle transplants Iska Dhaaf who opened the evening. Iska Dhaaf, whose name roughly translates to “to let it go” in Somali, is made up of Ben Verdoes, formerly of Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band and Nathan Quiroga of the much-maligned Seattle “rap” outfit Mad Rad. To let it go, indeed. To the credit of the band’s reincarnation, Iska Dhaaf put on an entertaining show that revealed their diversity and technical ability as musicians and songwriters.

 

Verdoes sang harmony, played drums with his right hand and diddled a miniature keyboard with his left. Meanwhile Quiroga sang lead and riffed on his battered 335, duck-walking and playing footsie with an 8-pedal effects shelf. If multi-tasking is a necessity of the era, these boys will survive just fine.

 

Next up was The Black Black, whose latest record Boogie Nights brings to mind bands like Minutemen and Mclusky. Lead singer/guitarist Jonathan Daily’s vocals could hardly be heard over the band’s pushy breed of post-noise rock, but his attitude rang loud and clear. A bastion of blasé, he sneered while mouthing sarcastic lyrics such as “what the world needs now is one more band.”

 

But while Daily had a self-deprecation dilemma on his hands, the rhythm section seemed to be having a blast. The bassist, who looks and sounds like he stepped out of the 1980’s New York hardcore scene served up tendon-trembling riffs with no hesitation. Smiling wildly behind the drum kit was Tomo Ikuta, whose grinning enthusiasm is something rarely seen in a rock band. An exceptionally skilled drummer, he filled out the band’s set with as many solos he could squeeze in.

 

Co-headliners Dead Stars steered the evening in a more melodic direction, though I found their sound to be less exciting than that of the previous groups. They’re a talented group of musicians, but exude a commoditized presentation of grunge and shoegaze, complete with ripped jeans, laissez faire hair and flannel button-ups. Jeff Moore’s vocals are a bit on the whiny side, and the music isn’t groundbreaking enough to spark much conversation.

 

Low Fat Getting High, on the other hand didn’t seem to be wearing anybody else’s outfit. They’re true entertainers, packing more into the first five minutes than most bands do in 45. By their second song a cymbal had flown off of the drum kit and lead singer/guitarist Michael Sincavage had broken the bridge of his guitar. No matter though, it only seemed to add to their air of “who cares?”

 

The band played a full-throttle set that was nothing if not entertaining (and of course badass). Artie Tan hammered out fast-paced sludgy bass lines, bouncing around the stage with a recklessness that defies his waifish build. Sincavage didn’t disappoint with face-melting solos, taking his performance into the crowd from time to time.

 

For all of Low Fat’s serious rock ‘n’ roll, they had an admirable sense of humor about themselves while they played, cracking jokes and smiling through their curtains of hair. It didn’t hurt that it was their record release party, and that the crowd was full of friends and Money Fire brethren. At the end of their set, the audience shouted for more songs, to which Sincavage quipped:

 

“We’re too young for encores.”

 

Can’t blame them for that.

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ARTIST PROFILE + INTERVIEW: Brittsommar – One North Country to Another

BRITTSOMMAR lg

“I write these answers now in a dark cabin on the Swedish country side.”

 

This I can imagine: Sawyer Gebauer, lamp-lit at a maple table pondering the four-year history of his musical project Brittsommar. What is difficult to picture is that he is communicating via computer, and not quill, parchment and pigeon. These dated emblems do not come to mind because Gebauer’s music is dressed in derivative costume, but rather due to the fairytale-like circumstances of Brittsommar’s formation.

 

“Ha, that’s what most people say-some fairytale scenario.”

 

Simply put, Brittsommar plays folk music. But theirs is not the saccharine-sunshine variety of Mumford and Sons and Edward Sharpe so prevalent a few years back. Something much darker and more austere is at play here, summoning the sorrow of Nick Cave and the narrative structuring of Lee Hazlewood. It’s a slice of sound that’s long been absent from American indie music, which is perhaps why Gebauer became an expat before finding collaborators with a similar mission to his own.

 

While most 19-year-old musicians might take a crack at ‘making it’ in New York or Los Angeles, Wisconsin-born Gebauer instead fled to Sweden in 2010, no master plan informing the decision.

 

“It was just the usual thoughts and confusion that comes with that age after high school. What is this life of mine? This world that we are born, live, and die in. Who am I, who are you? All those typical questions of a world unseen…the beauty of the unknown.”

 

It’s the kind of cryptic response one would expect after hearing Brittsommar, their swelling melodrama of strings and minor chords suggesting too many nights spent with Evan Williams and Aesop’s Fables. In both song and conversation Gebauer takes on an air of the wizened raconteur-a true storyteller who has somehow never written down a song in his life.

 

“I just feel as soon as I write it down it disappears. It’s down and out. It’s on the page and that’s where it will stay, between the binding. Perhaps when I start to get older and the drink eventually gets to me I´ll have to start documenting. We´ll see.”

 

But true to his Midwestern roots Gebauer occasionally retreats from the role of bard, admitting the more down-to-earth and banal reasons for leaving home:

 

“I wasn´t interested in university or staying at the pizza joint I worked in. I wasn’t interested in staying in the relationship I was in- or any as a matter of fact. There was no option besides getting out of Madison.

 

At the time, I was quite into Swedish musicians- Tallest Man on Earth, The Knife, Jens Leckman, Jose Gonzales. So I thought, ‘Well, I might as well go there and see what I can do.’ There was something there in the back of my head and the bottom of my gut that pulled me in that direction. One North Country to another.”

 

brittsommar3

 

Gebauer turned to WWOOFing and found a host farm on which he could work in return for food and board. He picked the first farm listed but changed his mind last minute, settling on another called Rosenhill. It was this flighty impulse that laid the foundation for the four years to follow.

 

“I didn´t know anything about the country- the language, the culture etc. Maybe if I knew then what I know now, my situation would be different.

 

When I got on the bus to go to Chicago O´Hare from Madison it still didn’t hit me that I was doing some “radical” thing that most people wouldn’t do.

When I arrived at the farm I fell in love with the farmer’s daughter. It was her 18th birthday and I knew it was just her and I from then on out. This was to be Brittsommar´s violin player, Evelin.”

 

Sawyer and Evelin traveled together between Stockholm and Berlin, accumulating band mates each with compelling backgrounds of their own. Guitarist Johan Björk is a Swedish judge. Drummer Gilad Reichenthal is a former Israeli rock star. Evelin Sillén is currently studying art, and cellist Chris Smith hails from Australia where he used to build satellites for the German space agency.

 

What Gebauer and Sillén found in these musicians was a desire in step with their own: to form an ever-shifting lineup of contributors that would allow Brittsommar to be in constant motion, forming more of an artist collective than a traditional band.

 

“When Evelin and I moved to Berlin we met Chris and Gili there, by chance really. We were looking for a new band and they showed up. You just know you are gonna be friends and band mates before you even play together for the first time. There is this energy. We were all going through huge stages in our lives- just giving everything up again and moving to this dark hole that is Berlin. So we kinda clicked on an existential level.”

 

It’s the stuff of fate and fiction, seasoned with the kind of characters you’d find in a Jeunet film. The story doesn’t outshine the music, but it does beg to be told, and when I first heard Brittsommar’s “Tell Me” playing on a laptop in Minnesota, I knew it had to be heard.

 

While the group has garnered applause from European outlets, they’re virtually unknown in the States, which, as I relay to Sawyer, is a damn shame. I ask if this makes him feel out of touch with American audiences.

 

“Well that actually has to do with the PR. The last album was promoted to a primarily European demographic. I think the States are more jaded than in Europe. America is so fast and it has seen and created much of what’s going on over here so the mentality is kinda like, ‘yeah so what?’  In Europe it’s somewhat of an exotic thing- this guy abandoning his home in America to move out to the countryside of Sweden. Being back in NY it’s like, ” So you come from Wisconsin…mmhm.” Haha, I don’t know if that’s true really…”

 

The album Sawyer refers to is 2013’s The Machine Stops. Defying the sophomore slump principle and any sentiments of “yeah, so what?” Machine reveals miles of artistic growth when compared with their 2011 debut, Day of Living Velvet. While the first record is a far cry from bad or boring, it seems a bit thin in production and intensity after listening to Machine, which is a rolling maelstrom of mournful folk.

 

Gebauer’s voice is a resounding barrelhouse that is all the more impressive when you see that it’s coming from a beardless ectomorph. Despite its depth, it bears a solid range; it is not the monotone last resort of someone who can’t actually sing. At once painful and reckless, it is the central presence of Brittsommar’s sound, but never overwhelms the wailing surges of cello and violin or the precisely plucked guitar. Evelin Sillén’s accompanying vocals add a sweet reprieve while Reichenthal doles out trembling snare rolls fit for a funeral procession.

 

Machine’s opener “Sing Low” is a strong starter, relying heavily on Gebauer’s lulling baritone. The song builds layer-by-layer, first with tinny fingerpicking and eventually culminating in crashing cymbals. “Half-Inch Map” has Gebauer at his most snide and berating: “and you’re just getting by by the skin of your crooked teeth.” The track is wily and slightly sinister, implementing squealing strings that could be found on a Dirty Three record.

 

“Middle Man” is a favorite, though an even better version can be heard in a live performance filmed outdoors in Freiburg. The video communicates the band members’ dexterity as musicians, as well as Gebauer’s charisma as a performer, yipping occasionally like a coyote with his guitar held at chin level.

 

 

Sweeping and melancholy, “The Painter” is another high point of the record, as well as a beautiful cover of “Aint You Wealthy, Aint You Wise” by Will Oldham-aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy. It’s a fitting source of inspiration for Gebauer, whose story would seem to merit a pseudonym of his own.  Much like Oldham and Beirut’s Zach Condon, there is a sense that Gebauer is a musician lost in his own time.  Is there a 73-year-old man trapped in that a twenty-something’s body?  There just might be.

 

It’s a charlatan’s charm, though nothing is false about Gebauer or his music. The mere discrepancy between his age and aura is what spawns such suspicion: is all this for real? And if so, why the hell haven’t we heard more about it?

 

Fortunately, there is still time to discover. Gebauer is bringing it all back home to record a solo LP in San Francisco this month, stopping by New York to play a gig on the way.

 

“The album is gonna be pretty sweet and lowdown compared to the others-somewhat acoustic then a mirage of grungy drums and out of tune violins. Finding the voice again. The past albums were a lot of story telling…

With these upcoming tracks I developed quite a bit compared to when I was in Berlin two years ago.   I got reacquainted with the tranquil chaos that is America. This past year I returned to the states and lived in NY. Went to the west coast and drove from San Fran down to Austin where I was to play at SXSW. Then I flew to Madison for the fist time in years. So I went East to West, South to North. I found my ‘roots’ I suppose.

 

It was amazing. When I returned to Madison, the songs just came. Flowed out in a way that hasn’t happened to me in quite some time. I guess it was the re-realization that you can never go home again…”

 

You can never go home again, and you certainly can’t live forever. Gebauer seems to be comfortable with seismic change in ways few people are. In the small number of interviews I’ve found he mentions-in his own baroque way-the inevitable death of Brittsommar.

 

“Yeah, it´s only natural. You don’t wanna drag something out too long. Let it die in its footsteps, one can say. Doesn’t mean the music is over, just a change in direction and meaning. It has been some time and people have gone in and out. It started in a different time and we are all now in different periods with our lives. Brittsommar was then. Now its something even better.”

 

 

Gebauer will play a solo show at Troost Bar in Greenpoint on Thursday, November 20th.  Also on the bill is the lovely and talented Scout Paré-Phillips.

 

 

 

 

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TRACK OF THE WEEK: The Midnight Hollow “Forward”

Reverb-drenched vocals reminiscent of Morrissey, driven by percussive synth lines, The Midnight Hollow’s single “Forward” off their upcoming EP “For The People Inside” accents the Brooklyn based psychedelic rocker’s ethereal sound. The laid back vocals emerge from frontman Spencer Draeger, who is partnered with Andrew Segreti on drums, backed with the full lineup for live shows Matt Liebowitz on bass, Vahak “V” Janbazian on percussion and Katie Lee Campo on the keys. The track is rounded by solid live drums and percussion rooting the electronic elements, as far too often groups with a similar sound become a bit lost in space. When waking up on a rainy Monday morning, ground your caffeine and nicotine buzz with the lush synth strings of “Forward” to mellow out your post-weekend angst.

Catch The Midnight Hollow in all their glory live at Piano’s on Tuesday, November 18th at 8PM. Word up to The Midnight Hollow for reminding us that the delightful post-punk sound is still alive and well in Brooklyn.

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VIDEO REVIEW: Idgy Dean “The Indian Squirrel Dance”

There is a lot left to the imagination when you hear a song entitled “The Indian Squirrel Dance” — you don’t even have to listen to conjure up the jungle drumming, fringe flying, and Earth romping that Idgy Dean unapologetically displays in her new video. The single will appear on her first full length due out early next year. One thing is clear about this artist, whether she has an audience or not she’s going to do whatever the hell she wants.

With the looping abilities of KT Tunstall (Lindsey Sanwald is an impressive one-woman act) and the edginess of Ume, Idgy Dean encompasses all that she claims to be in her respective, and presumably self-appointed genre of Pachamama garage rock (Pachamama being an Incan mythological fertility/harvest Goddess). There is certainly an organic tribal undertone to the track; the drums are constant, ceremonial and cymbal-less, and the vocals err on the edge of inaudibility, invoking the idea of murmured incantations. But the glue that binds all the mythological luster together is an overarching riff that will make you want to go out and buy an amp and guitar just to play that damn lick swirling around your brain like a dust storm.

But the real splash is made by the video itself, which features the artist in a myriad of natural locales, all of which appear to be from whence she is indigenous. Under the direction of Rachel Brennecke, aka BON JANE, the video captures what could seemingly be an animal in her many habitats. Idgy is captured as a bayou woman, a hunter-gatherer-esque native, an elusive, yet enticing phantasm in a corn maze, and yet all are in the persona of the artist herself. The video plays on the idea of dancing like nobody’s watching, but more importantly features Idgy Dean as a musical gypsy on the prowl. With her bohemian prowess, she will lure spectators in with her primal energy, and that is the essence of the artistry itself.

Idgy Dean will be releasing her first full length album, Ominous Harminus early next year. In the meantime, check out the video here:

TRACK PREMIERE: LAYNE, “I’d Go to Space With You”

layne

Budding young pop rock artist, LAYNE, released a catchy new single today off her forthcoming EP, Warrior, due out early next year, following up her debut, Mind Games, which came out last spring. Her new track, “I’d Go To Space With You”, is an upbeat, anthemic pop jam about finding one’s place among a world of “cool kids”. Heralding back to motifs of first love, social awkwardness, and the art of fitting in, the theme alone is ever-relatable. Accompanied by gleaming bubblegum guitar hooks and infectious vocals that are simultaneously refreshing and nostalgia-inspiring, however, the track is a wonderful throwback to late 90s/early 2000s suburban alt-rock and punk pop, while also showcasing LAYNE’s musical talent and knack for songwriting. If it’s any indication of what’s to come from the LA via North Dakota transplant, Warrior will not disappoint.

Listen here to Audiofemme’s exclusive premiere of “I’d Go To Space With You”, here via Soundcloud:

EP REVIEW: Black Honey

black honey audiofemme

The Black Honey EP, which remains nameless, gives way to haunting echoes that give the listener insight into the longing nature of the songs. The lyrics in “Sleep Forever,” the first track, beg for a sampling of a situation over and over.

Black Honey hails from Brighton and consists of Izzy Bee, Chris Ostler, Tommy Taylor and Tom Dewhurst. The group stays mysterious in the way that public information is pretty slight- even though they plan to tour “forever” and keep their music fresh and personal. The group will release their debut four song EP in a limited edition physical form which is made available only in the flesh at their shows.

The EP is made up of four demos, all full bodied and ready to blare.

The first track, released about four months ago, “Sleep Forever,” opens the album longingly with the lyrics: “I wish I could sleep forever ooh, I wish I could sleep forever with you.”

The song continues on in a sleepy way and the second track, “Teenager,” widens the scope of Black Honey’s capabilities. Unlike bands that stay stuck in one sound, Black Honey gets raw after showing a softer side on the first track.

“The night unfolds, hold me without your claws,” and throws “I don’t mind you got the war inside,” into the middle of the verse, sharing that openness with the listeners right at the get-go.

The third track, “The Taste” gets a bit sultry and more upbeat and almost slurs, “I can’t help myself.”

The closing demo track, “Bloodlust,” was released mere days ago and helps the EP run full circle, ending it on an upswing with an almost angry and annoyed tone.

“Bloodlust” closes in a sea of egging on with repeated, “Come on’s” that leaves you with nothing but the desire to follow.

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LIVE REVIEW: Temples @ Irving Plaza

If a monster spit out the color wheel across the sparkling night sky, you would see what it was to experience Temples live. Before they travel back to tour in Europe for the winter, the band graced Irving Plaza Monday with an excessively stellar performance.
Hailing from Kettering, England, the four lads sound like the 60’s psychedelic rock revival but with their own gust of sounds and breaks topped with a goddamn subtle attitude. Seeing them on stage with fascinating jewelry, fringed shirts and dazzling hair prove they know how to rock their style hard.
Irving Plaza remained in a velvety psychedelic dimension as the London mates seamlessly strung together their set. “A Question Isn’t Answered” marked when I helplessly fell into a coma, seduced by James Edward Bagshaw’s melodic posture. My mind was dissected by the euphoric guitar riffs and keyboard of Adam Smith, while Thomas Edward, James Walmsley and Samuel Lloyd Toms’ bass and drumming held structure of the glossy performance. The audience fell in a trance while “Prisms” took hold of our consciousness. As if the purple and green light show wasn’t electrifying enough, the projection screen behind them with reflections of colors, oily and ever-changing bubbles provided an additional escape from the norm.
Watching Temples is unlike any performance you can experience live. In addition to their elegant sound, their lyrics embody what you see and feel. The sounds of Temples is incomplete without “Ankh’s,” “Future’s changed, visions change. Visions of you, make the vision of me seem so in touch with only to see.” It’s hard to digest songs so beautiful accompanied by lyrical poetry and visions of glowing intensities. Instrumental balance is important to them as well, never dulling the sound yet keeping an ethereal melodic neutrality.
My only qualm was the set felt too short, leaving me with a withdrawal craving an extended encore. Remarkably vivid, intense and nourishing, I’m hoping for more material from Temples soon. Besides all the impressive projections accompanying the lights and outfits, Temples has the power to transcend music. They are classic yet authentically new, the purest genius of current psychedelic sound.
Salute to Heavenly Records, who allow the quartet to remain their bona-fide trippy selves.
They have only been on the music scene for two years, but they already have much under their studded belts. Cemented stardom in England, they’ve created buzz in the U.S. in reaction to their performance at Coachella this year. I’m hoping Temples will be spinning more on our home soil soon. Unfortunately, you missed your chance to experience their mind-bending live performance, unless you happen to be in Brighton or Manchester this winter. If not, submerge yourself in Sun Structures, the kaleidoscope they created for your viewing.

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Setlist:
1. “Sun Structures”
2. “A Question Isn’t Answered”
3. “The Golden Throne”
4. “Prisms”
5. “Colours To Life”
6. “Ankh”
7. “Move With The Season”
8. “Keep In The Dark”
9. “Sand Dance”
10. “Shelter Song”
–
11. “Mesmerise”
temples live pic

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VIDEO REVIEW: Purmamarca “Don’t Need Your Love”

Purmamarca

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Brooklyn’s Purmamarca self-released their debut album Summer Air // Night, via bandcamp in early 2014. Though it sounds far more lush and expansive, the LP was “recorded in bedrooms, kitchens, and basements on a USB microphone”. Yet the band upped the production value for the video that accompanies gorgeous single “Don’t Need Your Love.” The pace of the track is as deliberate as the video, shot in a former convent in one long take by director Lisa Boostani.

Actors Jessica Park and Scoop Slone look almost cartoon-like, their expressions either exaggerated or non-existent as they move through ambiguous spaces both physically and metaphorically. In an awkward dance sequence, they’re partnered but still feel like islands unto themselves, barely looking at one another or interacting save for their stifled movements. It’s hard to guess what happened to the duo in the past–is the man more invested than the woman? Did a usual lover’s quarrel turn things more sour than they’d been before? Has their time run out in a depressing and draining way? The man appears at turns hopeful, then stressed, splashing water on his face to calm or comfort himself. The woman’s gaze is unfocused and deadened throughout much of the video, though in the last few moments some hint of relief flickers across when she removes the wig she was wearing in one swift motion. It emphasizes the weird play-acting we find ourselves doing in relationships that are long past their prime; stripping oneself of all illusions, as the woman does in removing the wig, is the only way to combat it. It’s a sentiment echoed by the track’s resigned, codependent lyrics: “Don’t need your love to be happy / but to know myself.”

“Don’t Need Your Love” is atmospheric, pretty, and dark, making the dimly lit scenes, vague surrealism, and slow-moving actors fit the puzzle near perfectly. The robot-like mannerisms of the actors call into question the roles that love serves in our lives, and lyrics challenge our ideas of why we feel we need love as well as the delusions we create to hold onto it. Though it is unsettling at times, the clip highlights the essence of Purmamarca’s song with rare grace and subtle truth.

INTERVIEW: Lily & Madeleine

 

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Over the course of the past two years, Lily & Madeleine Jurkiewicz, teenage sisters from Indianapolis, have had a performance go viral on Reddit, written their first original songs, gotten signed to Asthmatic Kitty, released two full-length albums and an EP, and played several tours. The duo’s most recent album, the spooky and elegant Fumes, starts with the basics that have always characterized Lily & Madeleine’s sound–unadorned folk melodies and close harmony between the pair’s twin voices–and twists the basic foundation into something more nuanced and experimental. In what’s perhaps a byproduct of their overnight success coupled with being so young, Lily and Madeleine are still evolving as artists: Fumes pushes at the outer boundaries of folk and indie pop–turf that has by now become familiar to this group–and hints at more experimental, darker territory to be explored in the future. Even “Peppermint Candy,” one of the poppiest tracks on the album, complexifies its catchy melody with a sinister lyrical slant: “Peppermint candy, and a hand upon my gun,” the first verse begins, “I keep it handy, I’ve never been the kind to run.”

The overarching feeling in these tracks, however, is a kind of hopeful independence: the women in the songs are alone but self-sufficient, and just discovering their powers. “We felt inspired to create songs that reflected our current empowerment,” Madeleine explained to me when I called the sisters to chat yesterday afternoon. It was their second tour stop, and they were in Boston, waiting to start soundcheck. Read on to learn about Lily & Madeleine’s writing process, what they’ve been listening to these days, and what’s next for the duo.

AudioFemme: Hi, guys! You just kicked off a tour–how’s it going so far?

Lily: It’s been really fun. We’ve only had one show–we’ve done some radio things–but tonight is our second show in Boston.

Madeleine: We had a show in Indianapolis, right before Halloween. That was our album release show. The first show that we traveled to was in Charleston, WV, and we played on the Mountain Stage, which was really cool because they’ve had, like over 800 shows on that stage and broadcast them on the radio. Now we’re in Boston, and we really love Boston. It’s gonna be fun!

AF: You guys just released Fumes, your second album in 2 years. You’ve been so prolific so far–what’s your writing process like? Do you set a regular schedule or routine for yourself in terms of writing or playing?

Lily: I like to play every day just because it’s relaxing and fun. I like to write too, but you can’t always write a song by pressuring yourself to do it–sometimes it’s better when you’re inspired. So I don’t write every day.

AF: Has your writing process changed since your first recordings?

Madeleine: Honestly, no. The writing [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][on Fumes] was pretty similar to what it was for our first album. We wrote the same way, with me, Lily, and Kenny Childers, who’s our co-writer. The way that Fumes is different from the first album is that once we got into the studio and started arranging the songs, we began to experiment more. We brought in some new musicians and tried out different sounds, different distortions, things like that. The writing itself wasn’t different but the production was a little more involved.

AF: What inspired you thematically on this album?

Madeleine: Once we finished the first album and had some success with that, we knew we wanted to make a second album that was going to be just a little different, a little more evolved. Because we’d grown up, I guess. We were inspired by the tours we had been on, the people we had met, the experiences we had had, the way that our careers were shaping us as artists and as women. We felt inspired to create songs that reflect our current empowerment, I suppose. That’s really the main theme of the record. Empowerment.

AF: And these are all new songs that you’ve written since putting out a successful record. On your first EP, did you include any old songs? Anything that you’d written before knowing there was even going to be an EP to put them on? 

Lily: No, everything that went on the EP was written specifically for the EP. Before then we’d never written songs. So pretty much every song we’d ever written at that point went on the EP.

AF: Wow. So did you start songwriting specifically for the recording process?

Madeleine: Yeah, pretty much. We met our manager and producer and he challenged us to start writing our own music. We just fell in love with the process of creating  together, and we both just love music so much that it totally made sense to write our own material. Before that point we hadn’t really done much with writing.

AF: Did you worry at any point that you wouldn’t be able to write songs?

Lily: Oh, yeah. It was really hard at first. We tried and we didn’t know how to do it. Now it’s great.

AF: Clearly! So what got the ball rolling? Did you enter into the process totally collaboratively?

Madeleine: We did, yeah. That’s kind of how we always do it. Usually one of us will start with an idea and bring it to the other. Once we have a verse or a melody, just something to start on, that makes it easier to develop the song more quickly and turn it into something we both like.

AF: What are the best things about songwriting with a sibling?

Lily: Because we’ve always lived together, we have a lot of the same experiences. At the same time, we have different emotional reactions to things. Under pressure, Madeleine tends to get more anxious, and I tend to get more pushy. It’s a difference in our personalities.

AF: It must be beneficial to you as business partners to have different strengths. How has your personal relationship evolved since you began this project?

Madeleine: Definitely [it is beneficial to have different strengths]. I think we balance each other well. We’ve always been close. We’re not very far apart in age, and so we had the same teachers growing up, and very similar friend groups. This experience has made our relationship stronger, but nothing’s really changed that much, because we’ve always been friends.

AF: Have you always played music together? What were your first musical experiences?

Lily: We would always sing together around the house and things like that. But we never performed together.

Madeleine: Like Lily said earlier, we’ve loved music forever. It was something I would do as a hobby because I liked it and I was good at it. I didn’t think of it as being a career until we started writing and released our songs and signed to a label. Even then, I was really unsure of what we were getting ourselves into. Not until recently have I felt super comfortable with what we’ve been doing, but now I’m ready to be an artist and a musician. I’m letting myself do this and control this. I’m feeling good about it now.

AF: It sounds like you’ve both had to grow up really quickly.

Lily: Kind of. Yeah, probably. What with the places we’ve been, and the challenges we’ve had to overcome. But I do feel that we’d be the same people if this wasn’t happening.

Madeleine: I think about what I’d be doing if I was in college, or whatever, if I wasn’t doing this with Lily. I probably wouldn’t be as strong, and as sure of myself, because we’ve had really cool experiences that my peers haven’t had yet or may never have. So we’re lucky.

AF: Is it hard keeping in touch with friends who are on that other path?

Madeleine: I’ve stressed about that a lot. Like, as recently as last month. More and more, I feel like the people who want to stay in contact with me and support me, they will. Those who don’t, I don’t have any place for them in my life.

AF: Talk to me about blood harmony. I love that phrase. What does it mean, and why is it so special to you? 

Madeleine: I love that phrase too. It’s so creepy and cool. Well, I think it’s really natural for us to harmonize because we have the same voice, and the same genes. It’s really just the way we naturally do things.

AF: You have this amazing story of having a song go viral on Reddit and breaking into recording in this very fast, Internet-based sort of way. What do you think about Internet stardom and “going viral” as a way of breaking into the music industry?

Madeleine: It seems like that’s the way it happens now. We live in this age of technology, and posting stuff to YouTube is super common. Things going viral, it happens all the time, and I think it’s actually an awesome platform for artists to get going and put their art out there. Sometimes you have to search through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff, but I think it’s an awesome way for musicians to get started. I think we’re lucky that it happened for us that way.

AF: Really fast, too! If that hadn’t happened, would you be trying to break into the music business in other ways?

Lily: I think so. I think I’d probably go to college and study something music-related. But this is what I truly want to be doing so I’m glad everything went the way it went.

Madeleine: I don’t even want to talk about what I’d be doing if I wasn’t doing do this. Because obviously this is what the universe has given to us right now, this opportunity, this chance, so I think it just makes sense for us to  keep going with it. If I wasn’t, I guess I would be in college, and have friends and a boyfriend and hang out and go to parties. But I’m doing this, and I want to be doing this.

AF: What are some of your individual influences, and what do you both like to listen to?

Lily: My influences, they shift a lot. I tend to get really obsessed with an artist for a couple of weeks and then it dwindles a bit. I still listen to them, but I calm down and move on to something else. Right now I really like hip hop.

AF: Wow, I would not have guessed that from listening to your album!

Madeleine: Lily’s been sending me some of her hip hop stuff. I like it, but it’s not my favorite. I’m into electronic stuff–not hardcore electronic, but I’m starting to get into the genre a little bit more and take some influences. Maybe on our next album you’ll see some hip hop and electronic influence in our songs!

 

Catch Lily & Madeleine live tonight in New York City at Le fabulous Poisson Rouge! It’s not too late to pick up your tickets here, and stay tuned for my coverage of the show. To get a taste, watch the official music video for “The Wolf Is Free,” below:

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FEMME UNFILTERED: Weyes Blood

weyes blood

Twice a month, AudioFemme profiles artists both emerging and established, who, in this industry, must rebel against misogynist cultural mores. Through their music  they express the attendant hurdles and adversities (vis-a-vis the entertainment industry and beyond) propagated by those mores. For our sixth installment, Amber Robbin profiles Weyes Blood, a one-woman psych folk powerhouse that challenges notions of waif-like femininity with hauntingly dynamic vocals, darkly emotional lyrics, and unexpectedly melodic sound effects.

Artist Profile: Weyes Blood

Weyes Blood is the otherworldly musical persona of folk-suffused, musique concrète-inspired artist Natalie Mering. Based in New York City with prior roots in Philly and Baltimore, Mering has previously collaborated with experimentally driven acts such as Ariel Pink and Jackie-O Motherfucker. Her second full release, The Innocents,  came out on Mexican Summer October 21st, following The Outside Room, her 2011 album on Not Not Fun which was recorded, mixed, and produced by Mering herself.

Music is in Mering’s wise blood (which, by the way, is the play on words intended by the literary-inspired pseudonym, “Weyes Blood”). Her father was a rocker in 1970s LA turned Christian parish leader, yet Mering has cultivated an aesthetic undeniably her own. Her mellifluous vocal sound is pure and ancient, driving forth compositions that are rich with artfully-chosen sound effects she seamlessly strews over traditional instrumentation. The result ranges from whimsical to profoundly heart-wrenching, with darkly psychedelic passages and hopeful glimmers of choral brilliance throughout. From the warped piano arpeggios of “Some Winters” to the acoustic simplicity of “Bad Magic,” Mering’s bereft, hovering bay unhinges the listener’s soul and carries it between intimately familiar portraits of a past life, conjuring memories that still breathe with tangible emotion.

The album is, indeed, an imprint of the past for the deep-timbred songstress. The Innocents chronicles the lost, wandering soul of an early twenties Mering and captures the distress and abandon felt by many in that age of angst and aching. Although written in the thick of her experience, Mering’s work echoes with the mature understanding of an old soul painfully aware in the midst of its own torment. She ponders her loss in “Some Winters,” the second single off the album, and faces what’s left in the aftermath of a jilted love affair…

You won’t hold me in your arms anymore

We paid our price

Lead from the soul

I’m already gone

The house of stone we built has turned into sand

and you know I’d still hold your hand

A hope I can’t conceal

A memory how we used to feel

A potential third single, “Bad Magic,” was recorded in Mering’s apartment. One of the most beloved and bare tracks, the ballad unfolds as if Mering is slowly, solemnly rallying herself yet again to face the day, despite her enduring anguish. Harboring a bursting chest and eyes forever wetted, she pushes on, for she knows instinctively that there is nowhere to go but forward. The minor melody tugs and lilts from verse to chorus without pause, like the perpetual pep talk of her heart that refuses to come up for air. It is her salvation, this inner monologue…

Make the best of death

and love what’s left

You’re not just a time bomb

Just cause you went off don’t mean you’re scattered everywhere

It’s still there

in the palms of your hand

Just give it one more chance

Don’t wait to understand

Just find a new way

Every melody is “a new way” to move forward, each chunk of poetry a new pearl to bolster her resilience. Every track of The Innocents introduces yet another approach to coping with life as we know it, cracking open our chests for the sake of remembering how we ourselves coped in the face of those most formative, and innocent, years.

Femme Unfiltered: On Natalie Mering

When I was a Broadway hopeful going to musical theatre/circus school, it became abundantly clear to me that only a few select roles were available to women. Just as in most artistic industries (see also “the world”), the options were: virgin or whore. Ok, there might have been slightly more variation, but seriously…ingénue = virgin, sassy sidekick = whore. (If you were lucky enough to have the breadth, you could also play women over 40 – the hag.) However, there was one other, lesser known category which I incessantly fit into – the dead girl. The dead girl was sometimes a ghost, sometimes an angelic symbol of love, innocence, or some other idyllic value. More a spin-off on the standard virgin with a dash of saucy see-through-ness, she served all celestial purposes of the play. She was imposing, she had sway, but she was meant to be known of, more so than seen or heard.

It was intriguing to me, therefore, when I came upon Weyes Blood and its continuously-dubbed “ethereal” front woman Natalie Mering. Mering demands to be seen and heard, and is by no means a waif beyond her waif-like appearance. Her instrument is deep and resounding, and her otherworldly musical concoctions are far too all-encompassing to garner any sort of comparison to a gaseous existence.

It hit me that Mering’s persona challenges all familiar notions of what it means to be “ethereal,” for her art is feminine, celestial, and powerful, all at the same time. Mering spoke in our interview of how all humans have an animal side, so I began to wonder if, perhaps, we all had a self-reflective, otherworldly side to us as well – one that normally lies undetected by our fumbling, animal radar. Mering extracts this element of our being and magnifies it, keeping intact all of the inherent characteristics of a flesh and blood human being: the strength, the raw emotion, the jagged edges. She uses her spiritual presence to embody the essence of her suffering, her perseverance, her enlightenment, every discovery along her epic journey, forging an otherworldly image in solidarity with the human experience. She demonstrates just how ethereal we all are when consumed by our emotions, and especially when we manage to beat the odds and, miraculously, transcend hardship.

INTERVIEW 10/17/14

I had the chance to chat with Natalie Mering aka Weyes Blood. Here is what she had to say.

AF: So Ms. Mering, how did you come to create the very specific sound of Weyes Blood? And how has your past work with Jackie-O Motherfucker and Ariel Pink informed your style?

Mering: Well, I was already making more improvisatory music when I met Jackie-O Motherfucker, and they’re more improvisatory. I don’t know how much they influenced my sound. I feel like Ariel inspired me to be more personal about my songwriting and write more from a conversational perspective. But mostly my sound is cultivated through my love of sound effects and early music, which is old church music, and trying to combine something super futuristic and also ancient.  

AF: What about a musician’s personality, both as an artist and a person, makes them better suited to solo work? Why are you a solo artist?

Mering: I think it was because I couldn’t find anybody who had the same standards as I did to be in a band with. In high school and college, I always wanted to make music, but it was the ultimate, most important thing to me, and it was kind of impossible to meet anybody like that.

AF: In terms of work ethic?

Mering: Yeah, in terms of work ethic. In terms of wanting to pursue it as their career. In terms of where I was coming from artistically. It just wasn’t in the cards for me, so I just played solo.

AF: How do you feel about the word “ethereal”? Does it describe you, or just you in relation to your art?

Mering: Probably just my music. I think ethereal is a fantasy element. That, as human beings, we have ethereal elements – all of us. But we’re pretty much animals, so ethereal is kind of the escape word that we wish we could transcend to. I take it as a compliment.

AF: How did you get into music? Especially, what’s your vocal training background?

Mering: My whole family are musicians, but I was in choirs a lot in middle school and high school.

AF: Where do you get your song ideas?

Mering: Just life experiences and how insane life is.

AF: How does the creative process usually begin for you?

Mering: It’s either music or lyrics, and it’s usually kind of like a lightning flash, but it’s also very half-baked. I get little imprints of songs and melodies, and then I flesh them out by playing them over and over again. And listening. Really listening is a huge part of it. I think I have really good ears.

AF: When and how do you decide upon the unconventional sound effects you use on each track?

Mering: I guess in any atonal sound there’s usually a melody, even though it is atonal, that will kind of sync up and match with the melody of the song. So, it’s almost like pairing…it’s kind of like a wine pairing. (Laughs.) Like some things go better with other things. It’s not all totally random. And once again, listening is the biggest thing. Listening to its relationship to the song and deciding if it adds to the song and brings it more life, or if it’s distracting to the song and takes away from it. Because with sound effects it’s pretty black and white.

AF: Do you find that you face discrimination and adversity within the music industry as a female?

Mering: Yeah.

AF: Do you consider yourself a feminist? What is your definition of feminism?

Mering: I am a feminist. The definition of feminist is to want equal opportunities and rights for women, paying women the same amount, etc. etc. But really what happens in music, is music is really just a big cult of the personality anyway. So, like a male personality is usually more appealing to everybody on a marketing level or an excitement/popularity level. I feel like women have to get in there and make incredible music to get the same amount of attention while a man could make music that’s more based on having a crazy personality, being a kooky guy, and everybody loves it. I think that that is what attracts a lot of people.

I don’t know, it’s also more difficult for men because it’s a little easier to be more singular as a female. So I wouldn’t say it’s totally this terrible thing being a woman in music. It can work to your benefit also. I just find that in terms of the people that I have worked with, it’s easier to get pigeon-holed as “mellow chick music” even though I think I can bring a lot of intensity and excitement. I think that’s happening less and less as more women are doing solo music than ever before, but some people just hear a female voice and that’s the first thing they think.

AF: What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of your work?

Mering: Probably hearing something in my head and then trying to make it a reality, in real life, only to find that it always comes a little short of the fantasy.

AF: What’s the most rewarding aspect?

Mering: Getting to connect with people and make people feel that living is worthwhile via creation and art. I think that’s a very elating experience.

AF: In multiple interviews, you talk about The Innocents being about disillusionment and innocence ending in a person’s early 20s, and how once this album was recorded, you realized you’d already grown past that theme. What themes are you exploring now?

Mering: I don’t know, probably ones that are just more existential. Things beside heartbreak.

AF: What’s beyond heartbreak?

Mering: I don’t know. Like not having a heart anymore and trying to figure that out. (Laughs.)

AF: That’s dark! Alright!

Mering: I mean, it’s existential, it’s dark, but there’s also a lot of lightness – I’ve been writing some happy songs too.

AF: So what’s next for Natalie Mering and Weyes Blood?

Mering: The album comes out next week and then I’m gonna do some heavy touring. I put together a backup band, so still kind of solo, but also with a full band. I’m gonna record my next album next year and just get cookin’ because time is flying and things are changing, and the new set of songs that I wrote are already getting old. Which is one problem with the music world. Creativity kind of comes so fast and albums are these laborious, long events. I look forward to recording the next album. That’s what’s next for me.

 

LIVE REVIEW: St. Lucia w/ Robert DeLong @ SLO Brew San Luis Obispo, CA

st lucia

It has been a good minute since I’ve seen a decent show at San Luis Obispo’s premier music venue, SLO Brew. But alas, St. Lucia and opener Robert DeLong came to save the concert drought that this venue has been suffering for quite some time . The line down Garden St. featured many a college student with Robert Delong’s signature face paint. After a long day of work, I can’t say that I was mentally prepared for what I was anticipating to be a jump-up-and-down- mindlessly-at-the-drop type of EDM set. But, much to my surprise and utter enjoyment, Robert DeLong’s musical style is truly a novelty. With definitive elements of EDM, he transgresses the genre as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist on stage. The LA-based musician utilized a myriad of instruments, from a drumset and laptop to a Wiimote (yes, the remote controller used to play the Wii). Let’s just say there were some impressive uses of video game controllers, so the inner video game dweeb squealed within all of us. Most impressively of all, the Win Butler doppelganger was able to establish and maintain immense energy throughout the set, no small feat for an opener. His biggest hit “Global Concepts” from his album Just Movement was the biggest crowd pleaser of the night. For me, however, his best performance was his rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You.” The classic jam translated well into up-tempo electronica, and did not lose any of its melodic catchiness.

We stood far back for DeLong’s set, which doesn’t mean bad viewing considering SLO brew is  a 400 person venue, and decided to move stage left for St. Lucia. And wouldn’t you know it, there was an empty spot right against the stage (concert luck is the best kind of luck). We were right under the nose of keyboardist Patricia Beranek, whose closeness warranted a chuckle when the opening lights nearly blinded everyone. Their stage production was some of the most impressive I have seen at SLO Brew. As much as I love the venue, its singular good quality is inherent in the fact that it’s the only venue in the county that catches a lot bands touring between San Francisco and LA. Other than the names it occasionally books, and its intimacy, its not up to par with those of the bigger cities. The stage is unbearably small for its performers and is tucked away in a corner which is easily obscured by a beam awkwardly erect in the middle of the floor. All things considered, though, this joint holds a special place in my heart, so I try not to let its shortcomings ruin the fact that I’ve seen some of my favorite acts here.
Despite how little space the venue offers, St. Lucia did not let that hinder their performance or their fervor. The synth heavy, 80’s throwback band did not disappoint. Their sound definitely hearkens back to the 80’s pop of Duran Duran and Genesis, but is reinvigorated by the quality of production and talent brought on by Jean-Philip Grobler, mastermind and lead vocalist behind St. Lucia. Their best tracks are those that err on the edge of saccharine but are just so irresistibly catchy that it’s hard not to fall in love with them. Songs like “Closer Than This” and “Wait for Love” have a universal appeal and produced some of the best moments of the night. The last four songs of the set were what hit this show home for me. “September” is my personal favorite as it features a slightly edgier 80’s sound, the kind that Berlin capitalized on with their first album. “Elevate” is the ultimate feel good jam, which they played before the final song of the night “When The Night.”  It was great to see a crowd full of too-cool looking people  dancing to this feel good happy pop that St. Lucia delivered. The band will continue on with their “The Night Comes Again” tour through mid-November. If you can’t catch them on the last leg, at the very least check out their latest album When The Night.

CMJ 2014 IN REVIEW: Bands to Watch

cmj

Attending a weeklong music festival featuring more than 1,000 bands can be intimidating. Sometimes you’re torn between going to see artists you’re familiar with and the ones you have yet to discover. Going to a show of a band you’ve seen before is a safe bet, but venturing out to see someone new is exciting and can be quite rewarding if you end up liking them. During my time of discovery during CMJ this year, I found three bands I fell in love with and I’m sure will be heard from again.

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MOTHXR
It’s unwise to dismiss this band just because the lead singer is former Gossip Girl actor Penn Badgley. I showed up at their Marlin Room at Webster Hall show because of him, because I was intrigued to see if a band could be lead by a celeb. Turns out this one can. Badgley played it cool during the performance, but also seemed to play up his appeal to the ladies. Unsurprisingly, we all crowded around the microphone, where Badgley was crooning away to the group’s slow-burn funk songs. Badgley spent most of the show swaying his hips to the beat, and his movements really embodied their sound, cool, collected, raw and funky. They’ve only been playing together (and not even as an official band) for about a year, so I’m sure there’s much more to come.
Song to listen to: “Easy”
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Gossling
OK, I admit I had actually heard of Gossling before I went to see her. Last year, I had meant to see her at the Australia showcase at The Delancey, but got there too late. So I was determined to see her this year, and was not disappointed when I did at Glasslands. In the last year, she’s put out an EP and a full-length album and honed her sound so that it’s become a solid, electro-pop that you can’t help but to get into. There are few more fun things to listen to than Gossling’s Aussie accent as she’s crooning out in the new tracks.
Song to listen to: “Wild Love”
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Colony House
This band I wasn’t expecting to like. As the boys ascended the stage, I figured it would be just another indie-pop band, looking like they had just stepped out of a frat house in California. Their music definitely has that carefree Cali vibe, but it’s so much more. It’s a great indie rock, perfectly produced and catchy as hell. They’re an incredibly fun, put-together high-energy band that gives you exactly what you want even though you didn’t know you wanted it. They had the packed crowd at Glasslands jumping and singing and buying into them completely, and it wasn’t difficult to see why.
Song to listen to: “Silhouettes”
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INTERVIEW: Buke and Gase

Buke_Jon Wang

When Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez met in 2000, Sanchez had already been building instruments for years. For him, constructing the instrument came part and parcel with creating sound. When he speaks about creating his gase–a guitar-bass hybrid, and the namesake of one-half the duo Buke and Gase–there’s no sense of novelty to his tone; he makes instruments to suit the sound he wants. Arone Dyer, perhaps even more straightforwardly, made her first baritone ukelele (the buke) as a way around her carpel tunnel syndrome. Their philosophy is no-nonsense, the resulting sound otherworldly. The Brooklyn-born two-piece, more recently of Hudson, NY, uses every limb at its disposal: Dyer and Sanchez dreamt up their own breed of kick drums and something called a toebourine to accompany their primary instruments, in the name of making a heavy, cataclysmic sound filled with contradictions of darkness and delicacy, percussive rhythm and cacophony.

When I called Buke and Gase last week, they were on the road, in the latter leg of a short tour. Dyer answered the phone, her voice pleasant and frank, breaking periodically into little bursts of laughter. In Buke and Gase’s swampier songs, this voice works like a foil to the distorted instrumental lines. It rises above the chaos, clear and soaring, a homegrown instrument in itself.

 

AudioFemme: So, you guys are on tour. Where are you right now? How’s it been so far?

Arone Dyer: We’re on our way to Chicago from Detroit. It’s been great! We started in Boston and went to Montreal and Toronto and Detroit last night. It was a pretty short tour.

AF: Both of you live in Hudson right now. Do you find there’s a difference between being a musician in Brooklyn and being a musician in upstate New York?

AD: Um, no? Yes? There’s a lot less anonymity in Hudson. You move into town and you meet everyone. It’s a very small town. Everybody knows what we do, and we know what everybody does. In Brooklyn, you tend to like, have your scene, which is the group of people you spend the most of your time with. That kind of limits your friendship base to the size of a small town. Which is pretty much what we’ve got in Hudson. In Brooklyn, or New York, or any larger city, there’s also the influx of other people who are curious or who you wouldn’t otherwise see on a regular basis.

AF: I actually used to live in that area. I know that Kris Perry (a local artist who builds sculptures that operate as musical instruments) lives around there, too. Have you ever played with him? Do you think there are some elements in his work that resemble what you do?

AD: Oh yeah, totally [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][we’ve interacted.] His musical instruments are mainly sculpture that makes sound. That’s what’s really interesting about his work. Our work is not necessarily sculptural, it’s more that we make the instruments to perform the sound that we specifically want to get. Form follows function with us, whereas for him it’s the form that comes first, I think. Although he integrates it, too.

AF: Can you tell me a little bit about your songwriting process?

AD: Sure. Basically, all of our songwriting comes out of the two of us in a room together. We don’t bring anything to the table necessarily from our own personal stash, our own ideas. It’s very rare that that happens. Usually Aron and I get into a room and we sit and improvise for hours on end. We record it all and then we go back through and listen to it, just kind of sift through the whole improv, and pick out stuff that catches our ear, or that we hear some kind of potential in, and we work with that. We’ve tried taking parts and contriving them into full songs, or taking several parts from different improvisations and putting them together, or just taking an entire improv as it is and learning that. So there’s lots of different ways and it all comes out pretty organically and differently each time.

AF: And it’s a totally collaborative process at this point?

AD: Oh yeah, totally. A completely fused collaboration.

AF: How did the two of you meet? Were you involved with other projects at the time?

AD: A long time ago, in 2000. I was roommates with one of his friends. We were both musicians, but I don’t know if we were doing anything specifically at that time. We started playing music together pretty much right away.

AF: Aron, you were already building instruments at that time, right? What got you started making your own instruments?

Aaron Sanchez: When I was really, really young, it was part of the process of me learning to be a musician. I just got really into taking things apart and putting them back together. It was just natural for me to get into it like that.

AF: Did anyone teach you how to build instruments? Did you take formal music training?

AS: No, I was self-taught. It was mostly like, “Oh, I want this instrument–I’ll make it!” That kind of attitude. I studied classical piano for about nine years, and I taught myself guitar, and maybe some drums. I started playing bass. I became more of a bass player for a long time. I took some lessons here and there, but primarily I’m self-taught.

AF: Who writes your lyrics?

Arone Dyer: I do. Or it’s mostly me, probably about 90%. But we talk about them.

AF: Do they usually come after you’ve written the music?

AD: It totally depends. It’s different every time. Sometimes it’s straight from improvisation, where I’m mumbling or saying something weird and I’ll try to phonetically translate that and it becomes the base of whatever story it is. Sometimes lyrics come from a dream diary. I keep track of my dreams.

AF: That totally makes sense. Your lyrics always seem to me to be kind of surreal and dark. Do you prefer to write lyrics that don’t have an immediate, explicit meaning?

AD: (laughs) I mean, I’m human. I like to have things make sense. I look for patterns, that’s what humans do. So generally that’s what I go towards, but there are many times when it just doesn’t happen.

AF: Do you intentionally write dark lyrics?

AD: Dark, no, it’s not always intentional. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s born out of the feeling of the music, too, because our music kind of heavy. Or sometimes it’s not–the contradiction of having lyrics that are dark and a sound that’s very light, I think both of us find that contradiction really interesting. So lots of times the [music and lyrics] end up being contradictory or…dissonant. Or maybe I’m just a dark person. I can’t tell.

AF: On your albums–for example, on General Dome–do you have a vision for the songs before you begin to write or record them?

AD: No. Not at all. We never have a plan. Like I said–we get into a room and we improvise. What comes out of that is where we are.

AF: Interesting. Do you make new instruments specifically for certain songs, certain recording sessions?

AD: No. I mean, Aron tends to make a new instrument every three months or so. Or twice a year? Well, he’s made something like thirteen different gases, and sometimes they have the same neck but a different body, or a different neck but the same body, of they’re entirely new. He’s constantly developing a sound.

AF: Do you come across people who want to play a buke or a gase? Do they ask you for lessons?

AD: Totally. Tons of people.

AF: Do you make instruments to sell, or would you consider doing so in the future?

AD: No, we don’t sell instruments. [As for the future,] it depends. I think Aron would say the same thing.

AF: Has there ever been an instrument that ended up making a sound completely different than the sound you had thought it would make?

AD: No, I mean, we’re not just building blindly. The instruments I’ve built, or created, were for a specific thing. In the past I’ve built an instrument that I wasn’t sure how it would sound, but I basically made a tenor bass. I’ve been thinking lately about doing something different for my instrument, though. I’m kind of ready to move on to something else. Maybe in the future, I’ll come out with something where I won’t know how it’s going to end up.

 

Buke and Gase will keep their live act on the road in the coming months, and are slotted to appear in Ireland in December! Check out the elaborate and fragmented video for “General Dome,” off the  2013 album of the same name, below:

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