Brooklyn delivers yet again, ladies and gents. Elizabeth Ziman is the lead singer of the New York indie group Elizabeth & the Catapult and apparently had my childhood, growing up with a love for the classic composers like Debussy and for the modern greats like the Beatles, an influential combo that eventual lead to the formation of her "Baroque pop" sound. Indeed, Elizabeth & the Catapult switch from indie pop/rock to classical-laced anti-folk with the greatest of ease, ranging from the toe-tapping "Race You" with the triumphant horns to the rich and intricate vocal/piano duo dance in "Variations on Chopin." Its almost as if this group is after my heart, catering to my indie side while delivering a delicious side dish of all the great composers I was raised on. Elizabeth's voice is honeyed and assured, Peter Lalish's guitar is plucky in all the right places, and Dan Molad's drums keep everything moving merrily right along. Their song "Race You" is featured in the movie New In Town and they will also be making the rounds at SXSW this year, so all you lucky folk who get to be in Austin, make sure to catch their act.
Tuesday night I had the pleasure of seeing Fujiya & Miyagi play at Le Poisson Rouge. First up was School of Seven Bells, who I actually don't feel I can judge all that fairly because the sound mixing was just SO terrible. You could hardly hear their voices at all and it just kind of sounded like a wall of sound, at least from where I was standing.
Luckily the sound mixing was better for Fujiya & Miyagi (plus their vocals are supposed to sound kind of muted I think). They played a pretty long set, and they got better and better as they went along, building their energy, as well as the audience's, through a well-crafted setlist. I like this whole video integration thing that a lot of bands are starting to do lately. Fujiya & Miyagi had some cool animation stuff going on, always with dice. You can tell that they're really into their music, which is great, although if I had one wish it would be that they smiled occasionally. But overall, a good show.
Cute tough girl + just slightly husky vocals + infectious pop = Caitlin Crosby, a L.A. singer-songwriter who does it all. She's worked with Babyface, she's an actress, she's released her debut EP in November, she hosts a website encouraging people to embrace and be truly happy with themselves (loveyourflawz.com) whilst being a model/songwriter for Levi Jeans AND she is making the rounds at SXSW this year! It seems that this is quite a lot for someone who just debuted, so I think it's safe to say keep an eye out on this one. "Still Have My Heart" is the first single off of the upcoming album that'll be released sometime this spring.
Em has posted them before, but as they are one of the many talented bands playing at SXSW this year, I think now is the perfect time to carve out a little post just for them. Headlights is a group that mixes homespun grew-up-on-the-farm innocence with humble indie pop influence. In fact, they even recorded in a farmhouse. Headlights incorporate that wonderful gentle boy/girl vocal sound with in a dash of electronica amongst the 60's-esque crunchy guitars that are perfect listening for on the road or while doing work, cause these songs truly elevate one's mood. Their last album, Some Racing, Some Stopping, is a bit of a departure from their more indie rock sound and contains some true catchy indie pop tunes, with Cherry Tulips being a favorite of mine. TJ Lipple remixed the version below for Polyvinyl's Remixes release and it suits the song quite well. It has certainly been played plenty on my itunes, so I suggest you check them out and their tour dates for March below.
We're accepting submissions starting now through the end of Sunday the 15th (or more specifically, til it hits 12am Monday morning)
First up was The Rural Alberta Advantage. As you can probably guess, they are Canadian. They're an interesting mix of singer-songwriter and dance music and they had a good energy, albeit a rather laid-back, unassuming Canadian one. Lead singer Paul Banwatt's voice reminds me somewhat of Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy.
The headlining act was Alaska In Winter, AKA Brandon Bethancourt, who was rather ill during his performance and had to stop periodically to cough. I have to say I was very intrigued by his performance and the amount of work that must've gone into it. Every song has video in the background of himself playing just about every instrument (he refers to "the band" a lot, which always got a chuckle from the audience). And yes, he actually plays almost all of those instruments (except for the violin and trumpet, which he faked decently well but not quite well enough to fool me). He changes costumes with the video so that he always matches the video. He's very cute and he has a pretty good stage presence (which I can only assume would be better if he weren't sick). His music definitely had most of the audience shaking it by the end of the set. All in all, it was a very good show.
Missy Higgins performed an intimate concert at the Chart House yesterday, hosted by Cities 97 to help raise money for the Special Olympics Polar Plunge. Before the show I was able to chat with Missy about her going-ons now that she's moved to the States. Missy says she's currently just "touring and riding out this America thing for now" cause the girl loves to tour (check tour dates below), but "I've got a few little things on the backline, and I'm not sure when the new album's gonna be." She recently recorded a cover of Roxy Music's "More Than This" for Warner Brothers and wrote a song entitled "Run So Fast" for a new film. When asked about her new home-away-from-home in L.A., Missy said, "It's really fun - its a fun place to live, like there's so much good music and so much good art and really interesting people move to Los Angeles, they've all got a really interesting story" but later stated that outside of L.A., she's spent the most time in Minneapolis(!).
Missy sang three songs for the live broadcast and then gave the rest of us an intimate performance, saying "just shout out what you want to hear." Armed with her guitar and a keyboard, Missy put on one heck of a show. Her vocals were flawless, strong and free, and she sang with absolute conviction. Her songs are honest and straight from the heart- when I asked her about her songwriting technique she told me that she doesn't really like to sit down and record while she's songwriting because she finds it interferes with the "in the moment experience" of expressing an emotion through a song. This is probably a key reason why her songs never feel overworked. She's also one of those artists who are adept at maintaining good rapport with the audience - each song had a story and she kept things chill and upbeat. She ended up singing a total of 10 songs before her manager told her it was time to go, but it was a great experience and I look forward to seeing her again in March when she comes back to Minneapolis.
Brooklyn band Takka Takka was up second (after Lowry, whom I didn't make it in time to see). They started off strong, with high energy dance pop numbers and did a good job of getting the crowd pumped. Lead singer Gabe Levine is a pretty charismatic front man, but I have to say I wish the rest of the band looked like they were having more fun most of the time. I guess it's that whole hipster disinterested thing that they're going for.
Next up was one of my favorite bands, Jukebox the Ghost. They put on a fun show and they had a crazy huge fan base in the audience who was singing along to every song (myself included). I was really excited to see so many people show up for them. They're really talented, and I love their playful music (and their playful performance style too). Their song also happens to be my favorite on the GBA2 album - a cover of Ace of Bases' A Beautiful Life. Supposedly they were originally going to do Livin' La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin, but they decided that would be too embarrassing and so they switched to Ace of Base instead.
Lastly was Robbers on High Street, who were poppier than I expected them to be. I have to admit, I wasn't all that familiar with their music except for the rather more rock 'n' roll Japanese Girls, which was playing at every dance party I went to about 2 or 3 years ago. They were still fun though and they had a good energy. And hey, I love poppy music. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for the whole set because I was sick and had to get up early the next morning. But I think I managed to catch most of it.
Hey Ocean! are just fun. A colorful blend of pop and funk with a bit of mischievous flavor dashed in, this four-piece group of energy are starting to make a splash (obvious pun not intended), and with a slot at this year's SXSW, you're sure to be hearing much more of them in the near future. As of late they are working extra hard on touring and making as much music as possible in the hopes of skyrocketing to fame, which I commend and fully support. The most surprising and welcoming part of Hey Ocean!'s sound is the fact that they come across as a west coast carribean-influenced band as opposed to one that hails from Canada, with grooves founded in reggae and funk. Their music videos will be coming out soon for their latest album It's Easier To Be Someone Else, and honestly, I'm intrigued to see how sassy they are. Check them out.
Hannah Georgas is a quirky Canadian indie/pop songwriter whose debut EP The Beat Stuff was just released nationwide January 27th. Her songs are the infectious sort, with toe-tapping hooks, lyrics that perfectly dance with the folksy strums of the guitar ("Let's talk about Lo-ah-ah-ah-ve, let's laugh about li-ah-ah-ah-fe") and topped with the delicate yet prominent female songwriter voice thats not afraid to go crazy. The EP is phenomenal, but the first time I heard Hannah, it was just the song "All I Need" that drew me in. The song starts out with the simple gentle plucks of the ukulele, gradually met with the glockenspiel and a few low chords from the piano. Things start going from there, as the drums come pulsing into the song after 3 minutes to start the cascading whirlwind of indie pop punch that honestly I just can't get enough of. Although "The Beat Stuff" is an equal contender, I immediately thought this song would make for the perfect Apple commercial, and so here we are today.
