Will 2008-9 be looked back on as the years that indie rock got good at writing pop music? Considering songs like ‘Two Weeks’ by Grizzly Bear and ‘Stillness Is The Move’ by The Dirty Projectors, the perfect summer album (to these ears) Phoenix released, and oh yeah, MGMT, it’s not a hard argument to make. If so, then Tigercity will be joining some pretty esteemed company when they release their first LP, “Ancient Lover,” later this fall.
The comparisons to bands like Hall & Oates, BeeGee’s, or Prince are inevitable, but “Ancient Lover” opens up with a falsetto-ed set of pop-eyed tunes that after one listen are unmistakably Tigercity’s own. The first song on the album and first single, “Fake Gold” has been heating up recession friendly house parties all summer long. It’s burning, slow motion stomp, highlighted with Joel Ford’s taught disco bass snap, is nearly impossible to not tap some free-wheeling body part to – right up until the chorus which proclaims “It’s! Fake! Gold!” to well-placed synth stabs, that steal the thunder from any cowbell still hanging around from the early 00’s indie dance hangover.
From there, the next few songs take the same form and build tight, minimal pop jems fronted by Bill Gillim’s controlled, and frankly, perfectly pitched vocals. As the album continues, the level of fun starts charting a little lower than the first four stand outs, but that’s not to say the quality of the songs really goes down. Tigercity knows what a well-crafted song is and delivers on that promise, it’s just the mood got a little darker – or the night got a little later, everyone’s worn out from dancing and the neighbors are bombing the party with water balloons - so the crowd returns to ‘the comfort mistaken for love,’ like Gillim does in ‘Red Lips.’
‘Ancient Lover’ is hitting at the right time and could be a stand out fall album in a year where pop has been a welcome trend in the indie rock landscape. If this had come out a couple of years ago, it might have been seen as a bunch of Brooklyn dudes ironically ripping off trends from the late 70’s/ early 80’s that hadn’t been mined by their contemporaries. This would have been a shame, of course, because Tigercity has the chops to make the kind of music that fits Gillim’s range and our own ‘09 pop state of mind.
Sitting in the back of B-Cup Cafe in the East Village I was anxiously anticipating the entrance of Elizabeth Ziman, the lead singer from Elizabeth and the Catapult. After waiting 10 minutes past our scheduled meeting time, a scowl from Elizabeth before she entered the bathroom and after she declared it the “the windiest day of summer” our interview was underway. The night before Elizabeth attended Story Book Pirates to support one of her friends and was relying on coffee and a morning listen to Beyonce to wake up for this Sunday afternoon. We both agreed the interview experience is very much like a blind date, and in order to preserve the awkward feelings a blind date invokes (after confessing I was in love with “Rainiest Day In Summer”) I dove right into the questioning.
Fend: What is the writing process like for you guys?
Emily: I write the songs, call Danny’s phone sing it on his answering machine and get to a piano and try and finish it. The best time to write is when I am doing anything that gets me in a non selfconcious mode, or someone says something hilarious in a cafe, I’ll jot it down and try to finish it on the train.
Fend: What are the guys like?
Emily: ”Steve is amazing. He is really into metal (Fend: Metal objects or music?)Oh music. He is also a cartoonist and enjoys long walks on the beach… he adds a grit to our band, that grit-dark aspect to what we do. Danny is awesome, the more the two of them spend together the more they morph into the same person.”
Fend: Is it true you were dating one of them?
Emily: “Uh…umm… I learned that I open my mouth too much and so I am working on that.”
(some awkward laughter…and then we quickly move on)
Fend: How would you describe your sound?
Emily: “Well we are described as ‘barogque pop’
Fend: Right, I have read what others describe your music, but I want to know how you would describe it.
Emily: I like to think of us as an old, worn out teddy bear with patches that you want to take to bed with you. We are eclectic-all kinds of styles, we are ambiguous.
Fend: Do you have a favorite song to play? I know artists usually have a difficult time saying which song they enjoy playing over the others, but if you had to choose.
Emily: Out of everything we are doing right now? ”Taller Children” There are 5 songs I would push and if any of them caught on I would be honored.
Fend: Who were you talking about in “The Hang Up?” Emily: Umm…
Fend: Oh, ha… should we go back to the are you dating anyone in the band?
Emily: (laughs) I am not at liberty to say. You know I really like the fuck you very much, the passive aggressive. What I really like about that song is it turns into a sing-a-long at shows. Its the happiest break up song.
Fend: I happen to agree, I think its my favorite off the new album.
Emily: I’m really glad you like it, it almost didn’t make the album.
Fend: Yea, I read you had to leave some songs behind, how do you choose which songs?
Emily: They said we need 12 songs on the album, why this is the rule I don’t know, but we followed the rules.
Emily: Is this your full time job? You have a sweet job, this is what I do I turn things around on people. I go into a business meeting where I am supposed to show case a few songs and end up making the people attending the meeting entertain me instead.
(We quickly discuss random things like people that look like their dogs, her pet bunny rabbit named Patty, and she continues to ask me questions like the best show I have been to, and who else I have interviewed)
Fend: Can you think of the worst compliment anyone has ever given the band?
Elizabeth: You guys are so freakin tight, so jazzy, funky, fresh. If you are taken on a journey and taken out of yourself, then you experienced what I wanted you to but when people say “you are super tight,” then you didnt get the experience I want you to have.
Fend: Is it true you put cookies out at your last show at Southpaw?
Elizabeth: I did, I put them on the bar, I love baking.
Fend: Do you have a favorite place to play?
Elizabeth: Recently, I really like the Mercury Lounge. People have room to stand up and move around. Also, Rockwood Music Hall. Its a tiny glorified Pub…we basically developed our New York audience there. The owner is like our father, he does the sound in this spotlight-its adorable.
Fend: Sounds like a religious experience.
Elizabeth: Its true, its a cult. The last time we played there I dedicated a song to Ken, the owner, and sang it to him and I think the audience was a a little weirded out by it.
Fend: Do you guys have any pre-show routine?
Elizabeth: We throw water all over each other. No, theres usually no place to do a routine, I usually sit in the car.
The new album, Taller Children hit stores today and the band is playing at Joe’s Pub this Thursday for their album release party. If you don’t get tickets to this show, keep your eyes out for Elizabeth and The Catapults at Housing Works on June 24th.
The Violens (pronounced vy-lenz) is the new band to beat. This four-piece group out of Brooklyn, NY writes flawlessly with “Violent Sensation Descends” as one of SPIN Magazine’s songs you need to download now. Why stop there? Their tracks bring you back in time in the most relevant way. ”Lighting Lightning” is like Morrissey in a new wave rock band. The Violens are like a compilation of all your favorite artists with a new and improved 60’s pop spin.
Here is their new video: If you like this be sure to grab a ticket to their upcoming show at the Bowery Ballroom on June 12th.
Its not every day I answer the phone and hear “Hi its Émilie Simon, do you have time to talk?” On last Sunday’s hot and steamy afternoon while all of you were (hopefully) out enjoying the seasonally appropriate weather (for once) I was chatting with Emilie on the phone. The French song bird kicked off her Summer tour tonight, June 2nd at (le) Poisson Rouge and will come full circle and end at Highline Ballroom on July 23rd.
What inspires you? ”Today? Or in general? I dont know, its my life, people, and feelings its more a communication of a lot of things that make you feel this way or that way.” For Émilie, the writing process happens wherever she is which might be one of the reasons her favorite place to go in New York City is the sidewalks. You live in New York now, do you have any favorite places to go? ”I like walking, so I am just walking in SOHO and the Lower East Side, I walk around alot” The songstress has been on the scene since 2003 when she released her debut album Émilie Simon and claims one of her fondest things about her music career so far is the chance to see the world. ”I get to do lots and lots of traveling for my music, I got to go to Japan and that was really cool.” Do You have a favorite place to play? ”Last year I had a residency at the Cutting Room, and that was really great because you are there every week, it starts to feel like home. I never had a bad experience in New York it is really, really nice every time I play some where.” Where did the concept for “The Flowers” video come from? ”It is very much like Tim Burton, the song is cute but freaky the girl is bringing flowers to the boys grave, I worked with this group called No Brain and it was actually their first music video ever.” What is the last book and/or movie you saw? ”Im actually reading a book from a friend of mine who also wrote some lyrics with me for the next album, actually I dont know, i think its called Memoir of Mousier Frogger, I think, my friend’s name is Graham Joyce, and I don’t really have time to see movies.”
Émilie Simon, the scheduled headliner, opened up at (le) Poisson Rouge for Holiday Shores. She was gracious and blasted out amazing vocals along with her new band. Tonight was their first show together ever. Unfortunately none of the songs off her last album, Flower Book, made it into the set, but the crowd was wowed by the stellar new material. After 45 minutes Emilie Simon called it a night and Holiday shores hit the stage looking fresh out of the van and played to a less than packed, slightly confused crowd. Typical she is not, Emilie’s set felt like a tease. At least she left us yearning for more. To me, that’s a brilliant artist.
Elizabeth & The Catapults’ feel good beats, confidently wise lyrics ,hot-sexy vocals, and harmonies reminiscent of The Bird and The Bee, immediately hooked this listener. Elizabeth Ziman(vocal, keys) is a New York City native who has been singing and writing songs since the age of 4. Elizabeth joined Pete Lalish(guitar) and Danny Molad(drums) to form Elizabeth and The Catapults in 2004. The band’s style, at times, seems to mirror characteristics of 70’s greats like Carol King and Debbie Boone.
Taller Children,their first full length album is available June 9th, 2009. The album has perfect timing as its blues-pop-indie hotness makes me crave for warm summer days and the cool of an ocean breeze on my face. Take it on a drive, take it to the beach, take it any where you wish, just as long as you take it with you.
Hot Tracks: ”The Hang Up” “Rainiest Day of Summer,”and “Hit The Wall”
Check out Elizabeth and The Catapults at Joe’s Pub on June 11th, 2009.
There is no denying the satisfaction of free drinks, good DJs and live music. Last Saturday at Public Assembly (in the space that used to be Galapagos) Project Jenny Project Jan hit the stage two hours later than expected but made up for it in sick dance tunes. Jeremy Haines (vocals) and Sammy Rubin (master of electro beats, DJ) both hail from Brooklyn and are the duo that is Project Jenny Project Jan. Their “Colors EP,” set to be released April 14th, has a very eclectic sound. From reggae-tone to salsa, ”groovy” rap to 90’s pop the album can seem some what schizophrenic in its music genre but if you are one of those people that “likes all kinds of music” then Project Jenny Project Jan is your jam. The band closed down their set last saturday with “Brooklyn,” a show tune style track claiming “its always sunny in Brooklyn, without a cloud in the sky.”
Chan Marshall has been singing and performing music under the name Cat Power since she dropped out of high school back in Atlanta. Her eighth album Jukebox came out in January of this year and her ninth, as of December 9th, can be found on local music store shelves. The later is an EP of six songs, four of which are unpublished tracks from recordings during Jukebox. Dark End Of The Street consists of everything that we love Cat Power for, including her low sultry voice, sparse guitar, and minimalist piano accompaniments.
In the past, live performances by Cat Power have been unpredictable, with no real flow for songs and many ending shows early and abruptly. Cat Power finished touring in Europe this past summer but will be performing on the Jay Leno show on February 11th.
Patrick Wolf mixes electronic samples with viola, keyboards, and the ukelele. The combination creates a jazzy, folkish, electro sound.
After going back to school at the Trinity College Music Conservatoire, 2 albums, and picking up a pretty sweet mentor, Capitol K, Patrick Wolf released The Magic Position in 2007. The album is an eclectic bunch of beautifully written songs.Listen to his tunes and be prepared, his music is seductive.
The experimental pop band Xiu Xiu, which is pronounced shoe-shoe, will be playing tonight, Wednesday the 19th, at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. They released their sixth album this year titled, Women As Lovers. Singer songwriter Jamie Stewart formed the band in 2000 and took the name from the Chinese film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which translates into “heaven bath”. This 1998 film, about a 15 year old girl who learns about life and love through a corrupted government where she is forced to submit her body for the sexual pleasure of officials, is not far swaying from the issues Stewart sings through his lyrics. Poetry of suicide, war, love, lovelessness, and aids are woven into sounds of ambient noise and modern classical instrumentation. In regards to their pop influence Jamie Stewart says, “all the songs are about sadness and trying to dance it away.”
The School of Seven Bells is said to have been a South American academy of pick pockets back in the 80s. PBS aired a special one late night on this mythical academy of thieves, which inspired a certain Alejandra to embark on an artistic journey under the cognomen School of Seven Bells.
Two years later, in 2006 this idea came to fruition and so the band School of Seven Bells was born. The core of this band is made up of twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, and the former Secret Machines member Benjamin Curtis. The band toured with Blonde Redhead in September 2007 and on October 23rd released their debut album, Alpinisms. Filled with dreamy electronics and vocals that take wing, the psychedelic group won themselves the rating of “America’s shoegaze revival at its most meticulously refined” by SPIN Magazine.
The School of Seven Bells is opening up for M83 tonight at Webster Hall. Both bands on stage in one night? This show should not disappoint, go check it out!
‘Ancient Lover’ is hitting at the right time and could be a stand out fall album in a year where pop has been a welcome trend in the indie rock landscape. If this had come out a couple of years ago, it might have been seen as a bunch of Brooklyn dudes ironically ripping off trends from the late 70’s/ early 80’s that hadn’t been mined by their contemporaries. This would have been a shame, of course, because Tigercity has the chops to make the kind of music that fits Gillim’s range and our own ‘09 pop state of mind.
What inspires you? ”Today? Or in general? I dont know, its my life, people, and feelings its more a communication of a lot of things that make you feel this way or that way.” For Émilie, the writing process happens wherever she is which might be one of the reasons her favorite place to go in New York City is the sidewalks. You live in New York now, do you have any favorite places to go? ”
Taller Children, their first full length album is available June 9th, 2009. The album has perfect timing as its blues-pop-indie hotness makes me crave for warm summer days and the cool of an ocean breeze on my face. Take it on a drive, take it to the beach, take it any where you wish, just as long as you take it with you.
There is no denying the satisfaction of free drinks, good DJs and live music. Last Saturday at Public Assembly (in the space that used to be Galapagos) 
Chan Marshall has been singing and performing music under the name 
