Something about Andrew Belle’s Chris Martin-esque voice, thought provoking lyrics, and beautiful pop ballads that left me wanting more. One year after releasing his EP All Those Pretty Lights, Belle is working on his LP The Ladder. The boy who used to record pop hits from the radio to a cassette tape and listen to them at night so his parents wouldn’t know is now making hits of his own. Check him out, Andrew Belle is coming to town this September at the Canal Room.
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.
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.
Liv Widell, and sisters Louise and Christina Wiebell, along with drummer Johan Forsman and bassist Mattias Albinson are the forces that are Don’t Be A Stranger. The band released their first album, Frutti di Mare last february. Its a jazzy pop album laced with lyrics like ”I really want to get it on with you, I really can not wait,” and “love means hurting each other.”
My personal favorites off the new album: “We’ve Been Waiting Here Far Too Long,” “Bending,” and “Perfect Problem.”
Highly recommended by all who come in contact with them, Futurecop! is taking over the world and quite rapidly at that. Founded just over a year or so ago by Manchester’s Manzur Iqbal, the music is a sensation. Iqbal teamed up with Peter Carrol and the two are touring everywhere you want to be, from the UK to Canada, through the end of March. The inspiration behind futurecop! is the recreation of your favorite 80′s teen flicks. Think of “The Goonies”, “The Breakfast Club”, and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. Now take that feeling, add some electro-pop beats, and groove it out on the dance floor, which is exactly what we did January 24th at The Mercury Lounge. Their 45 minute set had the entire audience shaking their tails. Some from the crowd even joined the men on stage, some dressed as clowns, and all were merry. If you missed them this time do not fret because they will be back on February 27th for a show at The Studio at Webster Hall.
An EP by the duo released January 5th entitled, The Unicorn and The Lost City of Alvograth, can be purchased on iTunes for under three dollars. It’s time to spend that pocket change and revive your living room dance parties.
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 story of the Young at Heart Chorus, a group of senior citizens who perform contemporary rock and pop tunes, is done so honestly that I recommend this to anyone, and I mean anyone (grandmas, nephews, uncles, neighbors) as a must see film. Although it appeared in theaters as early as July of 2007, it is not too late. Young At Heart is on the shelves of your local movie rental retailer or, if you would like to add a stupendous movie to your DVD collection, it is available for purchase on the film’s website.
107 minutes in it’s entirety was life changing. I laughed, I cried at separate times and simultaneously throughout the documentary. Bodies dwindle, but the mind doesn’t have to and the members of this awe-inspiring choir are prime illustrations. “When you are singing you can’t be sad,” so sing. Sing your hearts out. Sing your heart into youthfulness.
It was roughly 4 am when I first caught this band’s tunes floating through my external acoustic meatus (ear canal.) It was one of those songs that stops you mid-dance twist to hear more, “I got a gnome in the backyard, I put him right on the x mark, he’s supposed to show me where the money is, hey wont you show me where the money is.”
The Spinto Band has been pushing out handfuls of indie pop-ish tunes since I was (ahem) 12. They are back on the road promoting the latest album, Moonwink. Check them out on Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, the show is guaranteed to get your tail feather shaking, you might even just catch yourself clapping along.
