2 posts tagged “alpinisms”
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Street Entry, Minneapolis (10/13/09) Tour Dates
10/15/09 Lee’s Palace Toronto, ON
10/16/09 Pearl St Nightclb Northampton, MA 10/17/09 Paradise Boston, MA 10/23/09 Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY Read More |
I'm so glad I got a chance to catch School of Seven Bells on their recent tour.
Opening up for them were two solid bands, Warpaint and The Depreciation Guild.
I actually quite enjoyed Warpaint (myspace),
who wowed me with their melodic music as all three girls took turns
singing their part. They seem like a lot of fun, and they seem really
happy that a lot of people showed up early to see them play. I'll have
to admit, 7th Street Entry was pretty packed that Tuesday night.
They opened up with their harmonizing cover version of "My Guy", which may sound a little outdated with such lyrics as "he's the cream of the crop" to rhyme with "I think he's tops". As soon as that song ended, they launched into an instrumental song, and continued for another thirty minutes. Setlist seems short, but all the songs I heard, I did like.
I'll have to find out more about them later, all I know is that they recently released an EP called Exquisite Corpse on the Manimal Vinyl label.
In some ways, whoever put together this tour
did a good job, because all the artists sound at least in the same kind
of music genre. So, The Depreciation Guild (official / myspace)
sound more or less like the other band on the bill, a little shoegazey
with sweet vocals by all very handsome young people on stage (certainly
Depreciation had the best hair).
They borrowed some of their musical instruments from Warpaint and borrowed the movie projector-thing from School of Seven Bells. The movie of various colors and blocks played throughout their whole set.
I think all their live songs required some computerized help with the quirky noises, and for the most part it made their music more video gamey. Unfortunately, for one song, there was a hiccup when an unwanted looped noise continued to play onto the next song.
As you can see from their setlist, most of their songs are taken from their 2007 album In Her Gentle Jaws, which got a recent vinyl release (500 copies only) on Kanine Records. I think the future is in vinyl, so I was quite happy to see that all three bands here have continued to release music on this funky format.
When School of Seven Bells came on stage, after the intro song played on for about a minute, the lights on stage were turned off - save for the one lone red light that shined on Benjamin Curtis. I suppose it's to make the movie that were shown in the background to be more of the focus, but I suspect the twin girls might be shy if the spotlights are on them.
I think if I remembered correctly, that Claudia is the one on keyboard, which as it turned out is an Indigo keyboard. Both of the sisters are dressed in mostly black and, I think, Alejandra is in knee-high boots. I have photographs, but in poor light, it's not worth showing (and I'm too lazy to produce any drawing).
My favorite autotune song, "Chain", was played on their set - but it didn't sound 'tuned' live. Instead, there are stretches in the song that extended the song a bit. Other highlight from the show was probably their closer, "Half Asleep". They came back on for a one-song encore, but I don't remember what song it was.
They left a lot of eager fans who wanted more, especially the guy from Madison, Wisconsin, that wanted to have the girls record the call letters to Madison radio station (WSUM?).
Anyway, it looks like Ghostly is re-releasing their Alpinisms in a "deluxe" album on iTunes, so perhaps there'll be a real physical deluxe album release at Ghostly Records in the near future.
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Warpaint ♥ 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (10/13/09) |
They opened up with their harmonizing cover version of "My Guy", which may sound a little outdated with such lyrics as "he's the cream of the crop" to rhyme with "I think he's tops". As soon as that song ended, they launched into an instrumental song, and continued for another thirty minutes. Setlist seems short, but all the songs I heard, I did like.
I'll have to find out more about them later, all I know is that they recently released an EP called Exquisite Corpse on the Manimal Vinyl label.
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The Depreciation Guild ♥ 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (10/13/09)
The Depreciation Guild Setlist ♥ 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (10/13/09) |
They borrowed some of their musical instruments from Warpaint and borrowed the movie projector-thing from School of Seven Bells. The movie of various colors and blocks played throughout their whole set.
I think all their live songs required some computerized help with the quirky noises, and for the most part it made their music more video gamey. Unfortunately, for one song, there was a hiccup when an unwanted looped noise continued to play onto the next song.
As you can see from their setlist, most of their songs are taken from their 2007 album In Her Gentle Jaws, which got a recent vinyl release (500 copies only) on Kanine Records. I think the future is in vinyl, so I was quite happy to see that all three bands here have continued to release music on this funky format.
When School of Seven Bells came on stage, after the intro song played on for about a minute, the lights on stage were turned off - save for the one lone red light that shined on Benjamin Curtis. I suppose it's to make the movie that were shown in the background to be more of the focus, but I suspect the twin girls might be shy if the spotlights are on them.
I think if I remembered correctly, that Claudia is the one on keyboard, which as it turned out is an Indigo keyboard. Both of the sisters are dressed in mostly black and, I think, Alejandra is in knee-high boots. I have photographs, but in poor light, it's not worth showing (and I'm too lazy to produce any drawing).
My favorite autotune song, "Chain", was played on their set - but it didn't sound 'tuned' live. Instead, there are stretches in the song that extended the song a bit. Other highlight from the show was probably their closer, "Half Asleep". They came back on for a one-song encore, but I don't remember what song it was.
They left a lot of eager fans who wanted more, especially the guy from Madison, Wisconsin, that wanted to have the girls record the call letters to Madison radio station (WSUM?).
Anyway, it looks like Ghostly is re-releasing their Alpinisms in a "deluxe" album on iTunes, so perhaps there'll be a real physical deluxe album release at Ghostly Records in the near future.
10/15/2009 01:04:54 ♥ vu (
) schoolofsevenbells.com ♥ myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells
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01/16/09 PR (Self Titled Party w/Free Blood, Juan Maclean (live acid set), & Justin Miller (DFA)) New York, New York
See Also
02/06/09 Wellesley College Wellesley, Massachusetts 02/07/09 Terrace F. Club Princeton, New Jersey 02/11/09 7th Street Entry (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Minneapolis, Minnesota 02/12/09 Bottom Lounge (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Chicago, Illinois 02/13/09 Magic Stick (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Detroit 02/14/09 Alfred University Knight Club (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Alfred 02/15/09 Paradise (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Boston, Massachusetts 02/18/09 The Trocadero (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 02/19/09 9:30 Club (w/Fujiya & Miyagi) Washington DC, Washington DC 02/23/09 Whelans Dublin, Ireland 02/24/09 Captain’s Rest Glasgow, Scotland 02/25/09 Cockpit Leeds, UK 02/26/09 Cargo London, UK 02/27/09 Night & Day Manchester, UK 02/28/09 Start The Bus Bristol, UK 03/01/09 Audio Brighton, UK 03/04/09 AB Club Brussels, Belgium 03/05/09 Le Point Ephemere Paris, Ile-de-France 03/07/09 Gleis 22 Münster, Germany 03/08/09 Bang Bang Club Berlin, Germany 03/09/09 Molotow Hamburg, Germany 03/10/09 Studio 672 Cologne, Germany 03/12/09 Flex Vienna, Austria 03/13/09 Atomic Cafe Munich, Germany 03/14/09 La Casa Milan, Italy 04/07/09 The Ritz (w/Bat for Lashes) Manchester 04/08/09 Queen Margaret Union (w/Bat for Lashes) Glasgow, Scotland 04/09/09 Stage 2-Northumbria University (w/Bat for Lashes) Newcastle 04/11/09 Metropolitan University (w/Bat for Lashes) Leeds 04/12/09 Birmingham Town Hall (w/Bat for Lashes) Birmingham 04/13/09 The Regal (w/Bat for Lashes) Oxford 04/15/09 Anson Rooms (w/Bat for Lashes) Bristol 04/16/09 Brighton Corn Exchange (w/Bat for Lashes) Brighton 04/17/09 Sheperds Bush Empire (w/Bat for Lashes) London |
School of Seven Bells (aka SVIIB) got their name from some PBS
program about some "mythical South American pick-pocket academy", as
mentioned on their their interview/music session on KCRW (incidentally, check out KCRW's vox page).
Although Alejandra have admitted to not being able to verify the name, I can tell you that the so-called school is from the Andes Mountains outside Bogota, Colombia.
I am assuming that the Andes Mountain shown in the PBS program might have inspired the naming of their debut album, Alpinisms (the term refers to the European mountain range, often called the Alps). Strangely, however, the cover artwork by Bryan Collins, well, it looks like it was pulled from a picture of Yosemite National Park's famous Half Dome.
The band consists of two real life twin sisters called Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and bassist Benjamin Curtis, formerly (?) of Secret Machines. The band was formed in early 2007, and they are bringing back an old familiar sound of electronica, mixed with a little shoegazing/dreampop - mostly because of the harmonies of the two sisters.
I think grouping the band into the shoegazing category might not describe them, these aren't really sad/depressing songs (with the exception of the slow-moving song, "For Kalaja Mari"). Instead, surprisingly, the album is pretty upbeat, thanks to noisy sounds and quirky keyboard and sound effects. It's like half dance and half awkwardness (because they're not like typical dance rhythm).
My favorite songs on the album is "Wired for Light", a strange violin-ish scratch sound and afro percussions made this song stand out. Obviously, "Half Asleep" is big hit for them. It's pretty melodic and poppy, I can see why they chose this song to release as the single.
My absolute favorite is "Chain", however. Which I'm sure most people won't like for its use of vocal-correction effects. I think it fits the song, especially with the various samples (or at least I think they're samples), and overall gives it a dancey vibe to it. "Chain" should be a real crowd pleaser if they play it live.
And speaking of live, be sure to check them out on tour this year, see the two handsome sisters for yourself, as they play with some other indie-favorites such as Fujiya & Miyagi and Bat for Lashes.
Fans of 4AD, Movaje 3, Cocteau Twins (wow, will someone please do an article on them?), Au Revoir Simone, and Blonde Redhead, will immediately fall in love with SVIIB (if you haven't already). So pick up their wonderful album, Alpinisms, at any online retailer or their record label, Ghostly (where you'll find some EPs for sale as well).
I am assuming that the Andes Mountain shown in the PBS program might have inspired the naming of their debut album, Alpinisms (the term refers to the European mountain range, often called the Alps). Strangely, however, the cover artwork by Bryan Collins, well, it looks like it was pulled from a picture of Yosemite National Park's famous Half Dome.
The band consists of two real life twin sisters called Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and bassist Benjamin Curtis, formerly (?) of Secret Machines. The band was formed in early 2007, and they are bringing back an old familiar sound of electronica, mixed with a little shoegazing/dreampop - mostly because of the harmonies of the two sisters.
I think grouping the band into the shoegazing category might not describe them, these aren't really sad/depressing songs (with the exception of the slow-moving song, "For Kalaja Mari"). Instead, surprisingly, the album is pretty upbeat, thanks to noisy sounds and quirky keyboard and sound effects. It's like half dance and half awkwardness (because they're not like typical dance rhythm).
My favorite songs on the album is "Wired for Light", a strange violin-ish scratch sound and afro percussions made this song stand out. Obviously, "Half Asleep" is big hit for them. It's pretty melodic and poppy, I can see why they chose this song to release as the single.
My absolute favorite is "Chain", however. Which I'm sure most people won't like for its use of vocal-correction effects. I think it fits the song, especially with the various samples (or at least I think they're samples), and overall gives it a dancey vibe to it. "Chain" should be a real crowd pleaser if they play it live.
And speaking of live, be sure to check them out on tour this year, see the two handsome sisters for yourself, as they play with some other indie-favorites such as Fujiya & Miyagi and Bat for Lashes.
Fans of 4AD, Movaje 3, Cocteau Twins (wow, will someone please do an article on them?), Au Revoir Simone, and Blonde Redhead, will immediately fall in love with SVIIB (if you haven't already). So pick up their wonderful album, Alpinisms, at any online retailer or their record label, Ghostly (where you'll find some EPs for sale as well).
Links:
schoolofsevenbells.com
myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells
ghostly.com
