Echolocations 6.1: The Lot, May/June 2008

The Felice Brothers
Team Love Records
Simone, Ian and James Felice are the three eldest boys from a family of seven, born carpenter's sons in the wilds of New York's Catskill Mountains. Less than a year ago, the Brothers adopted a runaway dice-thrower and chancer, a 19 year old called Christmas. They convinced him to quit his job and the motley quartet forsook all else but song and moved their Sunday BBQ sing-alongs from their dad’s upstate house out onto the streets and subways of NYC. After months of toil, living in a 1987 special education bus, with arrests, and genuine panhandler fun, a free-lance music writer named Gabe Soria (Mojo, Vice) stumbled upon the boys singing and barking their wares at a farmers market in Brooklyn and one thing led to another. Now the Felice Brothers and blood brother Christmas all live, tour, sing, write and gamble together on their little bus. Their distinct brand of songwriting and the lawless sound they've forged has earned them comparisons to Woodie Guthrie, a young Springsteen to the Scorsese film Gangs of New York. The boys now travel the world performing homegrown and gritty Americana on the city stages as if they were hosting a sing-along on their own front porch surrounded by family and friends or playing the backroom of a dusty tavern.

David Karsten Daniels
Fat Kat Records
David Karsten Daniels is a Seattle, WA based songwriter by way of North Carolina, whose music relays a personal history of diverse musical experiences - among them, a childhood of hymn singing, membership of a high school jazz band, and a formal university training in composition, theory, free improvisation, and performance art. For several years, David traveled throughout Texas and France recording quietly in small rooms, where his formal training began to give way to four-track experimentation, juxtaposing the phase pieces and improvisation of his academic life with lo-fi acoustic compositions. With his debut, the beautifully ambitious 'Sharp Teeth' (released by FatCat January 2007), gone are the noise freakouts, drum programming, and obsessions with Steve Reich and John Cage. In their places are richly orchestrated songs in which his guitar and voice are the foundational elements fleshed out by up to nineteen musicians and at least as many instruments. Since then, David has kept himself busy playing live (largely in the USA, with a smattering of European shows), writing and recording - the fruits of which will be unveiled on his Fear Of FlyingFear of Flying is a somewhat different proposition to Sharp teeth however, spreading itself over a more diverse sonic terrain, traversing a wealth of styles and ideas, presenting a more disparate yet immediate record, with David as ever managing to pull the reigns in tight enough to give the album coherence, context and meaning.

Auktyon
Self-Released
Auktyon (Auction) is an idiosyncratic product of the Leningrad rock scene of the 1980's, and one of the few groups of the era to gain notice by the non-Russian speaking world. Some would argue that Auktyon is Russia's answer to art-rock, though its messy loud sound, driven by an aggressive horn section lacks the neat edges of most groups classified in that category. Unlike so many groups that came out of the last decade of the Soviet Union, Auktyon declined indiscriminate influence from every available source, fueled rather by what some deem extreme eccentricity, and others call artistic vision. They further differentiated themselves by avoiding the revolving door model of other early Russian rock acts, maintaining a relatively steady cast of musicians throughout the years, and producing a smaller and more consistent body of works. Their concerts, once a staple of the Leningrad Rock Club, are known for their circus-like theatricality, an expression of energy long amassed under repressive conditions. Their most creative period is acknowledged to be the late 80's and early 90's when they released an album nearly every year, including 1990's Zhopa (Asshole), and the 1993 accessible hit album Ptitzy (Birds), after which they went on hiatus until the 1995 release of Zhiletz Vershin (Summit Lodger), an artistic concept album that launched the group back into outer-space. The following decade saw the group complete a number of successful tours, but no new albums. In 2007, on American soil, the group recorded material for their new album evushki Pout (Girls Sing) along with Indie musicians John Mendeski, Mark Ribot, and Frank London of The Klezmatics.


Sofia Blanco
Stonetree Records
Cumbancha Records
The UN has a category for endangered human cultures, called 'Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.' At the top of that list are the people known as the Garifuna: coastal dwellers of Central America, and bearers of a unique brand of Afro-Caribbean music and dance. On Umalali, the women, who have always been keepers of the oral culture of the Garifuna, sing stories of Garifuna culture past and present. For decades, Belizean music producer Ivan Duran has painstakingly recorded them in their kitchens and living rooms, later adding elaborate arrangements in a proper studio back home. The Garifuna — who descend from the survivors of an African slave ship that ran aground off St. Vincent in 1635 and the island's Carib Indians — survived encounters with French and English colonists, and wound up scattered across Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Belize. While the menfolk tended to the sea, the women kept the cultural fires ablaze. The stories they tell are culled from the struggles and sorrows of everyday life. Tales told are of the ravages of Hurricane Hattie, sung by Desere Diego and Sarita Martinez. During recording, Martinez often was too busy with family and household chores to spare an hour to sing. And the last track on the collection, 'Lirun Biganute (Sad News)' by Julia Nuñez, is perhaps the most affecting. Recalling the death of her son, a policeman in Belize, she sings, 'Oh, what sad news I receive at noon today / What will become of me now that you're gone?' Garifuna culture may be be endangered, but the Women's Project creates a legacy that will endure.

Sister Suvi
Self-Released
Sister Suvi is a trio of ukulele, drums and guitar in which all three members sing. With folk lyricism, dancehall rhythms and art-rock radicality, their music is at once experimental and pop. Their dark and dreamlike lyrics often betray a macabre humour. M G is a puppeteer originally from Vermont. She is a self-taught ukulele player and has an extensive history in vocal/ a cappella musics. N D is a Toronto-based drummer immersed in that city's creative music and indie rock scenes. P G resides in Montreal and is a guitarist who moonlights on the bass clarinet. He also plays for the band Islands, and has made cameo appearances with the Bell Orchestre and Patrick Watson.

Indigo
Culture Shock Camp
Indigo is a Hip Hop Emcee, Songwriter, Singer, and Activist. Born in St. Paul Minnesota by the banks of the Mississippi, she began her music career as a child writing songs at the young age of 8. Raised in broken homes and living in over 30 places by the time she was 21, her music is expressive of real life issues and situations that are easily identifiable but difficult to diagnose. Indigo's music has been described as food for thought, with desert included. The City Pages full page article on Indigo is quoted as saying 'Like her personality, Indigo's music is full of sass. With lyrical swoons and provocative spits, her album oozes a sexuality that comes across as confident and respectable.' As a member of Culture Shock Camp she tours with DJ Shock B to Native Reservations across the sates promoting Hip Hop Culture, artistic empowerment, and creative development in youth groups in attempts to promote focus and healthy life style to America's youth. A single mother to 5 year old Eli, Indigo values our young people above all else and aims to support children, teens, and twenty somethings to follow their creativity towards their highest goals. Kiri'Ke is the first full length album to be released by Indigo thanks to partnership between IndiGenius and Eagles Nest Productions.

Flowers Forever
Team Love Records
Flowers Forever is a new project from Tilly and the Wall's Derek Pressnall. Second Pitchfork, 'Last year, Tilly and the Wall's Derek Pressnall had what was either a mental breakdown or a hallucinatory case of mono. Feverishly convinced that he could sense the future, the Omaha-based musician was compelled to create, transforming the pressure of those premonitions into his new band. Accordingly, the trio's self-titled debut rings with the urgency of newfound creative rejuvenation while also wallowing in painful vulnerability and flickering with anger. With baroque orchestration, often aggressive rhythms, and crunch, buzzing textures, these songs are an obvious departure from the cheer tap-dancing pop of Tilly.'

Charlie Parr
Self-Released
A confused and shy individual, Charlie Parr plays original and traditional folk and Piedmont-style blues, accompanying himself on National resonator guitars, 12-string guitar and sometimes a banjo. He's released 5 cd's, 3 of which are still available, all to good reviews. The latest, 'Backslider', is a live cd recorded with some friends at the Brewhouse in Duluth. Charlie was raised in Minnesota, in a household that prized traditional American folk music and his style bears the influence of hours spent listening to country blues records and Smithsonian/Folkways field recordings; often in the garage. Charlie Parr has failed at most things in his life. Music seems to have rendered him unemployable and is the only thing he's ever done with any confidence. He is a very modest man, an amazing musician and a cornerstone of Duluth.

The Shackeltons
Loveless Records
June 2004 marked the inception of Chambersburg, PA's The Shackeltons. In Mark Redding's Main Street loft (circa 1889) met Eric Fisak (guitar), Dan Schuchman (guitar), Josh McDaniel (bass), Jonathan Slick (drums) and Mark (vocals). Two months later with just 8 songs under their belts, the band started playing out. After playing a few local outings at obscure and random places, the Shackeltons discovered their voice. The band recorded their debut EP at a local church with Mike Mateer (DC) recording with his pro tools mobile studio. There they met Skeletonbreath (Brooklyn- violin, bass, drum instrumental band) and soon Skeletonbreath and the Shackeltons were playing shows together at a Chambersburg Homeless Shelter warehouse. The shows featured some great young bands and it was the only scene the town had in years. October was back to the church to record a full length with Mike Mateer. The Red CD was 10 songs and the song "Yellow Cadillac" garnered a fine compliment from Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie. Shortly after the recording, drummer Slick and bassist McDaniel left the band for college studies. Slick was replaced by 14 yr old Sean Hallock, while McDaniel handed his duties to his younger brother, Justin (age 16). The new line up created the Creme EP and soon found themselve playing live on KEXP at 10am on a Friday morning, early November for a NYC CMJ broadcas. Later that night the Shackeltons played at Sin-e (NYC) for their first live show that was attended by the KEXP staff and a fire was started in the heart of NYC and Seattle. This lead to Loveless Records (Seattle) offering the band a record deal.

Woodhands
Paper Bag Records
Woodhands is an electro-pop duo with a relentlessly energetic live-show and a total disdain for anything but balls-to-the-wall, dirty, sexy dance parties. The brainchild of Dan Werb (vocals, synths, drum machines) and Paul Banwatt (drums, vocals), Woodhands has garnered national press in Canada and was tagged as one of 5 bands to watch in 2008 by Exclaim! Magazine. Eschewing laptops or any pre-recorded samples, the Woodhands boys create the music from scratch just like old-fashioned rock bands, liberally swiping the swagger of glam and the raw energy of punk along the way. Armed with a decidedly un-ironic keytar, dirty analog synths and complex but danceable beats, Woodhands are hell-bent on connecting with their audience and getting the room bouncing. Combine that with an exuberant and nerd-infused sexiness, and it's no wonder they’ve been dubbed 'the sex bomb Tom Jones was talking about… as close to a two-headed indie Timberlake as it gets' (Exclaim!, Dec 2007).


Tokyo Police Club
Saddle Creek Records
Elephent Shell lands roughly a year and a half after A Lesson In Crime, which was featured on a previous Echolocations compilation. Tokyo Police Club was formed in 2005 by David monks, Josh Hook, Graham Wright, and Greg Alsop. Elephant Shell is the sound sof these four early-20-somethings, now seasoned by hundreds of shows from timy clubs to the festival throngs at Coachella and Glastonbury, delivering on every bit of promise in their rapid-fire barrage of material to date. They have just finished with a long run of tour dates in support of this latest release.

Neva Dinova
Saddle Creek Records
It's beyond fitting that Neva Dinova has found a new home at Saddle Creek. You May Already Be Dreaming, the band's third full-length and first since 2005's The Hate Yourself Change is a lush, largely electric affair rich with the rural textures that pepper releases from the band's Omaha contemporaries. Bellows began composing songs for You May Already Be Dreaming two years ago, but he and the band were fated to overocome a number of obstacles before the recording process would even begin.

Tickley Feather
Paw-Tracks
Tickley Feather, the self-titled debut by Philadelphia's Annie Sachs, is a collection of Late Night pathfinding sounds, gingerly home recorded using budget electronics. Selected from the past four years, these songs are washed in effects and demonstrateaa barbaric yet meticulous instrumentation, along with a paradoxically, otherworldy and natural vocal style. The resulting sounds tell a secret that feels serendipitous.