Grandchildren, Dinosaur Feathers, EULA
Friday, April 13 2012
8:00pm - 21+ - $8
Grandchildren
The drums smack you in the face first, like a hailstorm with no sign of letting up. Then, as waves of harmonies emerge unexpectedly, a joyous sensation sets in, as if someone just snapped you out of a fever dream. The beat-driven, orchestral-pop epics unfold like an audio scrapbook of memories from the life of Grandchildren songwriter Aleksander Martray.
“I was restless from a really young age,” explains Martray, the son of a high-ranking military officer, born on an Army base in Germany and raised on both sides of the Atlantic. “Growing up in flux between different places I gravitated towards more intangible things like stories, melodies, movies, and dreams, and so early on music became a way of making a home for myself.”
Grandchildren’s debut album, Everlasting, feels like a culmination of all that restlessness. A sonic collage of the sentimental and the confrontational, the album is a safe haven for multiple realities— fusing tribal beats, frayed electronics, fireside folk melodies, richly-woven orchestral-pop flourishes and even field recordings from Martray’s journeys across Central America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Mp3s: https://www.facebook.com/grandchildrenmusic
Dinosaur Feathers
With Whistle Tips, Brooklyn, NY quartet Dinosaur Feathers flee from the tropics of their debut, 2009’s Fantasy Memorial, and push themselves into hitherto unexplored and ultimately rewarding new territories. Once tethered to a drum machine, the addition of drummer Nick Brooks provide newfound forcefulness and flexibility; the clean melodic basslines of Ryan Michael Kelly often grow into dynamic leads without abandoning the low end; and where acoustic guitar once engendered laid-back vibes and folk misnomers, The electric guitar of vocalist Greg Sullow now drives with clear tones, a welcome crunch, and occasionally noisy outbursts. Evolution is, however, only a theory. For all you indie creationists, the Dinosaur Feathers you may have known and/or loved lives on through their sunny melodies, still-infectious grooves, and ever-boisterous harmonies between Sullo, Kiley, and keyboardist Derek “Duck” Zimmerman. These elements, plus such seemingly disparate influences as The Soft Boys, The Olivia Tremor Control, XTC and of course Paul McCartney's Wings, now inform a jazzier/punkier/maybe even poppier mélange.
From the instant bounce of “Young Bucks” and power popper “Untrue” to the impressively ambitious segued trilogy of “Certain Times”, “City Living”, and “Beatcha”, through the hints of prog riffing that open up “SURPRISE!”, this is a fully realized version of a band only hinted at in the past. While Dinosaur Feathers have existed in many incarnations: solo bedroom pop project, dance party karaoke machine, and tropical folkies, their boldest step has come with the transition to simply becoming a rock band.
Mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/dinosaurfeathers
EULA
EULA (Connecticut natives Alyse Lamb, Jeff Maleri and Nathan Rose) looks like a beauty but sounds like a beast. Packed with ferocious guitars, gnarrrly bass and pounding drums, this Brooklyn trio's live shows are notoriously energetic, while frontwoman Alyse Lamb's soaring vocal melodies and chaotic guitar playing is a style all her own (she used a can of Tecate as a guitar slide while opening for Mission of Burma). EULA released their debut LP Maurice Narcisse in April of 2011, garnering rave reviews from home and abroad. As stated by QRO Magazine: "This is the sort of rock ‘n’ roll kamikaze that you expect to hear at your local VFW hall, rubbing shoulders with sweaty straight edge kids sporting Crass iron-ons. In the heavier numbers lead songstress Alyse attacks her vocals like a K9 cop on Martin Lawrence. Gnashing jaws, chord-progressions, fight song fever." EULA plans to tour extensively and will release an EP (their third) in Spring of 2012.
Mp3s: http://eula.bandcamp.com/album/maurice-narcisse
The drums smack you in the face first, like a hailstorm with no sign of letting up. Then, as waves of harmonies emerge unexpectedly, a joyous sensation sets in, as if someone just snapped you out of a fever dream. The beat-driven, orchestral-pop epics unfold like an audio scrapbook of memories from the life of Grandchildren songwriter Aleksander Martray.
“I was restless from a really young age,” explains Martray, the son of a high-ranking military officer, born on an Army base in Germany and raised on both sides of the Atlantic. “Growing up in flux between different places I gravitated towards more intangible things like stories, melodies, movies, and dreams, and so early on music became a way of making a home for myself.”
Grandchildren’s debut album, Everlasting, feels like a culmination of all that restlessness. A sonic collage of the sentimental and the confrontational, the album is a safe haven for multiple realities— fusing tribal beats, frayed electronics, fireside folk melodies, richly-woven orchestral-pop flourishes and even field recordings from Martray’s journeys across Central America, the Caribbean and Africa.
Mp3s: https://www.facebook.com/grandchildrenmusic
Dinosaur Feathers
With Whistle Tips, Brooklyn, NY quartet Dinosaur Feathers flee from the tropics of their debut, 2009’s Fantasy Memorial, and push themselves into hitherto unexplored and ultimately rewarding new territories. Once tethered to a drum machine, the addition of drummer Nick Brooks provide newfound forcefulness and flexibility; the clean melodic basslines of Ryan Michael Kelly often grow into dynamic leads without abandoning the low end; and where acoustic guitar once engendered laid-back vibes and folk misnomers, The electric guitar of vocalist Greg Sullow now drives with clear tones, a welcome crunch, and occasionally noisy outbursts. Evolution is, however, only a theory. For all you indie creationists, the Dinosaur Feathers you may have known and/or loved lives on through their sunny melodies, still-infectious grooves, and ever-boisterous harmonies between Sullo, Kiley, and keyboardist Derek “Duck” Zimmerman. These elements, plus such seemingly disparate influences as The Soft Boys, The Olivia Tremor Control, XTC and of course Paul McCartney's Wings, now inform a jazzier/punkier/maybe even poppier mélange.
From the instant bounce of “Young Bucks” and power popper “Untrue” to the impressively ambitious segued trilogy of “Certain Times”, “City Living”, and “Beatcha”, through the hints of prog riffing that open up “SURPRISE!”, this is a fully realized version of a band only hinted at in the past. While Dinosaur Feathers have existed in many incarnations: solo bedroom pop project, dance party karaoke machine, and tropical folkies, their boldest step has come with the transition to simply becoming a rock band.
Mp3s: http://www.myspace.com/dinosaurfeathers
EULA
EULA (Connecticut natives Alyse Lamb, Jeff Maleri and Nathan Rose) looks like a beauty but sounds like a beast. Packed with ferocious guitars, gnarrrly bass and pounding drums, this Brooklyn trio's live shows are notoriously energetic, while frontwoman Alyse Lamb's soaring vocal melodies and chaotic guitar playing is a style all her own (she used a can of Tecate as a guitar slide while opening for Mission of Burma). EULA released their debut LP Maurice Narcisse in April of 2011, garnering rave reviews from home and abroad. As stated by QRO Magazine: "This is the sort of rock ‘n’ roll kamikaze that you expect to hear at your local VFW hall, rubbing shoulders with sweaty straight edge kids sporting Crass iron-ons. In the heavier numbers lead songstress Alyse attacks her vocals like a K9 cop on Martin Lawrence. Gnashing jaws, chord-progressions, fight song fever." EULA plans to tour extensively and will release an EP (their third) in Spring of 2012.
Mp3s: http://eula.bandcamp.com/album/maurice-narcisse
