New York, a festival and getting to see one of my favourite new bands live up to all my dreams.
BY Jonathan Wilson
CMJ has been a bit of a head fuck to be honest and likewise for the city of New York in general. I've been working like a dog, mostly heading in and out of meetings for a new band I look after, who are amazing by the way. There have been a bunch of hyped bands at CMJ but none of them have really lived up to my expectations. I've done these types of festivals before, packed with thousands of hopefuls and I usually walk away with a handful of sounds in my ears and sites in my mind to plot some kind of future that is about to happen that I'd want to be a part of. So many bands with so many people touting them, the big hype acts Amazing Baby, Passion Pit, High Places, Crystal Stilts etc were good but I think we've heard it all before. Trust me though, you'll hear people the world over singing these bands praises before too long. Amazing Baby in particular have 'NEXT BIG THING' tag all over their cock rock meets The Killers swagger. They will be massive, I guess I'm just not sure what I think about personally...
While I was disappointed with most of the stuff one band lived up to every hope I've ever had from a debut album in recent times. Next month I'm releasing the Alpinism's by a Brooklyn band called School of Seven Bells. They are comprised of twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza who used to front the awesome On!Air!Library! and former Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis. Their set at the Fader party got off to a rough start, not musically speaking, they have no drummer you see and the sound guy took a little dislike to them as a result. There music is a little droney and very beat heavy with the most heavenly twin vocals from the sisters I've ever heard. While the record is the die for, once the live set got started it was something so intense and beautiful that I've been speechless since and don't think I want to watch another band for a while to savour the moment for as long as I can.
Both Alejandra and Ben play guitar and the sound is just so fucking thick and heavy that it's a full on assault on your body, you feel it in your fucking bones. It has to be said Ben, who stands arched dead centre, is a complete machine on the guitar, I was blown away by the sounds made from just his guitar. Claudia plays additional key lines that are so much a part of the layering and could be making half the droney sounds that I think came from the guitars. It's hard to know where the sound is all coming from but one thing for sure is that it's dense, loud and thick! Then there's the vocals, holy shit there are amazing vocals. Claudia stage left and Alejandra stage right, Claudia with her eyes shut tightly as if she's closed in an intense moment at every breath she sings and Ale staring blankly, her 20 yard stare lost by the dim lights, singing from her soul. I can't even describe the power behind their vocals. The two harmonise with pitch perfect ease. It's beautiful, comforting and hot all at once. This band is perfect, I'm so fucking happy that I get to put their records out in Australia and if all goes to plan I'll get them down for some shows soon. So I guess in short, for all it was worth, SVIIB's saved my CMJ.
I'm in LA now, enough of the drooling, so I'm off to eat burgers, burritos and drink some Mexican beer with The Duke Spirit who are demoing for their new record. Killer huh!
CMJ has been a bit of a head fuck to be honest and likewise for the city of New York in general. I've been working like a dog, mostly heading in and out of meetings for a new band I look after, who are amazing by the way. There have been a bunch of hyped bands at CMJ but none of them have really lived up to my expectations. I've done these types of festivals before, packed with thousands of hopefuls and I usually walk away with a handful of sounds in my ears and sites in my mind to plot some kind of future that is about to happen that I'd want to be a part of. So many bands with so many people touting them, the big hype acts Amazing Baby, Passion Pit, High Places, Crystal Stilts etc were good but I think we've heard it all before. Trust me though, you'll hear people the world over singing these bands praises before too long. Amazing Baby in particular have 'NEXT BIG THING' tag all over their cock rock meets The Killers swagger. They will be massive, I guess I'm just not sure what I think about personally...
While I was disappointed with most of the stuff one band lived up to every hope I've ever had from a debut album in recent times. Next month I'm releasing the Alpinism's by a Brooklyn band called School of Seven Bells. They are comprised of twin sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza who used to front the awesome On!Air!Library! and former Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis. Their set at the Fader party got off to a rough start, not musically speaking, they have no drummer you see and the sound guy took a little dislike to them as a result. There music is a little droney and very beat heavy with the most heavenly twin vocals from the sisters I've ever heard. While the record is the die for, once the live set got started it was something so intense and beautiful that I've been speechless since and don't think I want to watch another band for a while to savour the moment for as long as I can.
Both Alejandra and Ben play guitar and the sound is just so fucking thick and heavy that it's a full on assault on your body, you feel it in your fucking bones. It has to be said Ben, who stands arched dead centre, is a complete machine on the guitar, I was blown away by the sounds made from just his guitar. Claudia plays additional key lines that are so much a part of the layering and could be making half the droney sounds that I think came from the guitars. It's hard to know where the sound is all coming from but one thing for sure is that it's dense, loud and thick! Then there's the vocals, holy shit there are amazing vocals. Claudia stage left and Alejandra stage right, Claudia with her eyes shut tightly as if she's closed in an intense moment at every breath she sings and Ale staring blankly, her 20 yard stare lost by the dim lights, singing from her soul. I can't even describe the power behind their vocals. The two harmonise with pitch perfect ease. It's beautiful, comforting and hot all at once. This band is perfect, I'm so fucking happy that I get to put their records out in Australia and if all goes to plan I'll get them down for some shows soon. So I guess in short, for all it was worth, SVIIB's saved my CMJ.
I'm in LA now, enough of the drooling, so I'm off to eat burgers, burritos and drink some Mexican beer with The Duke Spirit who are demoing for their new record. Killer huh!
posted by Levity at
4:05 PM
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