Monday, Oct 22 - Back Room
Slow Magic
w/ Jenny Besetzt, Companion, Silent Drape Runners
Monday, Oct 22
8:00 pm in the Back Room
$8 / 21+
"Wow, is the term to best describe my reaction when I first heard Slow Magic. Little is known of the band/artist but let’s not worry about that and just enjoy the blissed out music, highly impressive. Slow Magic’s bio is ‘the sound made by an unknown imaginary friend’. Word on the street is that Slow Magic are based in the States. So just ride those chillwaves, so damn good." --Believe In Sound
***
"Jenny Besetzt is the rose that grew from the ashes of a doomed young-adult romance,” a member of the Greensboro quintet Jenny Besetzt writes when asked to address the paucity of available information about the band, which formed in early 2011. It’s a response that invites the old sardonic saw—you’re going to have to be more specific—since failed romance is the second most popular reason young bands form, right behind trying to land those romances in the first place.
Thankfully, there are unique elements worth noting here, plus enough bread crumb-data trails to form a profile beyond the band’s promise to free you “from the restraints of time, memory and circumstance.” For one, there is no Jenny Besetzt in this band; “besetzt” is a German word meaning, “possessed,” as in batshit-crazy possessed. More important, childhood schoolmates John Wollaber and Brad Morton now write songs that layer a melodic fabric of intertwined guitars over the urgent thrum of drummer Reed Benjamin and bassist Jeff Bechtel. The result is “sentimental but driven” rock, as the band calls it, but once Kristen Morgan rains down clouds of misty keyboards over it, the music takes on some plush, if melancholic, pop airs, too." --John Schacht
***
Companion, a new project from Pepi Ginsberg (Red, East is East) evolved
over the course of 2011 and has now found strong footing in it's lush vocal
arrangements and strong rhythmic hooks. A clear departure from her
earlier work, Companion delivers artful pop with a twist. Ginsberg then teamed up with long-time bass-player Tim Lappin, new guitarist Kirk Schoenherr
and drummer Justin Veloso to flesh out the tracks. Using beats Ginsberg
made at home and reinterpreting with drummer Justin Veloso in the studio,
the band started to create a sound that incorporated elements both organic
and electronic.
“I needed to learn how to write harder parts on my guitar,
sing more challenging melodies and was listening to a lot of HOT 97,”
says Ginsberg. “I wanted to build beats and have electronic aspects to the
music, so I had to figure out how to write them, and blend those ideas with
the organic nature of the songs.”
The production here is big and airy. With help from names such as Jake
Aron (Grizzly Bear, Yeasayer, Jamie Lidell) and Nathan Sabatino (Dr.
Dog), Companion's eponymous debut is powerful, rich and compelling. It
marks an auspicious and mature beginning for a young band.
***
Silent Drape Runners make moving song- based electronic music with feelings influenced by Enya, Heather Marlatt, Agent Dale Cooper, memes, alcohol, tea, feelings, emotions, vibes, blogs, cats. Silent Drape Runners = Sophie Weiner + Russ Marshalek
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