Shelly Frayley has such a beautifully innocent and charming voice, she has immediately won us over as our new favorite girl power artist. Her newest album, Hush is a collection of ten songs inspired by secrets from her fans submitted to Shelly through her website. That fact alone reveals how amazingly creative she is. Her songs are a strange mix of radio-friendly pop with some dark and catchy hooks thrown in the mix. Shelly harbors such a sweetness, it's impossible not to sing along to the secrets of strangers. She will be playing at Pianos and Rockwood in early August, so be sure to check her out!
Ohhh boy... we just fall in love fast with jingle-jangle music that's reminiscent of another bygone era, but harbors that catchy and modern feeling that instantly captivates listeners. It's quite hard to master that sound, and this nyc group has us singing along with them. We interviewed Giovanni from We Can't Enjoy Ourselves, and learned the intricate thought process of the band and maybe the meaning of life? Enjoy this read, songs at the bottom of the post :)
What is the origin of the band's name, "We Can't Enjoy Ourselves?"
I'm afraid there's not too much romance behind it, unless you consider sublimating a death wish romantic. We simply thought it was a name of exquisite sensitivity and refinement; the kind that decorates great ships, submarines, or at least the gravestones of great ships and submarines. As to whether it sinks or swims, nobody worries about making a gravestone sea-worthy. They are generally landlocked. But still even gravestones can make it out into the harbor with the help of tugboats. In short, it is as you would expect the anti-bandname.
But there is an appendix to all this. One must be very cautious about bandnames. They're strange creatures who have a habit of inbreeding which is unnatural and propagates idiocy. This for the most part explains the last five years in pop music which is on a fast course to extinction.
The WCEO sound ranges from happy, jangly pop to 50's rock & roll diner music and then 60's Brit-Pop influences, yet there are dark lyrics hiding within the songs. What is the songwriting process like for you guys?
That's true. Some of our fascinations stem from Time-Life era of pop music. Ricky Nelson, Dick Clark, William F. Buckley Jr. etc etc. It is an incredibly rich era of music, if a bit narrow and overly treaded. So naturally -- we happily stalk other eras as well. As for the lyrics, I'd be reluctant to cast them as too dark. In a schoolyard, they hang a little bit closer to the "roll over beethoven" crowd than they do to the "all the people I like are those that are dead" crowd (incidentally, a crowd of one -- Lawrence).
Though, we strive for something in between. It's like scrawling graffiti in between two venerable old establishments. In fact, that is very much what the songwriting process is like. It is like going out in 1968 with a couple of cannons and adorning the school walls with greeting card manifestoes like "let the dead teach the dying!" "Soul Brother," and "Dylan taunts the Diletantes!" It is lovingly pointless and referential. It makes no claims on longevity -- it is only made to satisfy the needs of our own hearts. Because we know that culture, just like new york city, has its own early morning clean up crews who will white wash your poor ass to oblivion.
Your album is a whirlwind of different sounds and emotions. What do you want listeners to take away after they hear the songs?
Well, have you every tried to spray paint in a whirlwind? It is very messy. Listener! Be sure to wear old, tattered and unwanted clothes while you listen to our music. But remember! Do not grow dispirited. It is not our music that is making you feel old, tattered, and unwanted. It is your clothes, which you can confidently throw away now. That's all.
Where are all the members from and how did the band come together?
From all over. But we eschew geographic identification because we don't really believe in space. Only time. Not just time with a capital "T." But all kinds of time. From Hammer-time, memetime, to good-times -- which contrary to popular belief, do not roll. They tend to hobble along -- being both extremely elderly and terribly asthmatic. They often stop for long stretches to catch their breath.
Caley is from the Pacific Standard Time Zone. Matt is from the Mountain Standard time zone. Jon and I come from the Central Time Zone. But now we all live in the Eastern Standard Time Zone. Which of course is the best zone where time moves at a confident but unhurried gait. We all met on a street on the corner of West 53rd street and Eighth Ave where we noticed we were all resetting our wrist watches. Still, rehearsal is generally difficult to schedule (Matt! Don't go to Montreal to network for your company, stay here so we can play with Roddy Bottum's pop band and make Peter the promoter proud).
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
We have plans for our album "Make A Mess Of Sacred Ground" to soar higher and higher to the top of the Billboard charts, to pass number 10, then number 3, then number 1 in fact and not stop till it sits atop the header, floating and making friends with the page number and the date until one day some scatterbrained copy editor, just now noticing our inexplicable presence, says to herself, "Shit, I could get fired for this," then calmly with an expert movement of pink fingertips highlights our band name and album title in beautiful pale robin-egg blue, then with a finality flashed with the abyss, presses Delete.
Blissful addiction is probably the closest descriptive to the effect Royal Teeth and their more-than-prance-worthy debut EP, Act Naturally, have had on us since we last posted on the indie dance-pop 6-piece from New Orleans/Lafayette. We're talking a chronic case of Royal Teeth-itis, evidenced by the complete or near inability to listen to anything but the unadulterated joy of effervescent guitar riffs, liberatingly youthful lyrics, and Nora Patterson and Gary Larsen's soaring hooks. It's like Momofuku cake balls manifested in song. And then you hear the gloriously synthed-out remix of Wild done by another byd favorite - ridiculously talented duo, The Sound of Arrows, and slip back into the perfect summer reverie. So, if you're down for having cake and eating it too, let's frolic and dance to Royal Teeth tonight at Mercury Lounge (Tickets).
It's no secret that we're huge fans of Bear Hands, and when they released Songs from Utopia, that was described as"a collection of quasi-political 'thought pieces' that serve as a manifestation of overwhelming white guilt and a pinko elitist liberal arts education," we were more than stoked. And then adding the 7/20 date at Knitting Factory in BK sealed the deal. It's gonna rock. We got a chance to catch up with Dylan and he answered some byd Q's in typical Bear Hands fashion!
Volume One was awesome! Will there be there a Volume 2 and what's in store for the rest of 2012?
No Volume II planned for now but I could imagine making one down the line. About to head out on a two week east coast trip with our friends Fort Lean who are an excellent up & coming group and then get back into the studio for LP 2.
How did you guys decide who gets to write in big and little letters on Twitter?
It just came out like that. I'm more of a shouter.
So much amazing music has come out of Wesleyan...how did that specific college experience inspire you guys musically?
It has a reputation for having some foundational hippies so the Dead would play I guess and then things have kind of kept up since then. A lot of weird little names. Atom and his Package. Santigold.
What's the youtube video that best describes your band?
After hearing "Funeral Song, one of the catchiest songs of 2012 (yes, we said it!!!), we knew we had to talk with Fast Romantics, a Canadian band that is totally killing it this year. "Funeral Song" is a song so dark and beautiful, you don't whether to sing along cheerfully or just cry. If this song is just a sneak preview of their upcoming album, "Afterlife Blues", this is going to be something for the music scene to get really excited about. In this interview, they explain the meaning behind "Funeral Song", why they love NYC, and much more...take a listen and enjoy....
Your new single, "Funeral Song" is fast and catchy, yet lyrically has such heavy content. What was the thought process from beginning to end on this song, both lyrically and musically speaking?
Lyrics came first for that one and it was tough putting it to music. If you just read them straight off a page it sounds kind of like a bit of a bummer, so I knew the music had to help balance things out or people would start jumping off bridges. It wasn't supposed to be a bummer at all. It's actually a really happy story. So the music is meant to sound like a big celebration, because that's really what it is. I know some people have told me they really resonated with it because they just had a loved one die, but I didn't write it about an actual person dying. Though I guess it's getting heard in more ways than one which is cool. It's really a break-up song, but it's a happy break-up song because it was written at the point of getting over a really major long and important love affair and realizing that I was okay with losing her.
You're coming out with your third album, "Afterlife Blues" in early in 2013, tell us a little about this new album and what we can expect from it.
Even though we've been going for a few years and have a couple releases under our belts, this really feels like our 'coming out' record. I think it's been several years of finding ourselves and shaking off a lot of musical baggage that obscured what we were doing. Now we're just writing songs, they're coming straight from our guts and out onto tape. It's been really easy this time around, we know when we have a great song and we just go with it. So I think people familiar with our earlier work can expect a bit more darkness to balance out the light, a bit more honesty, a bit more raw n' gutsy. We've shed a lot of the candy coated BS. I mean we're still writing pop songs, but I feel like we're writing about really important shit that matters to us and hopefully some other people.
What has been your all-time favorite show you have played?
We actually just played a super-late night show in Toronto that I think is now our favourite, but maybe that's just cause it was our last one. There's some live footage of it on youtube -- it was just one of those electric shows. It was super late at night during a festival, and somehow a few hundred decided to come out for it and rock out. It was sweaty n' bouncy and really punk rock, which are the best kind of shows because they're just so easy to play. Our best shows are the ones where everybody is feeling it, everyone is there for the music, and when those moments happen it really makes the whole slog of being in an indie band worthwhile.
A close runner up would be when we got the chance to play the old CBGB's for a contest put on by SPIN, Island and John Varvatos. They re-converted the old CBGB's back into a live venue, packed close to a thousand people in there, and had the top three bands from around the world play it. We were lucky enough to be chosen to play, it was rad. NYC is one of our favourite places to be, we're eager to get back there.
What are your goals for the rest of 2012?
Finish this record. Make a bunch of pretty videos. Plot our big tour for the new year. But really the most important thing to us is to get this music we've been working so hard on into the ears of people who give a shit. The response so far to Funeral Song has been so amazing, and we just really want to see it continue to get around and make people feel good, bad, whatever it does - that's the point of our band, that's why we do what we do. We don't make music so it sits in some digital purgatory, streamed only by our mothers. We want it to get heard.
Oh, and we want to get back to New York City before the year ends... so anyone who wants to catch us should like us on Facebook or Twitter to stay up on tour dates. :-) That was shameless self-promotion, but hey, it's 2012 and we're an indie band.
Ed note: To check out a live version of their new song, "Atom", click right here!
Well.... it's hot in the city and we need some surf rock! Enter: Fishdoctor, a BK band who landed a residency at Piano's this month. And the month of July is a perfect time for them to hold down the fort...they bring sunny rock and roll with sweet harmonies tempered with some bad-ass guitar riffs. Forget the Hamptons and champagne, they do rock and roll and rooftops. Catch them at Pianos all this month. An ice cold beer and beach music? Let's do it up, ny! Summer in the Wintertime by FISHDOCTOR McCarren by FISHDOCTOR Infantry Song by FISHDOCTOR Sherpa by FISHDOCTOR Aurora Australis by FISHDOCTOR
It's getting to be that point in summer where the initial happiness of being excited about the hotter weather is fading. I looked around this morning in the subway, and not one person was smiling. Everyone was either on their ipads/nooks/kindles/iphones/nintendoDS (one random sad child), looking miserable.
Aunt Martha is a folky kind of band that you listen to when you are in those weird summer moods and just need some relaxation music that is reminiscent of simpler days that we haven't really lived in...we're talking white picket fence, guitar player on the porch swing, glass of fresh lemonade served by Aunt Martha...you get the idea. They'll be around at Bryant Park on the 11th, rr Bowery on 7/17 and again at Catalpa on Randall's Island. Just listen and chill...this "band of men" (per their facebook bio) is good stuff. Free download
