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Shawn Kilroy ... Umm Drop

When Shawn Kilroy began playing guitar and writing songs in ninth grade, he was admittedly perplexed. “I couldn’t reconcile my love of the Beatles with my love of Bauhaus,” he says. “They seemed so far apart and so totally different from one another, and I felt like a phony if I admitted I liked both of them as much as I did.”

More than a decade later, with three solo albums under his belt, his view has shifted. “Now I don’t have that problem. Now I see the connection and I also don’t give a shit if they’re connected or not.”

Kilroy released the third installment of his trilogy, Hessian Love Songs , earlier this year. The new album is a collection of love songs written for a full band, while the second in the series, Kilroy says, featured songs about “hateful shit” written as a solo electronic project. The first was “more new-agey and spiritual.”

And yet, there is a common thread between them, an incredible conglomeration of influences from electro-synth like Ladytron to gothic folk a la Nick Cave to the classic rock of bands like the Who and maybe even Journey.

There’s also, Kilroy says, sadness. “I think I can be a melancholy person and so it’s always in there. Even a song like ‘Full Moon’ [off

]—which is pretty freaking cheery—has some lyrical content about the end of the world. I think I probably got into music to try to be less sad, to have a place to put the sadness. There’s a fundamental core of sadness to me. But in day-to-day living, I think I’m one of the more easy-going people I know and I think I’m kind of upbeat. I owe it all to music, for sure.

Shawn Kilroy Interview

Shawn Kilroy is a musician, actor and filmmaker from Philadelphia...

MD: Tell us a little about the bands you have played with.

SK: I have had the privilege of playing with many of my favorite area musicians over the years. In my earlier days, I played with most of the Three 4 Tens guys, who I grew up with. I have also played and recorded with members of The Cobbs, Manta Ray, Black Landlord, Vibrolux, and Illinois. My last album features Mike SloMo Brenner pretty heavily, as well as Seattle legends Rich Stuverud and Jebney Lewis. Jenny Prescott and my wife Heather Kilroy round out the rest of the disc along with North Lawrence Midnight Singer Joe Boyle. Kevin LeBree is always in there somewhere too!
....

Gemini Wolf, ‘Synchronized’

There are headphone albums and there are party records, and typically the two are mutually exclusive. But Gemini Wolf’s sophomore release, “Synchronized Eyes,” manages to be both. Listen closely, and there’s a dense swirl of music with plenty of layers to explore; slap it on the deck, and everyone’s sure to be moving.

Those harmonious contradictions are largely a result of the band’s “core duo” —
Mikronesia (aka Michael McDermott) is a composer and sound designer whose
electronic sounds veer between ambient soundscapes and trip-hop beats; Pandar (aka Megan Cauley) comes from a singer/song-writer background.

“On the first album,” McDermott says, “Megan wrote the songs on acoustic guitar, so I tried to layer on a lot of shifting textures on top, like a slide projector. On this album
there’s this constant pulse to everything.”

Cauley and McDermott have been casually performing together for a decade, but it wasn’t until 2006 that they assembled into an actual band. By the time they’d released their debut, “Josiah,” in 2007, Gemini Wolf was a full band, with drums, bass, and usually a str[i]ng trio or quartet. But last year, they trimmed the permanent
ranks back down to two.

“We like having the flexibility to do both,” Cauley says. “We enjoy playing small venues or art galleries, but when we’re playing Johnny Brenda’s we’re hoping that people are dancing, so it helps to have more presence.”

For this weekend’s CD release show, they’ll be supplemented by regular drummer Gary Dann, percussionist Shawn Hennessey, and horn players from the West Philadelphia Orchestra, who will be opening the show.

MP3 of the Moment, "Sugar"

You could listen to Gemini Wolf’s new full-length, Synchronized Eyes, all week long and still not really be able to say what kind of band they are. We know because we just did this. But we know this much: Amidst the electronic pop and fizz banging up against the real-time instrumental and vocal vamping that brings it all together, somewhere along the line, Gemini Wolf full-on time travels. (We knew that blanket at right could do more than just fly over the suburbs.) “Sugar” invokes so many things we love it’ll be hard to get them down right here, but we’ll try: The intro vocal hook seems like it’s the too-long-in-coming response to Donna Summer’s “Love To Love You, Baby,” but then alternates into a Debbie Harry coo straight from the Autoamerican era; the wild saxes and loping instrumental passages are straight out of the Arthur Russell playbook; and that groove is straight-up “Houses In Motion.”

Music Pick

The second release from beaty, bouncy Philly duo Gemini Wolf, Synchronized Eyes, swims in surreal Afro-pop arrangements and sublime vocal hooks. Think of them as our own Gang Gang Dance. Or think of them as well-studied pastiche artists with sharp ears and eclectic tastes. Whichever way, their record release party is Saturday — follow the band's heed and get your vibe on.

Gemini Wolf - Umm Drop

It’s the sirenlike vocals amidst Broken Social Scene-inspired synth melodies that first give you pause. But the slow morph into a bizarre Care Bear world of unnatural cheer and bliss that follows really catches the listener’s breath. And so begins Gemini Wolf ’s second full-length album, Synchronized Eyes. The morphing and melding of genres and influences continues on the album as the band laps influences from a pool that includes !!!, Fatboy Slim, the Faint and New Order. The addition of a string quartet and Afrobeat horn sections, however, turns Synchronized Eyes into a constant bag of surprises.?

Philly duo Gemini Wolf began as the project of Michael McDermott and Megan Cauley in 2005, though the two had played together previously for years. Since then, the lineup and sound has changed. The duo turned into to an all-out band on the first release, 2007’s Josiah , and then returned to a duo the following year. McDermott says, “I think we also had a little bit of a change in the direction of our sound and we wanted to document that,” resulting in the 10-song collection on Synchronized Eyes .?

This time around, the focus is more on the electronic aspect. “We didn’t want to make a total Warp Records-type album, where it’s just itchy beats with a female singing,” McDermott explains. That’s where the Afropop comes in.?

The album features a number of guest musicians, including members of local bands Shot x Shot, Normal Love and West Philadelphia Orchestra. Since McDermott and Cauley co-run the local label earSnake—which put out both Gemini Wolf and West Philadelphia Orchestra records—the decision to add a multitude of bright, brassy horns was a bit easier.?

“We tried to have more fun and funny and dancey songs, and less serious ones. I think people have enough things to be serious about right now,” says Cauley.?

Truthful Little Ditties

Lillie Ruth Bussey’s Truthful Little Ditties (earSnake, 2008) is a love story soundtrack waiting to happen. Written into the script of this prismatic collection of 14 songs are scenes of love, heartache, and lust, with an underlying urban sensibility inspired by the experiences of Lillie Ruth’s life in Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Known off-stage as Bianka Brunson and on-stage as her grandmother’s namesake, Bussey conducts her lo-fi symphony with vibrant synth arrangements, stripped down ukulele and acoustic guitar lines, and a gallery of homemade toys and noisemakers, creating a sound that is both experimental and accessible. Brunson’s most stunning homespun instrument is her voice, whose delicate vibrato floats like a hummingbird, capturing the warmth and vulnerability of being in love. To really see Truthful Little Ditties in Technicolor and Lillie Ruth’s artistic imagination at work, you have to see her live performance, where she pulls on the audience’s heartstrings one minute with the beautifully melancholy “Heart You Protect”, followed by a choreographed version of “Yo-Yo” and impromptu dance party the next. Whether listening at home, live, (or hopefully one day on screen), Truthful Little Ditties is one indie music box you’ll want to wind up again and again

Paper Masques -Tell The Ghosts... (excerpt)

When you listen to Paper Masques, you don’t just hear the music, you feel it. It conveys something lovely that chills you at the same time… The only way to describe what’s heard is a hauntingly beautiful trip… Their sounds are an echo of this amazingly chaotic city that will linger on with you once you allow them to fill your thoughts and emotions.
 

Paper Masques

Stephen Quaranta was walking through the souk in
Marrakesh, some jangly pop music in his headphones competing with the
guy on the street blowing a kaval. This did not actually happen, but
the songs he writes in Paper Masques sure suggest it. Aided by former
Teeth drummer Jonas Oesterle and a guest roster of local heads, the
release show for Tell the Ghosts It's Suppertime should feel like a street market party, squeezed into The Fire.

Umm... Drop

Steve Quaranta has come a long way from the 15-minute-a-week group piano lessons he had while attending grade school. Since forming Paper Masques close to six months ago, the onetime member of Zelda Pinwheel (the band is on unofficial hiatus) has already released an EP and is set to release its first long-player Saturday night at the Fire. Tell the Ghosts It’s Suppertime bursts with impassioned drum beats, frentic electric guitar riffs and gently strummed acoustic chords. You’ll even hear a kazoo on a few tracks.

“I wanted to write more structured, song-oriented material, as opposed to the weird, semi-improvised stuff we were doing with Zelda Pinwheel. I wanted to see what would happen if I reined myself in and did things that were more vocal-oriented,” Quaranta explains.

As he began to focus more on songwriting and vocals, Quaranta was also able to approach lyrics in an unusual way. “People that have been in my life, either real or imaginary, interact throughout [the album],” he says. “[The songs] are kind of snapshots. I’m not trying to tell whole stories—I’m giving pieces of dialogue or little images and leaving big holes that I want to let other people fill in themselves.”

“It’s going to kind of be a complicated stage plot, but I think we’ve got it worked out pretty well.”

Here He Comes: Shawn Kilroy

This Saturday — AKA Valentine’s Day, for all you lovers out there — Shawn Kilroy & The Dream Queens (Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner, Jamie Mahon, Jenny Prescott, and Mark Landlord) debut Hessian Love Songs, the final installment of a trilogy of albums that started with 2004’s Neon Gate followed by Thai Stick Dragon, at Philadelphia's Tritone. As might be expected of Kilroy (that's Townsman shawnkilroy to us!) - whose bio counts him as a “lover” along with the usually lonely combo of musician, singer, artist, film-maker, and thinker - ladies will not be charged admission.

Lover that he is, Kilroy’s never shied away from proclaiming his affection for England’s proto-goth, mid-’80s, moody pop — bands like Depeche Mode, Orchestral Manuevers in the Dark, and Love and Rockets. Much of that time and place scared the bejesus out of me when I would go upstairs at Revival to take a piss, making sure not to knock anyone’s line of coke off a urinal. Revival was a mixed bag in Philly’s rock and dance scene during the late-80s, but I loved it. Downstairs, in a big, open, noisy room in what used to be a Swedish sailor’s church, Revival put on underground rock shows: Camper Van Beethoven, The Mekons, The Godfathers, Tuxedomoon, Pere Ubu… Flaming Lips played there in support of Oh My Gawd!, when they were three barely known, hippie Okies playing teenage garage-band Floyd and Zeppelin soundalikes with bassist Michael Ivins operating a smoke-and-light machine with his feet. The sound pounded off the room’s exposed marble, plaster, and tile…in a good way. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Ben Fleury-Steiner, Soeng

On Soeng, Ben Fleury-Steiner - prolific American collaborator, head of his own cutting-edge CDR label - crafts some very sophisticated pieces with little post-production, beginning with "Tendrils", the first of several tracks centred around the electric kalimba, an instrument I had no idea existed.

Essentially an electronically-enhanced African thumb piano, it appears to be the invention of firebrand David Bellinger. Seemingly improvised upon, this electric kalimba has enough organic resonance to still sound "woody" and with the exotic and humid ambience Fleury-Steiner creates around it, mostly with "found sounds", it evokes imaginary or real southeast Asian jungle surroundings, gibbons hopping around the canopy overhead. For indeed, "soeng" is Korean for "nature".

Even the voices hiding deep in the background express an exoticism, a found and very attractive foreign language. As the album progresses, the soundtrack incorporates more and more loop, tape reversal and reverb and becomes more abstract and enticing, until it finally takes something of a more recognizabe shape, rounded off nicely with "Sunnudagar", to which husband-and-wife duo Northern Valentine have added airy keyboard and guitar.

Creating rarefied and unique aural environments is the main brief of experimental ambient music, though so few actually really succeed. Fleury-Steiner certainly has here - I´ve never heard any place like it before. Very accomplished, very layered. Rewards repeated, and deeper, listenings.

Umm... Drop

Bianka Allyon Brunson is Lillie Ruth Bussey. Actually, Bussey was Brunson's maternal grandmother, but it's under her name that Brunson lovingly creates and performs quirky folk-pop. Brunson thinks the songs befit her grandmother's spirit, and that she'd enjoy them if she were alive today. Thus the name. And really, you'd have to be some sort of monster not to enjoy such warm-hearted, homespun tunes.

Taking up simple instruments and what sound like toys, Brunson delivers her aptly titled new album Truthful Little Ditties so sweetly and honestly that it feels like a grade-school valentine. As she dresses up her voice in echoes over a gently plunking keyboard melody and beat on "Here We Are," she recalls fellow Philly home-taper Tickley Feather--at least until she starts whistling and humming. "Doors Locked" is similarly sparse, but this time Brunson's dulcet singing is unadorned and all the better for it.

Built on a dainty ukulele and a sputtering beat, "Heart You Protect" is another wistful yet light-stepping number, sneaking in a kazoo for good measure. Like other songs of Brunson's, it's all about love, or in this case "this love you gave away."

Truthful Little Ditties marks the latest release from Philly's newish label/collective earSnake, and Brunson's CD-release show will double as a release show for labelmate Gemini Wolf's new single. Billed as an earSnake Jamboree, it's a rare chance to see three bands (and a DJ) that sound completely different from each other but have bonded --thanks to earSnake--in the midst of our city's increasingly crowded music scene.