Arthur & Yu
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Serge and Jane, Nancy and Lee, Isobel and Mark... my list of favorite male/female musical duos just got even longer with the addition of Arthur and Yu.
The first band signed to Sub Pop founder Jonathan Poneman's new label, Hardly Art, Arthur and Yu are releasing their debut album, In Camera on June 19th. Not since last summer's Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory infatuation have I found another record so perfectly suited to a Northern California summer. The opening track, Absurd Heroes Manifestos, sets the mood with verses sung back and forth between Arthur (Grant Olsen) and Yu (Sonya Westcott). It's a perfect opener for an album full of train-chugging guitar, tinkling Old West keys and a subtle dose of tamborine. In Camera's pervading feeling is that of sitting next to some talented friends at a foggy beach bonfire, listening to them harmonize to old Velvets songs. That the songs on In Camera sound so perfectly lo-fi makes sense when you find out that they were originally intended as the demo for a future record, but later considered perfect for release as is. The echoey vocals bring to mind a western as directed by Robert Altman more than they scream "demo".Live, all instrumental duties are ably handled by Olsen and Westcott: guitar, drums, keyboard and percussion. Impressive when considering the dozens of bands like The Polyphonic Spree and Arcade Fire that crowd the stage with their many members, when more of an impact could be made with less people.The following song, Come to View (Song for Neil Young) was created without Young in mind, but as Olsen says "the Neil Young aspect only came into it at the very end and it helped to wrap the lyrics up. I was meandering with the notion that a lot of the political problems of the '60s had come full circle with some sort of cocksure swaggery. And I was wondering about the reactionary response to these same problems. As I was having trouble answering that question- and not feeling very good about it- Neil Young's newest album, Living With War, was given to me."Download a few Arthur & Yu songs here: http://obscuresound.com/?p=1056
The first band signed to Sub Pop founder Jonathan Poneman's new label, Hardly Art, Arthur and Yu are releasing their debut album, In Camera on June 19th. Not since last summer's Nobody & Mystic Chords of Memory infatuation have I found another record so perfectly suited to a Northern California summer. The opening track, Absurd Heroes Manifestos, sets the mood with verses sung back and forth between Arthur (Grant Olsen) and Yu (Sonya Westcott). It's a perfect opener for an album full of train-chugging guitar, tinkling Old West keys and a subtle dose of tamborine. In Camera's pervading feeling is that of sitting next to some talented friends at a foggy beach bonfire, listening to them harmonize to old Velvets songs. That the songs on In Camera sound so perfectly lo-fi makes sense when you find out that they were originally intended as the demo for a future record, but later considered perfect for release as is. The echoey vocals bring to mind a western as directed by Robert Altman more than they scream "demo".Live, all instrumental duties are ably handled by Olsen and Westcott: guitar, drums, keyboard and percussion. Impressive when considering the dozens of bands like The Polyphonic Spree and Arcade Fire that crowd the stage with their many members, when more of an impact could be made with less people.The following song, Come to View (Song for Neil Young) was created without Young in mind, but as Olsen says "the Neil Young aspect only came into it at the very end and it helped to wrap the lyrics up. I was meandering with the notion that a lot of the political problems of the '60s had come full circle with some sort of cocksure swaggery. And I was wondering about the reactionary response to these same problems. As I was having trouble answering that question- and not feeling very good about it- Neil Young's newest album, Living With War, was given to me."Download a few Arthur & Yu songs here: http://obscuresound.com/?p=1056
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