High Places, Violens
FORMED: May 2006
FAVORITE NYC VENUE: “They aren’t ‘real’ venues, but Dead Herring House and Cinders Gallery.”
BEST THING ABOUT BEING IN A BAND IN NYC: “Diverse, well-attended shows.”
AND THE WORST: Rob: “Lax attitudes about smoking.” Mary: “There’s so much going on in NYC that it can be hard to get work done.”
Yeah, yeah, these photos look a little different than the others. And no, Mary Pearson and Rob Barber of High Places weren’t at the big group photo shoot at the Bushwick Country Club. But we don’t want you thinking they were thrown on at the last minute, somehow less deserving, in our eyes, of inclusion. Not true at all. Turns out High Places are almost impossible to pin down, because they’re constantly, constantly touring. Since releasing their debut EP in the second half of 2007, they’ve been winning fans all over the country, thanks in no small part to a rave review (8.2) on Pitchfork. But their star is rising fastest here in New York, where they’re converting people one by one with their peculiar but outstanding pop music. The duo employs strange, stuttering percussion and airy guitars, which are run through about a million effects pedals. Pearson’s gentle, childlike vocals sit nicely atop the whole thing, occasionally obscured by all the other sounds, but always adding a nice, accessible touch. They’ve done pretty well for themselves after releasing only an EP and some compilation tracks, having shared stages with Dan Deacon, Celebration, Health and the Atlas Sound. They’ve also got a tour scheduled with Deerhunter. Just think what’ll happen when they release a full-length.
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FORMED: Summer-ish/Fall-ish 2007
FAVORITE NYC VENUE: “Bowery Ballroom has been the most fun so far.”
BEST THING ABOUT BEING IN A BAND IN NYC: “You can get girls to take their tops off at shows really easily.”
AND THE WORST: “Leaving boobs at shows and lugging gear back to your practice space in eight different cabs.”
No, it’s not violins. And no, it’s not violence. It’s vy-lenz, and we have no idea what it means, though we’re regretting not asking them about it. Formed from the ashes of the mighty (and mightily underrated) Lansing Dreiden, a band that was constantly maligned for what stupid people everywhere called “trying too hard” and being “willfully obscure,” but which we called being “creative” and “not idiots.” Regardless, Violens sees three of that band’s members heading in a slightly different direction. What was once psych-rock so noisy it almost had dashes of metal, is now psych-rock that’s leaning toward the sunnier side of things (just sunnier, not totally sunny), and so far it’s suiting them well. They played their first show back in October of 2007, and they’ve already found themselves opening for the Handsome Furs, MGMT and Yeasayer, with another show scheduled next month, opening up for Clinic at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Young bands will be jealous of their meteoric rise through the ranks, but when a band this good, with so much direction and potential, gets all the breaks they deserve, we find it pretty difficult to complain.
The Lisps, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Famous Amos
This Is Ivy League, La Strada, Team Robespierre
Photo Shoot at Bushwick Country Club
