Once upon a time, a cowboy named John walked into a saloon in the Old West. Having just arrived to the town, he was unaware that occupying the bar was a group of bandits who had been terrorizing the townspeople. John was not a fighter, but he had on him a deadly weapon: his lips. John’s whistling could in fact kill a man, and as soon as he pushed air through his “puckered kissers,” a sweet melody lulled the bandits to death. The people rejoiced, and the mayor insisted that John marry his daughter. But at their wedding, when a gust of wind brushed his mouth, disaster followed. John soon found himself amidst the lifeless bodies of a whistle-torn ghost town, and rode on sadly into the sunset.

This hilariously heartbreaking tale, from the song “524,” is but one delightful concoction of Miracles of Modern Science, a string-based band boasting expertly crafted, inordinately dynamic pop rock creations. Their lyrics contain unique collages of chemiluminescent substances, human organs, sheep-eating robots, and whistle-wielding cowboys. But words here are simply treated as adornment – it is a focus on composition and instrumentation that truly sets MOMS apart. At the heart of Miracles of Modern Science is a passionate musical appreciation that results in some of the most creative, catchy, and purely fun music in New York City.

While the instrumentation of many bands is dependent on the core ideas of a principal songwriter, MOMS operates from the ground up, fleshing simple song skeletons with the collaborative input of a mandolinist/vocalist, upright bassist/vocalist, cellist, violinist, and drummer. In pop settings, classical instruments are rarely used to their fullest potential, but MOMS views their respective strings outside of these confines, constantly challenging traditional formats and exploring new sounds. Thanks to MOMS, we now know how a mandolin sounds through a digital delay pedal and an overdrive tube amp, we’ve experienced the sizzling of a distorted cello, and we’ve learned how extended techniques – plucking strings (“pizzicato”), slapping necks, etc. – can be employed to achieve a range of dynamics unparalleled by electric instruments.

Although their songs are typically over five minutes long and do not adhere to standard structure, MOMS consistently delivers danceable rhythms and spirited melodies, integrating the intensity of post-rock bands with more light-hearted pop to create a sound that is elaborate and cinematic, but also immediately appealing. Over an impenetrable backbone of stomping beats and pulsing upright bass, soft rivers of cello and violin flow beneath shimmering mandolin notes. Layered vocals and teams of strings create enchanting melodies. The songs break down into exotic movements of classical-inspired strings breathing rich, earthy harmonies, before bursting into captivating choruses, crashing cymbals, and choirs of resonating voices.

When MOMS performs live, their energy is multiplied. Although each of its members is a highly proficient, trained musician, the group is far more interested in bringing their craft to the stage with passion and excitement than displaying technical ability. “A big part of what we do is connect with the audience,” says mandolinist, vocalist, and songwriter Josh Hirshfeld. “We’re not in a music theory ivory tower. We wear space suits, we have a good time and the audience has a good time. We usually end with yelling, ‘get up and dance!’” To close their shows, MOMS is known to do a chanting, waltz version on “Shout” by Tears for Fears, each time telling a different story about pirates. When fans remark, “I really like you guys because you’re good at what you do but you don’t take yourselves too seriously,” cellist Geoff McDonald considers it a show well done.

At a MOMS show, unless the crowd is blocking your view, the first thing you’ll notice is matching silver spacesuits. The band first wore these one-piece suits at an early performance, with no intention of the outfit being a permanent look. But when they returned to the stage without the suits, the disappointment of their fans overruled. “Over the years, the suits have lost their silver luster, sweating it out through washing,” notes Evan Younger, bassist, vocalist, and songwriter. (They’ve been washed four times in four years.) Only drummer Tyler Pines’s outfit is different, and the reasons have nothing to do with allowing the drummer a more aerodynamic, formfitting outfit. “Tyler lost his suit at the first gig. It disappeared, or he didn’t put it back in the bag,” recalls Josh. Tyler now wears a silver unitard, hued slightly different than the cloth of his bandmates. “It’s not logistically possible to always wear the suits. If we ever went on tour they would get destroyed,” Evan points out. “They don’t sell the same ones online, so we’d all have to wear unitards.”

Offstage, Miracles of Modern Science possesses an immediately apparent intelligence, eclecticism, and sense of humor – and between all of its members, an almost palpable sense of kinship. MOMS was formed in 2005, while its members were undergraduates at Princeton University. Evan and Josh started playing together in 2004, as a duo, and a year later, cellist Geoff, drummer Tyler and violinist Kieran Ledwidge completed the five-piece group. Josh concocted the name Miracles of Modern Science in the early stages of the band’s life. He doesn’t recall how or from where it came precisely, but the name and abbreviation, MOMS, was simultaneous. “There’s sort of an ‘ironic’ element to it since we’re playing much older instruments that aren’t very modern,” says Josh. Considering the band’s “pulpy, B rate kind of kitsch factor,” Geoff adds, the name works well.

Though the band’s first official show was at Café Vivian, an on-campus café at Princeton, MOMS gained much of their experience playing shows at the Terrace F. Club, one of the university’s twelve “eating clubs.” Many notable bands have taken the stage at Terrace, including The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend, and Girl Talk. Despite their current geographic separation (Tyler, still completing his undergraduate degree, and Evan both live in Princeton, while the rest of the band resides in New York), MOMS plays together about once every two weeks, and has performed at such notable venues as Mercury Lounge, Pianos, Cake Shop, Death by Audio, NYU, and Rooftop Films. Earlier this year, they were sought out by theater arts collective, Ars Nova, insistent that they could put on the band’s “ideal” show. MOMS has now begun to offer headbands as merchandise at performances. “They’re catchy for the eyes, they make you curious,” Josh says of the MOMS-branded apparel. “‘What does that mean? Why are you wearing a sweatband that says MOMS?’” “We wanted to have the whole band name wrapped around, but they told us it couldn’t be done,” adds Kieran. “It’s beyond what technology can do at this time. Maybe we’ll make a MOMS belt.”

MOMS has only one proper recording, a four song self-titled EP (available for free download on the band’s website), and is actively producing a new collection of songs. The existing EP was recorded partly at Terrace, and then in Josh’s dorm room over the course of many months, where additional instrumentation was added. “Josh and I used to send ideas back and forth or between dorm rooms, really simple scratches on GarageBand,” recalls Evan, “but lately it’s been more of a band-collaborative process. In our first recordings, we would layer a lot of string tracks and make it sound like a mini orchestra. In our newer stuff we’re running the strings through amps. Our sound has progressed from ‘rock band with strings’ to ‘string based rock band.’”

When the timing is right, MOMS will take things to the next level by performing beyond NYC. For now, with one member still in school, and without transportation of their own, taking their theatrical craft to the road isn’t an entirely realistic option. “With the economic situation, it’s harder for people our age to take a huge risk and just go try and make it as a rock band,” Evan comments. Testing the waters of the changing industry, MOMS experimented with releasing their first EP online for free, and not pressing any hard copies. “We’ve found that at shows people are always coming up to us and asking if there’s a CD they can buy,” says Evan. “So we started making CD-R’s and handing them out, something tangible to take home.”

For Miracles of Modern Science, the future is wide open, ripe with possibility. Three and a half minute pop singles will always have an audience, but many of the bands that popularize them will quickly become as useless as an empty soda can. For those who prefer a more enduring satisfaction, somewhere between chamber folk and post-rock, there exists a string-based band that puts a mandolin through a tube amp, dresses in uniform silver jumpsuits, demands dancing of its audience, and populates its following each time it performs.

“We’re just very excited right now,” Josh says. “We feel like we’re very close to having something happen. We’re getting better and hopefully getting more fans at every show.”

The Magnetic Fields
The Charm of the Highway Strip
1994 | Merge
A+

Many people like The Magnetic Fields, but few have even heard of their best album: The Charm of the Highway Strip. The album title comes from a quote by landscape design author J.B. Jackson: “Let us hope that the merits and charm of the highway strip are not so obscure but that they will be accepted by a wider public.” Ironic that in the shadow of the critically-adored 69 Love Songs, Charm has not quite been accepted by the larger public, seemingly because people prefer to hear quirky, cutesy, purposefully-cliché songs about heartache than bear the burden of deeper meaning. 69 Love Songs was penned for a coffee-shop; Charm is an homage to the open road. Long after humanity has destroyed itself, the spirit of the open road will remain. I can’t say the same for a Café Latte.

As a singer-songwriter, Stephin Merritt has two main avenues through which to communicate: words and chords. One major element of Charm’s success is the interplay between the sound of the record and the lyrics. The album’s overall tone could be likened to sunflowers dancing. But in contrast to something “sunny,” the lyrics are often sincerely heartfelt, and often depressing as well: lost time, regret, longing, heartbreak, and identity are major lyrical components. As fragile as gravity holding together the stars, bright and jovial music interlocks with bleak and pained words, forging an alloy of incomparable durability.

While positively inclined and quickly drawn to Charm, upon first listen I was not in love. What attracted me initially were Merritt’s insanely rich and sorrowful voice; almost total digital/keyboard instrumentation; and the deliciousness of so much talk about roads, travel, and movement. Apropos of an album with “highway strip” in the title, Charm is truly the ultimate road companion. Not only do most of the songs have an upbeat pace akin to spinning wheels, but the lyrics are drenched in driving and travel: “Some roads are only seen at night / ghost roads, nothing but neon signs”; “O Sunset City, I’ve got to see the world / don’t hold me too tightly, don’t whisper my name”; “The roads don’t love you, and they still won’t pretend to.” Having accompanied me on many drives, The Charm of the Highway Strip has become as essential to road travel as gasoline, and its grandeur sometimes even trumps that of the destination.

Guns N’ Roses
Chinese Democracy
2008 | Geffen
D

Unless you’re alien to this galaxy, you probably know that Guns N’ Roses latest release, Chinese Democracy, was somewhere between ten to fifteen years in the making before finally being made available to the public in November 2008. Given the excessive amount of time taken to complete the record, and the passing of an entire decade since GNR lost the limelight, it is mathematically impossible that Chinese Democracy can be any good.

If Chinese Democracy were to have been an addition to the golden record NASA launched into deep space in the late 70’s, and an extraterrestrial were to have formed its first impressions of mankind around the music, the creature would see humanity quite clearly: Man is stubborn, idiosyncratic, hard to work with, and downright selfish, spending great amounts of time and money salvaging the remnants of his dusty glory days; Man is egocentric, parting ways with close friends and exhausting multiple relationships to achieve his goals; and lastly, confused and disjointed, Man creates his work blinded by an impending finish line, and will do whatever it takes to safeguard his legacy. But Man pushes too hard on things that cannot be moved, and lacks the foresight to let the present be and the past pass.

Like many hard rock frontmen of the 80’s, Axl Rose is a megalomaniac. Somehow through the harsh divorce between himself and the other members of his band (most notably lead guitarist Slash), he managed to keep the brand “Guns N’ Roses,” and in so doing forever tarnished the band’s name. A name being nothing without the chops to back it up, Axl called in a wide array of musical talent – including musicians, composers, arrangers and engineers – to assist with his mad science. The list of personnel reads more like the credits of a movie than liner notes – similarly, the instrumentation on the record looks like a complicated math equation. It is not surprising that to complete such an undertaking was no easy task. The end result is that Chinese Democracy is a huge album, labored over meticulously for years on end, and resulting in a tired, incoherent slop bucket of ideas and instruments. The epitome of overproduced, the songs fail to truly (or ever) hit home, and instead wander across a variety of musical tones and styles, none of which are suited to Axl’s thin, raspy vocals, having long since lost their sharp, signature bite.

There are claims that Chinese Democracy is the first of a trilogy of records. By the time the second one drops, I’d be surprised if Axl’s hair hasn’t turned white, assuming the aliens haven’t yet decided to obliterate our species for turning hard rock into cheap plastic.

“Pulling on a Line”
Great Lake Swimmers
Lost Channels
2009 | Nettwerk
B-

Few people would claim Great Lake Swimmers to be the most interesting band in the world. Their recently released latest effort, Lost Channels, is essentially a continuation of the group’s 2007 acclaim-accumulating Ongiara. Unless you’ve not heard a single note of folk-rock until today, Lost Channels’ first single, “Pulling on a Line,” is going to sound familiar, perhaps even to the point of wondering what inspired such an ordinary song to be written. “Pulling on a Line” is exceedingly straightforward, pushes no boundaries, and opens no new doors. However, although unoriginal, it’s difficult to argue that this isn’t a “good,” catchy, go for a drive in the summertime song. The verses of “Pulling on a Line” have a warm, fluid, string-strummed movement decorated with simple harmonies and a comfortably driving beat, tricking your brain into thinking you’re speeding along some country road, drinking in painted barns and passing trees. In one way, the chorus is even more catchy — a half-time, sing along refrain of “I’m just pulling on a line, on a line / O, I’m just pulling on a line / I’m just pulling on a line, on a line / and sometimes it pulls on me” — but it also rings of an old sea chanty we might have sung in third grade choir, or a traditional folk melody written hundreds of years ago, grumbled by hard laboring field workers under a sweltering sun. But after all, it’s lead singer Tony Dekker’s reedy, feathery vocals that manage to breathe fresh air into Great Lake Swimmer’s otherwise ordinary songs.

It wasn’t so much temptation as curiosity that lead me to purchasing a one pint, nine ounce bottle of Budweiser American Ale. Considering the unwavering consistency with which Budweiser mass-produces their beer, and assuming that in order to optimize this particular offering’s popularity they’d try to make the beverage as straight down the middle and therefore hard to dislike as possible, I was surprised, and relieved, to find that I did not really enjoy this beverage.

Budweiser American Ale tastes like seltzer water with a packet of beer-esque ingredients mixed in, almost as if it was only halfway-brewed. An undercooked ale! Send it back to the chef. Not surprisingly, the color is pale amber, malt is more present than hops — both are well balanced and on the weak side — and the carbonation is strong, alcohol moderate (5.1% ABV).

Nice try guys! Better luck next time. Stick to what you do best. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The only good that can come from this beer is that those who regularly drink Budweiser might try the American Ale, which tastes nothing like the usual Bud suspects, and never look back to mass-market brew. Anheuser Busch would be responsible for its own downfall. Oh, the humanity.

The doors on the subway car ahead of mine wouldn’t close, and so I was late to see Ben Krieger at Sin-é last Wednesday. Through the entrance to the venue I heard the sounds of a full band, relieved that even though it was a few minutes past his scheduled start time, Krieger had yet to take the stage. But I was wrong – there he was like Mickey Mouse in Fantasia, conducting and manipulating his “Digital Pigeons“ to make more sounds than one man is usually capable.

Digital Pigeons is the name Ben Krieger gives to the machines that comprise his “band” – electric guitar, two keyboards, a manual drum machine, and a loop pedal. Pounding bass drum and a snare/hi-hat beat were often steady throughout the songs, as Krieger would then play a main riff on the keys or guitar and loop it over the beat, finally adding lead guitar parts and vocals, and at one point even a full out guitar solo. The result of this self-accompaniment has a distinctive effect – so much sound being channeled through one person reflects both the energetic pulse of a rock band and the intimate connection of a singer/songwriter, a rare and refreshing blend. Ben did not make a pretentious spectacle, showing off a gear-head wall of sound, and at the same time I don’t believe the intent was for a listener to close their eyes and think they were hearing a full band. This was a tasteful testament to Do-It-Yourself, and inspiration for singer/songwriters to create support with their own hands.

Unique instrumentation would be meaningless if the man couldn’t write a good song. A combination of Guided By Voices indie rock, early 90s alt/pop rock, and at times classic Who-esque rock, the show simply rocked. Krieger’s songs, both musically and lyrically, are exceptionally composed and arranged. Regardless of his Pigeons (who took a break for a substantial portion of the night), the driving sound of Krieger’s show was basic: guitar (a moderately distorted Telecaster), bright melodies, and lyrics like no other. One of the things Ben does best is match the mood and tone of his music with appropriate lyrics. His are tremendously well thought out and playful stories, my favorite being that of a bionic jellyfish named Stingra who works for the CIA fighting terrorists. Combining all these elements, Ben Krieger and His Digital Pigeons is a one-man rock-opera just beginning to materialize.

Depending on your cup of tea, upon first listen to The Secret Life of Sofia your breath may not be taken away. There are no axes being shred, kooky voices wailing, or wild, off-time beats. Everything is wrapped rather tightly, polished with the modestly implemented but substantial ability of the band’s members; the operation runs so smoothly that you might not be able to perceive the abundance of musical talent each possesses. After one performance, unenthused by the band’s “mellow, harmless hippie sounds,” one reviewer went so far as to call TSLOS flat out “uncool.” A more narrow-sighted, naive view of The Secret Life of Sofia could not exist. Mellow; yes… although certainly not all the time. Harmless; certainly not.

Although the roots of the majority of TSLOS songs are based on guitar chord arrangements, Seven Summits, the band’s first full-length release, is by no means the simple fleshing out of a singer/songwriter’s compositions. Without the well thought out arrangements and intricate instrumental accompaniment, lead singer and principal songwriter Kyle Wilson’s exceptionally well written songs would be seen in a much different light.

Largely responsible for the band’s sonic texture is Eric Schwortz on electric guitar, backing vocals, keyboard and percussion, and drummer/glockenspielist Steven Leventhal. Rounding out the live roster are two newer additions to the band, Fraser McCulloch (who engineered/produced Seven Summits) on bass guitar, and Chris Brazee on keyboards, both of whom were members of the recently defunct May 2007 Jezebel Music NYC Feature Artist, Mistakes. Save for Wilson, who rotates between acoustic and electric guitars, and Leventhal, who keeps behind the kit holding ground, Schwortz, McCulloch and Brazee frequently switch between instruments from song to song meticulously providing appropriate sounds. One of the band’s signature devices is a background element provided by a wash of reverb and delay on electric guitars and keyboard, most notably used on “Fifty Fourteeners” and “Sheet Stealer!,” that creates a soft, shining wall floating above rolling vocals melodies and sauntering percussion. Above it all are lush two, three, and even four part harmonies, showcased most notably in “Outside.”

The Secret Life of Sofia is highly capable of letting the hammer come down hard, breaking out into peaks of sonic intensity to close songs, but their trademark is a seemingly effortless implementation of dynamics, and the ability to artfully craft complex landscapes through sound. It is the combination of the band’s musical terrain with the lyrical and thematic elements of the songs that makes The Secret Life of Sofia truly unique. Through stories of engagement and interactions with nature, Wilson is telling stories of human nature itself; specifically, the instinctual desire to accomplish monumental tasks, survive in the face of incredible risk, and attempt to conquer Mother Nature. But in the struggle of nature versus man, nature always wins.

Seven Summits deals almost exclusively with the outdoors (track #3 is actually entitled “Outside”) and nature, specifically mountaineering. The legendary seven summits are the highest of each continent’s peaks, and climbing all seven is an extremely engaging physical feat, the accomplishment of which many climbers have become obsessed with. As goes with climbing any mountain, the danger and risks are significant. Throughout Seven Summits, Wilson makes use of references to well-known tragic mountaineering tales:

Aleister Crowley leads a team of climbers up Nepal’s Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world; an avalanche takes four lives: “Crowley having nightmares of tumbling from the face / rattling his body like the bars of a cage” (from “Nepal, 1905″)

Willi Unsoeld and his daughter Nanda Devi Unsoeld climb Nanda Devi, the second tallest mountain in India; Devi dies from a blood clot and remains on her namesake to this day: “no one understood why I didn’t feel at fault / but I’d only introduced you to the glory of mountaintops” (from “Nanda Devi”)

Richard Bass, the first person to climb each continent’s tallest mountain, co-writes Seven Summits, a book detailing his feat: “why were you so obsessed with this? / now you’re free to give back all the time you wasted / out on the seven summits” (from “Seven Summits”)

Beck Weathers is stranded and left for dead on the treacherous South Col of Mount Everest; Weathers suffered severe frostbite and subsequent amputation: “when you let it go it’s actually quite nice / the shivering subsides and everything feels fine / you will meet your wife and kids so you can say goodbye / to everything you knew” (from “Weathering”)

The Secret Life of Sofia’s rapidly expanding fan base, regular show dates, and growing media attention will remain a mystery to those who might call a song about a guy who lost his arm from frost bite on Mount Everest “harmless.” But to those who listen just a little closer, the rewards are plenty.

The word “acoustic” is essentially synonymous with mellow, soft, easy music. Although by no means consistently sedate, the music of Robert Johnson, Andrés Segovia, James Taylor and Joanna Newsom tends to operate on a similarly laid-back, low energy level. Party music, this is not. For a band like La Strada, whose instrumentation consists predominately of acoustic instruments, breaking boundaries and genre stereotypes is a conscious challenge. “The thing that’s exciting for me is pushing it,” says James Craft, La Strada’s lead singer and main songwriter. “It’s a challenge how to write and get the point across in an age of electronics and distortion – how to make it intense and more exciting.”

Sleepy songsters, La Strada is not. Although La Strada is typically described as having a particular sound, they don’t feel locked in to any specific categorization. The band’s bio reads: “La Strada has managed to create an impressive fanbase for themselves very early on, due to their uncanny ability to funnel the romance of old-world instrumentation through new world amplification. With soaring vocal harmonies, accordion, and string-driven melodies revved up on rock and roll, La Strada transports you to the hills of the Balkans, a street corner in Paris, and back home beneath a Brooklyn skyline.” Seeing himself as an innovator, Craft is constantly experimenting and promises his band’s forthcoming LP will sound unlike anything La Strada has done before.

Through “mutual friends, chance meetings, and most of all Craig’s List,” La Strada was born. The group’s central lineup is James Craft on accordion, guitar and lead vocals, Devon Press on bass, guitar and accordion, Ted Lattis on guitar (Press and Lattis are childhood friends from Westchester, NY and have been playing music together since they were kids), Brady Miller on drums, and Daniel Baer on violin.

Craft was born in France, where he would later spend summers and attend college, but grew up in Sacramento, CA. He cites the natural beauty of the city’s valley and two rivers as early influences. Loving to travel, Craft served in the Peace Corps in Romania where he spent literally thousands of hours devoted to songcraft, recording songs on a miniature computer. Although he says Romania did not influence him musically while he was there, upon his return nostalgia influenced Craft to take up the accordion. Craft says “I just really like to write songs,” and he does so at every opportunity, no matter where he is, with or without an instrument in hand. “Songs usually come from an experience — come through life,” says Craft. “Generally there’s an event, and the song is how I feel about the event, or a deeper meaning, or the event itself… comes from life breaking through. When I try to get songs through ideas or principles it doesn’t work out as well as by necessity, a reaction to something.”

Although Craft is the leader of band, a tightly knit collaborative atmosphere fuels La Strada. “The songwriting process has been constantly changing since we started playing together,” Press says. Songwriting is done mostly by Craft, but it’s often left open ended. Craft comes to the group with a clear vision, and people jump in and create and build upon the original idea, which can be very simple in the beginning. “James writes the majority of the music, and Devon handles most of the arranging, especially the strings,” explains Miller. “After James, or whoever, writes a song, we workshop it as a group, adding and subtracting until we’re happy with the overall structure. Devon and Daniel then create the string parts, and we continue to work on the structure from there.”

A handful of La Strada songs have been crafted without any input from Craft. “The band has nice boundaries,” comments Craft. “If the other guys have strong desire, there’s nothing I would do to get in the way. It’s not about control. If someone wants to sing, give it a shot.” The band fully recognizes the importance of focusing on the individual strengths of their members. “People do what they do best in La Strada.”

La Strada draws inspiration from many sources. “It’s very easy for us to get excited and inspired by a lot of stuff,” Lattis says. “We see a lot of shows together and listen to music on the road together. Our influences, despite their diversity, gel with ease. Our car ride could be anything from Joanna Newsom to My Bloody Valentine to Steely Dan to Claude Debussy.” Craft cites influences from classical to hard rock to world music, with Bach as his first musical crush. Vocalists like Jeff Buckley, Robert Plant and PJ Harvey also inspired him. “She’s a worker,” Craft says of Harvey. “Her albums are artistic visions. No bullshit.” Press names The Beatles, France Gall, Deerhoof, Ennio Morricone, Caetano Veloso, Ponytail, Nino Rota, Randy Newman and Jens Lekman, to name a few. “I listen to a lot of modern and free jazz, and my favorite singers/songwriters/bands include Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Tom Petty, Peter Gabriel, The Beatles, and lots more,” says Miller. “Since joining La Strada, I’ve been getting into a lot of bands currently on the New York (and elsewhere) Indie scene and it’s been pretty exciting to hear all this new music. I love listening to everything except crunk and reggaeton, I think.”

In the two short years of their existence, La Strada has been given a residency at the Living Room (after their very first show as a band), and played multiple performances at Sound Fix Lounge, Union Hall, Mercury Lounge and the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The band’s self-titled EP was released in February 2009 on the Ernest Jenning label, and recorded by the group and producer Alan Zapata at various locations including apartments, the band’s practice space, and an amphitheater at City College in Harlem. La Strada is preparing to record their first full length early this summer.

Having hit the ground running, La Strada is making all the right moves to turn their passion into a profession. With the music business in constant flux, “success” is a loose term.

Press: “Success for any band should hopefully be finding a way to make music that is fulfilling and enjoyable. Whether that’s playing to thousands of people or just ten people or just for yourselves. I write for fun. I’m not trying to accomplish anything other than having fun making music… I think the music industry is crumbling, but I have a theory that when musicians are struggling to make enough money just with music they turn out better art. So maybe it’s a good thing.”

Lattis: “Keeping your goals ambitious but close is a good way to stay motivated. We’re constantly setting new goals for ourselves and the next one is a kickass full length. In a way, we’re already successful because we’re making music that we love, performing and recording it. Of course, making rent money would be pretty great, too… The industry may never return to its glory and perhaps shouldn’t. We were fooled into thinking for a long time that $20 was a reasonable price for a CD. As long as music has an audience, there will always be a little money somewhere.”

Miller: “Success would be gaining a national and international audience, selling albums, and making a good living playing the music we love to people who enjoy listening to it. It’s hard to say where the band will be ten years from now – hopefully still going strong and evolving creatively… The music industry isn’t crumbling – there will always be changes in media, and the smart businesses will adapt. I love that we have more and more easy access to great new music, and that it’s so much easier for musicians to make good sounding recordings and get their stuff out there.”

In the meantime, La Strada is excited to travel and bring their music to as many live crowds and new ears as possible, particularly as they embark on a tour of Canada with the Bowerbirds in May. La Strada has played all over the U.S., with memories of late night drives through the rain, sketchy fast food and southern hospitality. “On the final night of our recent Midwest tour, in Lexington, KY, we were invited to stay in a plantation style house on this beautiful horse farm in the middle of nowhere,” Miller recalls. “It was quite surreal after cramming seven band members into single hotel rooms for a week.”

If La Strada stays the course, they’ll soon see the walls of those hotel rooms begin to expand.

With openers Gunfight!, Phil and the Osophers, and Kittens Ablaze, Miracles of Modern Science will headline the May FEATURE SHOW on May 14 at Public Assembly!

Stop everything you’re doing right now (not including reading this!) and direct your web browser HERE, where you will see the bottom half of a very famous face. By clicking on this grizzly jowl, rejoice in the knowledge that you have embarked on the downloading of the FREE Miracles of Modern Science self-titled four-song EP. Seek out the best headphones available, put them on your head, and listen carefully to “MR2,” “Eating Me Alive,” “Luminol,” and “524.” Remain where you are, not checking your email, taking phone calls, or leaving the house until next Thursday, May 14, at which point and time Miracles of Modern Science will infuse these sounds you have come to know so well with lightning and fire: the gift of life. There will be songs! There will be strings! There will be sweaty men in silver spacesuits! There will be miracles of modern science.

Hanukkah is upon us (almost) and even though I’m not Jewish, I plan on celebrating the Festival of Lights this year. With a little help from the Shmaltz Brewing Company, at Barcade this Thursday Dec 18 and Barrette this Sunday Dec 21, I’ll “lighten up” with some He’Brew “Jewbelation 12” (pictured), a new release from Shmaltz celebrating the brewery’s 12th year, and brewed using 12 malts and 12 hops.

Aside from Jewbelation, Barcade’s “Winter Beer Night” also features a number of other enticing brews, including the transcendent Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout (a personal top 10 favorite) and a slew of other top notch winter/holiday brews.

At Barrette, the age old battle between Christmas and Hanukkah will be settled, as three Shmaltz brews — Jewbelation, Bittersweet Lenny’s R.I.P.A. and Barrel Aged Messiah Bold — go up against three Christmas ales — Captain Lawrence Nor’easter, Penn Brewing Company St. Nikolaus Bock Bier and the Anchor Steam Christmas Ale. And as if this wasn’t enough, the event is apparently also a burlesque show.

I’ll bring my buddies Eric Schwortz and Gabriel Levitt out to Barrette. They’ll enjoy the St. Nik. I’ll enjoy the Jewbelation. We’ll all enjoy the burlesque. And for the briefest of moments, peace will reign over the earth…