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Event
LILY & MADELEINE
LILY & MADELEINE - Nobody expected Lily & Madeleine's first original song, "In the Middle," to rack up a quarter of a million YouTube views. The Internet is obsessed with what's new and what's next, the fads and memes of viral culture, and so it would have to seem a little incongruous for social networks and content aggregators to embrace gimmick-free, black-and-white footage of an unplugged duo crooning a bittersweet and understated melody.
But there's something inherently incongruous about the music of Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz, a pair of slight teenagers with singing voices this assured and worldly. Their first EP, The Weight of the Globe, sounds like something out of another age, not the work of a pair of sisters born less than two decades ago. No wonder that, on the strength of their viral video performances, Lily & Madeleine managed to sell out the first two live shows of their career, and enlist the help of Asthmatic Kitty Records.
Their songs are the product of two distinct musical personalities. Madeleine, the older sister with a light, smooth singing style, leans towards folkier, singer-songwriter fare; Lily helps lean the duo towards its gentle rock edge, and has a dark, earthy voice to match. But their voices blend into seamless close harmonies, created with the natural ease that could only come from a pair of musicians who have known each other literally their entire lives.
ELIZA RICKMAN - There is always a hint of menace and reservoirs of force haunting the corners of Eliza Rickman's voice, whatever register it occupies. Her presence on stagewhether she wears flowers in her hair, or stuffed birds; whether she plays a Schoenhut toy piano or a grand pianois an enveloping, soft darkness, impossible to ignore. It is quite a surprise that Rickman didn't even realize she could sing until after she earned a degree in orchestration from Azusa Pacific University, because her voice is the most enthralling and salient feature of any on the tracks from her new album 'O, You Sinners'. And this is saying something, considering her deftness as a pianist and her subtlety as a composer. Like Kate Bush's work, or like PJ Harvey's album 'White Chalk', the arrangements on 'O, You Sinners' are edged with dissonance. Like Andrew Bird, she favors pizzicato strings over junkyard percussion and complex lyrical melodies. Indeed, Rickman's co-producer Mark Greenberg is a frequent contributor to Bird's albums (as well as to Wilco's 'The Whole Love' and to the Grammy Award-winning Mavis Staples's album 'You Are Not Alone').
Religious themes pervade Rickman's workher album is, after all, titled 'O, You Sinners'. She is the daughter of a pastor, and started playing piano in church at the age of 13. But like one of her great influences- Nick Cave- her writing belies ambivalence about religion. Good and evil; love, both God's love and carnal love; sinners and saints; desire and repentance, all find a place in Rickman's songs. They lurk behind the scrim- whatever stage she sets. The coin of her realm is stamped with the will of God, and whether you are a doubter or a believer you must deal in her currency if you want her to ferry you ashore. "O, you sinners" she sings, "hear me." And how could we not listen?
SHANNON HAYDEN - "As a young cellist studying with the best teachers at renowned music schools possessing the necessary skill to easily navigate some of the most difficult repertoire written for the instrument, there would be every reason to play it safe, try to catch a break and perchance enter the slowly shrinking world stage of classical music. Taking the usual path toward a predictably formulated outcome, however, is not something everyone does well. It is almost certainly not something that Shannon Hayden does at all well. At least that's how it would appear. In terms of what might have been expected of a musician with her training she has taken what some may consider to be no less a detour than the musical equivalent of running off with the circus. A sort of one woman three ring circus where the high wire act doesn't use a safety net. Forget what you ever thought you knew about cello performance. While watching her perform on an 1800's cello coupled with more electronics and amplification than some metal band with a stolen credit card, Shannon comes off like someone who has completely thrown off the confines of a traditional course of study to embrace a more avant garde and raw style of playing. Or has she? Between occasionally heavy outbursts it is easy to be lost in a lush delivery of sonic candy as she weaves simple elements of popular and current styles into her musical ideas, but she can't hide that "hours spent in the practice room" technique as she almost casually executes the kind of extremely difficult passages few would attempt even without simultaneous pedal and computer manipulation.
Shannon may be walking away from her roots at the conservatory but she certainly is not running. Puccini and Brahms might find something familial in her compositions even if they are wrapped in a colorful, updated package influenced at times by everything from Japanese noise punk to minimalism. Only rarely offering up "covers" her shows feature all original works of her own design that owe their origins more to expanding the range of the cello than to any particular genre. Whether she is playing a coffeehouse, a bar or the occasional swanky gallery the crowd is made up of people in suits as well as those who got there on a skateboard- the kind of people who don't want to go see their local symphony (if they still have one) pay the bills by playing backup to the guy who had a couple of hits back when we were all in third grade. There are some young musicians out there who, for a number of reasons, can make you feel really good about what you are listening to and Shannon Hayden is one of them."
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LocationQueen Bee's Art & Cultural Center (View)
3925 Ohio St.
San Diego, CA 92104
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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