MPLS Weekend Showcase Forecast (1/21/10)

Hello, and welcome to the first installment of MPLSWSF here on +Cat. I will be doing my best to keep you informed of the noteworthy local shows on a weekly basis, and reviewing releases from Minneapolis/St.Paul bands. “What do you know about the shows that I should see?” You may ask, and if you fall into that category of the questioning skeptic, you’ll just have to trust me.

The Starfolk/Typsy Panthre Lemon Lime Ep

Cover

The Lemon Lime EP is a release from a group of people whose past musical endeavors (The Owls, The Hang Ups) have been staples in Minneapolis music for years, and it’s clearly a step in an interesting and evolved direction. This short and sweet release (sitting pretty at just over twelve minutes) features two hopeful new projects: The Starfolk (comprised of Allison Labonne, Brian Tighe, Jaqueline Ultan, and Stephen Ittner.) and Typsy Panthre (Allison LaBonne, and John Crozier). Though Allison LaBonne can be considered the driving force in both projects, you’ll be hard pressed to find many similarities in the music itself.

The release opens with the Starfolk’s dreamy popscape “Into the Clouds”, which draws you steadily in with a uniform thumping rhythm guiding LaBonne’s haunting yet enticing melody. The song has many quick ups and downs rising from the sparse, nearly bare verse to the energetic chiming keyboards and crunching guitars of the chorus. “Into the Clouds” carries you to tipsy Panthre’s first song on the EP “All Fall Down” with a good taste in your mouth and an expectation to hear something odd. Typsy Panthre delivers the odd with their airy instrumentation and the swing of the drums that keep your head and feet in motion. The encapsulated sound can be closely linked to Portishead, but the song remains fresh with the reverb drenched vocal melodies that change on a dime.

“Wake Up Machine” follows with a sharp and dirty dissonance that tightens your chest, but it releases as soon as it grabs you. The cello is what is really shining in this track, sliding through the tense chord progressions, perhaps to dull the edge a bit. The melodies are simple, and sometimes dry, but overall it’s a wonderfully different tune to listen to.  Closing the EP is “Hitchhiker”, another Typsy Panthre track, but this one is drifting away from the soft ambiance of “All Fall Down”.  It movies closer to 21^st century discotheque, with throbbing drums and quick arpeggios (I think I might have heard some lasers shooting across my speakers).  Though “Hitchhiker” might be reviving a bit of the past that might want to stay good and buried, it still has an energetic and fun attitude.

Overall the Lemon Lime EP is a smart and interesting release that shows great promise for both new projects.

3.5 out of 5

http://thestarfolk.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thestarfolk

Showcases this weekend:

Tonight: History Books CD Release Show with Red Fox Grey Fox, The Farewell Circuit, and Friends of the Ams @ The Entry/ 8:00 pm / 18+ Thursday 21st $5

No related posts.