LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
I caught up with folk duo Christy & Emily during their show at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn this past Saturday. It was more sparsely attended than it should have been because their set was awesome, and, hey, they play fun games that involved passing a mini disco ball around the audience until the music stops, when the person touching it answers a question with a subjectively right answer decided upon by Christy and Emily. They asked, “You live in a three story house. Where are you more afraid to go, the attic or the basement?” The correct answer was the basement, inexplicably. Also, the girls mentor six underserved high school women in music and song creation, all of whom performed as the opening act. Below, Christy & Emily discuss the girls in the viBe SongMakers program, keyboards in Germany, and the Vietnam War.

JM.com: So, do you guys do projected visuals with every show?

Emily: Brock Monroe does them and he came and did our record release at The Stone, also. He had all this water he was using and made this giant mess all over the floor. I think that was the first time.

Christy: Well, we’ve done stuff at Secret Project Robot, and he does stuff there. That’s really how we got started because Secret Project Robot has their Mighty Robot Visual squad and they have a lot of people who are our friends and they do that stuff really all over.
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THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Our top picks. Sorry it’s a little Saturday-heavy this week.

THURS, JAN. 21

Darlings, Lonnie Walker, Motel Motel, Gunfight
Union Pool
9:00 PM, TBA, 21+
When I think garage pop in 2010, I immediately think drunk and rowdy, but Darlings are sweet; their songs remind me of early sixties California beachy stuff, except they sing about eviction and TV. Darlings also stand out from other summertimey garage out of Brooklyn because they eschew that veil of fuzz that everyone’s been wearing. Don’t crap out yet if you think they sound too saccharine for you – Darlings let themselves get hoarse-voiced and even a little angry with songs like “If This Is Love,” and the contrast is fun.

SAT, JAN. 23

viBe Songmakers, Christy & Emily, DJ Marcelle & Kid Millions, Pterodactyl
ISSUE Project Room
8:30 PM, $15, ALL AGES
ISSUE Project Room has an awesome program where Brooklyn teenagers learn the skills they need to become successful musicians. Only four to six girls are accepted each year, and Christy & Emily are mentoring this program’s group of girls. They take music lessons, business classes, and video editing courses, besides of course writing and recording their own music, which they’ll be performing. And man, they’re performing alongside quite the lineup!
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ART OF SONG
Christy & Emily
“Lover’s Talk”
Superstition
2009 | Big Print

Open up the toy box of your mind. Lift the heavy lid and slide it back, and since this is probably something that hasn’t been opened in years, give the dust some time to settle. Take out the Legos and teddy bears and toy guns (are those even allowed anymore?) and put them aside. They’re not what we’re looking for.

There should be a little box, down towards the bottom. You probably never played with it because, in all honesty, it’s a pretty shitty toy. But you should pull that box out now, and, again, since it’s been years, give that key on the bottom a couple of twists.

Open it up. Do you hear that familiar tinkly refrain? Do you see that little ballerina in her tiny tulle tutu endlessly turning? Yes, I made you pull out your old music box. But I had a reason.

Brooklyn duo Christy & Emily must have had that exact same music box. The one you and I and everyone has hidden somewhere. And I think they might have been listening to it when they started writing “Lover’s Talk”. Because it sounds like music box music reimagined by an indie folk band. That’s the metaphor today. Write it down, there may be a quiz later.
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