SEE IT LIVE
JezebelMusic.com October Feature Show @ Public Assembly
October 8, 2009 | Young Boys, Sleigh Bells, Vandelles, Telltale

[All images copyright 2009 Rez Avissar]

Here are some of our shots from the JM.com Feature Show last month. Tonight, check out the November Feature Show with Home Video, Dead Heart Bloom and Heads Up Display.

Young Boys

More on JezebelMusic.com October Feature Show

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
I can’t help it, there’s something about surf music that’s always felt very wholesome to me: I think of Colgate smiles and a healthy flush from the California sun, shiny surfboards and shinier cars. But don’t let the surf label fool you like it did me: The Vandelles are fun, but they’re sneaky too…let’s not forget that they also draw their aesthetic from film noir and fifties spy movies. And The Vandelles’ music isn’t pure sunshine, it actually can be quite dark…let’s not forget that those surf riffs are just a frame over which they pile layers of noise. Even in their live show the band is often intentionally obscured by projections and crazy lighting – but it’s these aural and visual, even biographical layers that make them all the more interesting. I sat down with drummer Suzanne Pagliorola, bassist Lisha Nadkarni, and guitarists Jason Schwartz and Christo Buffam last week at Satellite Lounge to prepare myself for what’s in store tomorrow night when they play the JezebelMusic.com Feature Show.

JM.com: How did you get started? I read that you were two different bands, right?

Jason: The thing is, don’t trust anything we say because nothing is officially true. We’re probably the only band that’s honest about the fact that we just lie about everything.

Suzanne: Everything is a web of lies. Tell her the real story. Come clean.

Jason: Well, we met at school. Initially Dave and I – Dave who was one of the original members – started playing together with some demos that I put together in high school. I found Sue online through Facebook.

Suzanne: I’m convinced that they were completely messed up when they wrote this message.

Jason: No way.

Suzanne: It was this incoherent thing like, “You like The Jesus and Mary Chain, and you go to my school and also you play drums! Do you want to be in a band?” I was like, “I really don’t have anything to do, so I guess so.” I went to go meet them and I was like,“they seem a little scary” so I brought my boyfriend at the time. We went to their house and they were terrifying.

Jason: That’s not true, we were barbequing!

Suzanne: You guys had some Pink Floyd video on the TV like blasting.

Jason: Oh yeah.

Suzanne: And then you started playing and my boyfriend grabbed me and was like, “You are not going to be in this band.” And I was like, “yes I am!”

Lisha: I was friends with Sue in college and she tried out for the band and was like ,“Hey come be in this band with me we need a bassist.”

Suzanne: Our old guitar player ended up quitting. He’s still our really good friend and kind of an auxiliary member. So we had played a show in Boston with his [Christo’s] old band and we were like, “Oh we’re really hungry,” and he was like “I will take you to an IHOP.” So then when we needed a guitar player it kind of fell into place because we were like, “What about that dude from the IHOP?”
More on The Vandelles

FRESH BAKED
in NYC
The Vandelles
Del Black Aloha
2009 | Safranin Sound and Design / Spoilt Victorian Child
C+

Del Black Aloha is Greenpoint alt rockers The Vandelles’ latest effort. This twelve song LP put out by the Safranin Sound and Design collective, and Spoilt Victorian Child in the UK, is the first full length to come from the group, and the record stands to strengthen The Vandelles presence in a Brooklyn scene that has given surf ’n’ reverb revival bands like Vivian Girls and Crystal Stilts nominal success. Del Black Aloha is analogous to Vivian Girls’ Everything Goes Wrong and Crystal Stilts’ Alight at Night in that each song conforms to the band’s cultivated aesthetic and promotes a singular trademark nostalgic reference. The most obvious nostalgic aesthetic that Del Black Aloha references is the scorching distortion and melodic vocals that The Jesus and Mary Chain conjure up on Psychocandy; it’s not reprehensible that The Vandelles sound like Jesus and Mary Chain. It is more a question of their fashioning of a consistent sound that seldom varies. Every track on Del Black Aloha has a comparable sound and structure – in other words, every song has the same haircut. And this is what causes Aloha to flatline. Each song seems to either lyrically or sonically reiterate the previous. Yet, the end product is respectable: a solid pop record for a band with a growing following.

Del Black Aloha’s quizzical name is actually quite referential to its sound: tunes of alternating equatorial sunbeams and thunder cracks. The sucrose songs, “Die For It Cowboy” and “Blue LA Strip,” have sweet I-IV-V chord progressions with white noise distortion. And the tempestuous numbers, “Lovely Weather,” “Roving Rex,” and “Going Downtown,” maintain sharp fuzz and harmonies, gritty minor thirds in the bass, and stomping drums.
More on The Vandelles | Del Black Aloha

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC

Over the course of the past five years or so, The Vandelles have come to command their own corner in the local music scene. They occupy a territory that covers the Pulp-rock stylings of early Jesus and Mary Chain colliding with a sandy island of slinky hula riffs and harmonic dissonance. The bands roots are in New Brunswick, where they formed during their college years, from the members of two separate bands. Soon after, they found themselves playing in Texas with The Black Angels, but have since relocated to Brooklyn. They emote California style to the max, like a beached orphan of X, making their eastern seaboard ties all the more remarkable.

The band features an all-female rhythm section, the girls bashing out thunderous riffs while two gents squeal feed-backing solos, all set to tropical-themed rear projections. They take all of the beach vibes of a Ventures record and run them through a static cracked sound wave, adding a gleaming finish to their vintage approach to both songwriting and sonic allocation. They come on like a hazy dream, full of just the right amount of nostalgia to get the senses up and running.

Their first EP grabbed them an MTV spot, as well as countless live shows, including a pre-SXSW southeast tour that brought them through seven different states and culminated at the Austin Pych Fest. The band even found time to record during their out of town stint, and after many shows in both the Northeast and the Southwest, The Vandelles are ready to venture forth with their first full length record, Del Black Aloha. You can also buy their self-titled debut EP on Safranin Sound here in the US.

The band just played a smashing live set at Cameo Gallery in Brooklyn. Look for them next time in the city at Club NME@The Annex on Thursday June 18th.

by Gordon Sharp

MTV Subterranean Short on The Vandelles: