Feature: Carissa's Wierd we miss you

This article kicks off a series of features on some of uberpingpong's favourite bands. Unlike many, we aim to delve deep into their backgrounds and come back to the surface with something more than just knowledge and an expanded understanding of what makes them tick. More precisely we will pull out new music they have influenced or that they have gone on to make. Sounds complicated hey? Well trust us, all will become apparent...

Carissa's Wierd: We miss you

In 1995 the US city of Seattle was suffering from a nasty hangover. The city’s music scene for the 10 years prior had been all flannel shirts, long hair and grunge rock. But calmly, in the back streets of rock-central two like-minded individuals Mat Brooke and Jenn Ghetto were creating something that was to be the complete antithesis of the mainstream grunge rock sound. It was almost as if what they were playing existed specifically to sooth the hangovers of these grunge heads who had been jolted by the death of their leader Kurt Cobain one year previous.

They called themselves 'Carissa's Wierd' (deliberately misspelled). The band's line-up changed throughout its existence but mainstays in the band-included violinist Sarah Standard, drummer (and later bassist) Ben Bridwell, drummer Sera Cahoone, drummer Creighton Barrett, and keyboard/accordian player Jeff Hellis. And with song titles like 'Ignorant Piece Of Shit', 'Farewell To All These Rotten Teeth' and 'Sofisticated Fuck Princess Please Leave Me Alone', described by Pitchfork as 'coke-fuelled' and also being the band that single handedly kept the Seattle tattoo trade in business over the years, it was this name and image that gave the fair impression that they were little more than a Sonic Youth-esque garage punk rock band.

So you'd be very surprised when you actually hear Carissa's Wierd. Their plaintive, melancholic music won over many who were fortunate enough to be exposed to it. They embodied the very tag 'emo' (this was before it was cool and way before it became uncool). With dour balladry which was more beautiful than weird with its lush violins, pianos and delicate vocal harmonies, you'd be even more surprised that their music would have been at home on any episode of the O.C. (the bit where Ryan and Marissa split up, again, and patch up their differences just in time for the closing credits sitting on the beach at night). The band released three albums before their 2003 breakup, the final of which 'Songs About Leaving' contained an odd stateliness to its intimacy. The whispers, the solemn processional pace and strings aplenty. They had that expert ability of building to the highest highs before plunging to the deepest of sub-aquatic depths. This was pure emotional music (in the same sense that someone like Bright Eyes is 'emo') but it was incredibility beautiful.

Carissa's Wierd: Sympathy Bush (live in Seattle)


That album 'Songs About Leaving' was a modest success in the Northwest, topping many critics charts and leaving fans hungry for more. The band existed as a real underground cult act within their hometown and became local heroes. For one reason or another their success never spread wider a field and in late 2003 they disbanded. This premature death meant they were never able to fulfil the potential they would have undoubtedly been destined for.

However, it was not all bad news. From the broken pieces of Carissa's Wierd emerged a number of great new acts!

Band of Horses


Co-creator Mat Brooke and bass player Ben Bridwell went on to form the fabulous Band of Horses creating uberpingpong’s favourite album of 2006 Everything All The Time (on Sub Pop) - a true masterpiece. Sera Cahoone (also ex-Carissa's Wierd) played the drums on the record. The band are currently recording long-player number 2 and touring the globe later this year.


www.bandofhorses.com
myspace.com/bandofhorses


MP3 download:
Band of Horses: Funeral [from Everything All The Time LP] (Sup Pop)

Band of Horses: The Great Salt Lake [from Everything All The Time LP] (Sup Pop)

S
Following the band's breakup, other co-creator Jenn Ghetto went on to pursue a solo project under the moniker S. Continuing the legacy of vivid titling to her records her second full-length record Puking and Crying Ghetto collaborated with Creighton Barrett (also ex-Carissa's Wierd) and Josh Wackerly, to create a collection of dark and hauntingly intimate songs. Described by her label Suicide Squeeze Records as “organic even with the strange electronics, drum loops, blips and clicks involved. Puking and Crying has an up-close feel to it, a direct look into the songwriter and quite possibly could have been made distinctly for fans of Björk who need fewer theatrics, lovers of Belle and Sebastian longing for less posturing, and admirers of The Postal Service who aren't afraid to get a little dirty.”

MP3 download:
S: Falling [from Puking and Crying LP] (Suicide Squeeze Records)


Sera Cahoone

Carissa's Weird drummer Sera Cahoone started her own eponymous solo project that was also released on Sub Pop. The album Sera Cahoone unveiled a hauntingly beautiful country sound complete with heavy pedal steel and banjo.

Steam tracks from Sera Cahoone here:
myspace.com/seracahoone
seracahoone.com


Archives

Mat Brooke who left Band of Horses shortly after their debut album was released last year has recently formed this new Seattle-based act Archives. There are currently two very encouraging demo’s in circulation, one of which is called ‘Sleepdriving’ which closely echoes the two songs Brooke contributed to the Horses' debut (‘St. Augustine’ and ‘I Go to the Barn’) but as Pitchfork described it “boosting the volume, piling on vocal harmonies, and building to a massive, upending crescendo.” The other track George Kaminski a melodically beautiful flowing track could equally be one of the new Band of Horses tracks, its similarity to Carissa's Wierd is also uncanny.

Both Sleepdriving and George Kaminski are available to download now here: myspace.com/archivesusa

So, Carissa's Wierd, cult legends in their own right for having a uniquely beautiful and quiet sound which was still somehow tough at the same time, were undoubtedly special. Sure, we miss them but it was only after they disbanded that we began to witness the long-term musical importance of this band through the acts that have emerged from its original members. The results are both diverse and in a similar vein but what each member has retained in their music is that unique air of emotional beauty that Carissa's Wierd were known for (by those in the know).

You can hear more of Carissa's Wierd here:
myspace.com/carissaswierd
and
myspace.com/carissaswierd2

Post-SXSW: Unknown bands to know

So, the lovefest between those jammy freeloading journo's and music industry moguls that is South By South West is over (can you sense the bitterness... can you? I didn't get to go but instead watched Pitchfork each day and dreamed. However, if I had gone I'd have missed a rather special Arcade Fire gig at London's Brixton Academy, a review of which will follow at some point, so its not all bad).

Anyway, you could trapse round blog after blog finding out the bands that were apparently on the tips of all those Austin located tarts tongues last week (getting bombarded with cheap advertisting banners in the process) or just read my list below. I have kindly edited out the shite for your listening pleasure ! Oh how good of me hey! I have also included a few who should be checked out regardless of whether they were @ SXSW.

myspace.com/whiterabbits
myspace.com/russiancircles
myspace.com/annuals
myspace.com/deerhunter
myspace.com/thesounds

If you like Band of Horses check this shizzle:
myspace.com/arbouretum
myspace.com/builttospill

Or maybe a more poppy sound?
myspace.com/waltermeego
myspace.com/playradioplay

If you like TV On The Radio (sorry i forgot... who doesn't ?)
myspace.com/apes

The next Metric? (...lazy labeling because they are from Canada and girl singing sounds like Emily?)
myspace.com/landoftalkmtl

You like that noisy electro sound? (yeah... i could see myself gurning to this off me tits @ fabric!)
myspace.com/shoutoutoutoutout
myspace.com/crystalcastles

Iron & Wine: A new album on the way!

That man that induces beard-envy in every young hippy Mr Samuel Beam aka 'folk' act Iron & Wine has announced the tracklist to his new long player The Shepherd's Dog today.

This will be the follow up to one of uberpingpong's favorite albums of 2004 Our Endless Numbered Days. Mr Beam then delivered a 7-track stunner with Calexico in full band mode entitled In The Reins in 2005. Check them out if you haveny already because man they are waiting!


The Shepherd's Dog will arrive in September (thats just in time for my birthday, hint) and the tracklist looks like this:

1. Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car
2. White Tooth Man
3. Lovesong of the Buzzard
4. Carousel
5. House by the Sea
6. Innocent Bones
7. Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)
8. Resurrection Fern
9. Boy With a Coin
10. The Devil Never Sleeps
11. Peace Beneath the City
12. Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Start rumors now that the first single will be Boy With a Coin and that it will arrive slightly before the album, and that a tour will be announced soon-ish. I for one can't wait.

MP3 download:
Iron & Wine: Naked As We Came [from Our Endless Numbered Days] (Sub Pop)

DNTEL: The new Sub-Pop release to watch out for

April 24 marks the release of an album which has apparently been 5 years in the making. Jimmy Tamborello aka DNTEL has pulled in a few favors from more than a few indie living-legends to create Dumb Luck a 9-track extravaganza. And its the first DNTEL album to be released by those beautiful people at Sub-Pop. I wanna work there so bad!

The album features guest spots from: Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley), Edward Droste (Grizzly Bear), Valerie Trebeljahr and Markus Acher of Lali Puna, Mia Doi Todd, Grant Olsen and Sonya Westcott (Arthur & Yu), Andrew Broder (Fog), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Christopher and Jennifer Gunst (Mystic Chords of Memory). Chris Hathwell (Moving Units) plays drums throughout, and Paul Larson (The Minor Canon) adds guitar as well. PHEW!

Kinda like Lampchop, kinda like Sigur Ros, kinda like Sparklehorse... kinda like good!

MP3 download:
DNTEL: Dumb Luck [from Dumb Luck LP] (Sub Pop)