It’s always nice to receive lovely ditties in the ol’ Knox Road mailbag, you know? You probably don’t know because you don’t often look at said Knox Road mailbag, but let me assure you: it’s always nice.
Anyway! This is a song, “Grand Opening,” by Elephant Parade, a duo who will be playing SXSW March 19. The song stays lo-fi throughout — the band records on freeware and a “cheap plastic chat mic” — but as things such as plinking keys and string arrangements enter the mix, the song becomes more and more endearing. Add a pretty, shoegaze-y female voice on top of it all, and baby, we got ourselves a stew goin‘ nice song.
The band’s second album, Home, will be self-released in April.
Delightful, the female vocalist has a Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura) quality to her voice.
Sixthofmay Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
“Delightful, the female vocalist has a Tracyanne Campbell (Camera Obscura) quality to her voice.”
Yup! I’m a huge CO fan (12 times live now) and I love Elephant Parade too.
And I love the Brittle Stars even more so than Elephant Parade.
Grand Opening has a lot of the traits of the Brittle Stars sound. And it should, since Estelle, the female voice of Elephant Parade was the lead singer for the Brittle Stars. 🙂
The Brittle Stars were so good, David Skirving and Tracyanne Campbell (by way of David’s excellent California Snow Story project) took notice and covered the Brittle Stars’ song “This Trip”, which was released on the Shelflife “You’re Still Young At Heart” compilation. It’s the only song California Snow Story released with Tracyanne singing, but CSS’ EP and album have delightful fem vox as well (look up Suddenly Everything Happens, one of the most perfect twinklepop songs ever).
I’m hoping a few more tracks on Elephant Parade’s new release are like Grand Opening.
And maybe the Brittle Stars will do one more “last show ever” (I was at the Popmayhem reunion show in May 2008, and will never forget it). 🙂