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St. Vincent is the band of singer-multi-instrumentalist, Annie Clark. The 23- year old is a veteran guitarist for two musical armies, The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven's touring band.
'Marry Me', St. Vincent's debut record, will be available on Beggars Banquet July 2007 and on it we see a smartly crafted deluge of guitar, bass, and beats pulsing forward with warmth and immediacy alongside Annie’s classy soprano. Her lyrics can be weird or tongue-in-cheek or dead serious, capturing verily what it feels like to be 23 years old in America and caught up in the delirium of love blues and wartime blues and the various swashbuckling adventures of existence.
Horns and strings cry out brassy and full-bodied over digital keyboards. Songs rock out vigorously, break down into squiggling post-noise-rock deconstructions, roll out mellow and slow-flowing as a river. Backing harmonies and kiddie choirs loom in the distance, rise, and lilt above the stately grandiosity. And she keeps good company. David Bowie’s longtime pianist Mike Garson shows up on two songs, as does Brian Teasley from Man or Astro-man but, mostly, it’s just Annie, a multi-instrumentalist for a new era.
Main support are the wonderful Fireworks Night ; a London based six-piece equally enamoured of good old folk music, more contemporary noise bands and many of the spaces in between. Essentially they play simple, lyrical songs that are expanded by sometimes beautiful, sometimes brutal layers of guitars and keyboards and highly imaginative drumming.
Violins, saws and ukuleles also join the fray to make a sound that can be as tender at times as it can be visceral at others. They can be funny and they can be deadly serious and while some songs may drone like early Low, others stomp in a fashion reminiscent of Weill. Their album ‘As Fools We Are’ is out now to critical acclaim.
"Awesome". [Time Out]
"These are brooding torch-songs. As the seconds pass, guitars pick up pace and rumble, cellos weave and minor piano keys initiate waltzes through endless dark nights." [Plan B]
"A spooked, luminous dreamscape of skeletal drum patterns, riotous klezmer flourishes and witchy, folky influences… a band with imagination to spare." [Metro]
"Beautifully executed folk-noir." [Musicweek]
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