Money in the Bank: Heathers

The Story: Here is a duo with the voices of angels, enough to make shivers run down your spine. These girls hail from Dublin, Ireland and recorded their first full-length in 2008 on a Irish label, Hide Away Records. Shortly after that it was released on Planet-X Records in the US. They have toured with Ghost Mice and were welcomed with open arms into the folk-punk scene.








The Album:

I give this album a 10 out of 10. I bought it from them when they played Next Level Shit Fest in Brattleboro, VT and listened to it constantly for a month afterwords. My favorite tracks: Remember When, Margie, Fire Ants, Slices of Palama, and Moose.







The Shimmy: If you don't like folk-punk, you will probably still love Heathers. They layer vocal complex harmonies over simple acoustic guitar. Their songs are both energetic and dramatic and their stage presence is absolutely magnetic.

Watch:

Heathers - Waiter from If You Make It on Vimeo.

Listen:

Myspace

Money in the Bank, 1st Edition

The Books








I've always thought of the music I listen to as my own personal soundtrack to the every day. Conjuring emotions when necessary and making the mundane beautiful, just like non-diegetic background music to a film.

Music For a Film

This is why the Books through me for a loop. I have always allowed my brain to connect the images around me with the music I listen to. However, this band gives you a little bit more to work with. I would like to think of each one of their songs as mini-film that my imagination fills in the gaps to. Samples selected from a hallway record collection give each song a story or at the very least a personality....you get to decide the rest.

Quirky

You could say that this band plays with the sounds of voices as much, if not more than they play with the actual music itself. They love play-on-words (just look at their album titles: "Thought for Food," and "Lost and Safe.") and sounds: the sounds of laughter, of rain, of exclamation, emotional dialog, of foreign language. They slice samples together in bizarre ways, sometimes creating conversations that sound flawless, but incoherent and absurd. Their latest release, "Music for a French Elevator," is 15 minutes long, the majority of it this sort of sound play.

Musicality

Yes its there, and this is why its all worth it. You don't know what to expect from track to track. Sometimes, the music enhances the samples, and sometimes the samples enhance the music. Original vocals are a rarity except on "Lost and Safe," where they are on a mainstay, and "The Lemon of Pink," where they are featured sparingly. Expect strange percussion and acoustic instruments, dramatic build-ups, and eerie low points.

Video

From the "Play All DVD"




Favorite Albums

The Lemon of Pink (2003)
Lost and Safe (2005)

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