Fans of cutesy indie rock, rejoice. Bishop Allen, Throw Me the Statue and Darwin Deez will grace Washington with their presences tomorrow night at the Black Cat.
Brooklyn-based Bishop Allen — the headliner — made its foray into the limelight with a short performance in the 2008 flick Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. The band is made up of Justin Rice (vocals and keyboards), Christian Rudder (string instruments) and various stage and studio collaborators. Rice and Rudder formed Bishop Allen after experimenting in a hardcore punk band called The Pissed-Officers. The pair’s genre metamorphosis may seem strange, but Rice said in a phone interview the music of the two bands is similar melodically.
Like indie-pop band Chester French, the two are in a rare class of rock musicians who attended Harvard University. Their Harvard breeding is reflected in their sources of inspiration; Rice said the essays of 19th-century writer G.K. Chesterton influenced him while he was working on Bishop Allen’s latest and third full-length record Grrr…, released in March.
The album’s title reflects the playful nature of Bishop Allen’s music.
Frontman Rice said that he “started out with the idea of [Grrr…] being really percussive, kind of like chattering teeth.”
With lyrics that include “Books to shelf, and foot to shoe/ And likewise I belong to you,” Bishop Allen’s songs are whimsical and earnest.
Rice said he imagines people “dancing, doing dishes, jumping rope and eating ice cream” while listening to his band’s music.
Incorporating instruments such as accordions, maracas and xylophones in the mix, the record is unique.
In addition to playing music, Bishop Allen’s core members have dabbled in acting and are continuing to work on new projects. They each appeared in films by director/writer Alex Bujalski; Rudder starred in Funny Ha Ha (2002), and Rice starred in Mutual Appreciation (2005).
The pair’s experiences in film translate to the quirky aesthetic of the band’s music videos.
The video for “Click, Click, Click, Click”— a song from the 2007 album The Broken String — is a mind-boggling masterpiece. The video’s photographer character holds up pictures of the band against a white wall, faster and faster until the rotating photos create the illusion that there is a motion picture of the band playing. The effect is reminiscent of a flipbook.
The video looks as if it required a significant time commitment.
“The director of that video [Randy Bell] is a friend of mine that I’ve worked on with a bunch of stuff,” Rice said. “I think we both believe that to make something that we like, film-wise, there has to be a certain amount of suffering. Suffering’s all part of making something good. So when you’re watching it, you’ll be like ‘Damn! This must have sucked to make.'”
The beautiful, indie-verging-on-pop melodies of Throw Me the Statue are a fine complement to Bishop Allen’s twee tendencies. The Seattle-based band caused waves in the indie world in 2007 with its debut album Moonbeams. Two years and a label change later, Throw Me the Statue is going on tour to promote its new album, Creaturesque — released in August.
Throw Me the Statue’s founder Scott Reitherman said that compared to Moonbeams, the mood of Creaturesque “is a little bit less rambunctious, it’s a bit more composed, a little more mature I guess, for lack of a less awkward sounding way of describing your own record.”
“Creaturesque is a little more full-bodied,” he added. “It has a rhythm section playing on it. … You hear the different players on the album more this time. It’s just recorded better and has a little more fidelity to it.”
Although Creaturesque is more subdued than Moonbeams‘ sometimes hyperactive expressions of sunshine-infused joy, it still fits in Throw Me the Statue’s niche of the mellow yet catchy music. The Seattle-formed band definitely has an organic, West Coast feel compared to its tourmates, Bishop Allen.
Throw Me the Statue has been touring the United States with Bishop Allen and the up-and-coming four-piece, Brooklyn-based hipster-pop band Darwin Deez since Oct. 27.
“It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity that we’re lucky enough to have the chance to do, and I take that very seriously,” Reitherman said. “I think it’s amazing to tour.”
Catch Bishop Allen, Throw Me the Statue and Darwin Deez at the Black Cat in Washington on Nov. 19th at 8 p.m.
mwildman@umd.edu
