SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY
CD release show for Teenage Moods
SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY
Originating as a trio based in Madison, WI, Sleeping in the Aviary has evolved into a Minneapolis, MN, quintet including Elliott Kozel (vocals, guitar), Phil Mahlstadt (bass), Michael Sienkowski (drums, backing vocals), Celeste Heule (accordion, keyboards, musical saw), and Kyle Sobczak (guitar). All the members have roots in southeastern Wisconsin, and have been playing music for a decade and more in a near-countless number of bands and one-off projects. Those varied experiences and experiments have resulted in the bouillabaisse of sounds offered in their discography: from the power chord-fueled pop-punk of Oh, This Old Thing? (2007), to the mostly acoustic indie-folk of Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel (2008), to the soul-influenced pop of Great Vacation (2010).
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"It's got a fuzzed-out doo-wop feeling, and all the songs are about girls!" says Kozel, describing the band's fourth full-length album, You and Me, Ghost, released by Science of Sound Records on September 6, 2011. "It's like Dion and the Belmonts with a hangover trying to figure out how to use a Big Muff pedal, or the Everly Brothers beating up some kid in the bathroom of a high-school gymnasium and then feeling bad about it later." In the ever-expanding musical universe that is Sleeping in the Aviary, asking what they're up to now will often reward the questioner with an unexpected response and be accompanied by some great music, genre boundaries be damned. For You and Me, Ghost the band's sound takes on the influence of an earlier era but still sounds undeniably like Sleeping in the Aviary.
BUFFALO MOON
Four-fifths Midwestern, one-fifth Latina, we are Buffalo Moon from Minneapolis, MN, USA. Congregating haphazardly under a common admiration for traditional samba, Brazilian psychedelia, and American rock and roll, our band formed in 2009 to flesh out the songs of our lead singer, Karen Freire. Shoddy equipment in tow and with little to no direction, our early shows nonetheless caught the attention of a cold-climate music scene looking for something tropical.
TEENAGE MOODS
The basement of Psychic School is, at least for the time being, off limits. After an unusually rowdy weeknight concert for the Teenage Moods, the house's lower level is a mess. There are holes punched in the ceiling; a bass amp leans sadly on only three wheels; and even the Christmas lights don't work, leaving the room in darkness and virtually impassable. "It was a different crowd than normal. Usually if it's all our friends, no one's punching holes in the ceiling," says drummer Taylor Motari, without any hint of malice.
MYSTERY PALACE
There's no guide or manual for what Mystery Palace does, no easy clockwork formula hidden in the Minneapolis-based trio's agenda. Sequenced electronics-plus-live instruments offer a tough enough row to hoe on their own; when the former come from a pair of heavily circuit-bent Yamaha mid-pro keyboards, opportunities for disaster multiply exponentially.
