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wednesday, may 12, 2010, 5:54 am saving the world from bad music since last wednesday. WEDNESDAY | ARCHIVE | PEP SQUAD | MAILING LIST | GEAR | REQUEST LINE | ROCK DOC | CONNECT |
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brooklyn based sleigh bells
formed in 2008 when derek e miller (songwriter, guitars, beats, producer) was
waiting tables at a brazilian restaurant alexis krauss (vocals) and her mother
visited. derek mentioned to alexis that he was looking to form a duo with a
female vocalist. upon hearing this, her mother immediately volunteered alexis. derek is a former member of the florida hardcore band poison the well, and during her teenage years alexis, most recently a fifth grade teacher, was in the girl group rubyblue. sleigh bells however, doesn’t sound hardcore or girl group-ish. in fact, their rhythmic, beat heavy songs were written in derek’s bedroom while working on his laptop. “their songs are built around a pretty simple premise, alexis plays the part of hipster diva over the top of derek’s hyper-compressed beats and squealing guitar lines,“ said matthew martell. “volume is a big deal for sleigh bells. every single song constantly sounds on the verge of clipping. when most bands push their recording levels into the red, it’s a sign of amateurishness, but with sleigh bells decibel-overloading is a legitimate trait of their singular sound.” upon forming, the duo gained quite a bit of positive attention from the new york times and pitchfork, among others. pitchfork named their song "crown on the ground" the 57th best track of 2009. not bad considering that they hadn't yet released an album. the band released their debut lp, treats on itunes, may 11, 2010. the cd and vinyl versions will be available june 01, 2010. click here to listen to treats in it's entirety. click here to listen to march 18, 2010 sxsw gig recorded by npr. click here for an abc amplified story. click here for a levi's fader fort interview. click here for their youtube page. don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website. check here to see if sleigh bells have any gigs scheduled near you. as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand). incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states. that my friend, bites. sleigh bells are not just for holidays. if you agree, please spread the word (about the band and this site). don't worry if you missed the local natives profile from last week: here it is.
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