Artist to Look Out For: Brown Bird

BROWN BIRD
by DJ CHIVE

About a year ago, I had never heard of the band Brown Bird. This fall a friend told me that the band is “a couple and plays the kind of folk one would want to make out too.” When she told me I should check them out while I was in New York for CMJ 2011 I was skeptical.

I never made it to their show, but I did download their EP The Sounds of Ghosts and album Salt for Salt the day I got back… And, oh boy, how I wished I had sooner.

Their music is intimate, raw, primitive and electrically charged with the dark acoustic sounds of internal energy. They capture the sounds of turbulent emotion you wish you could act on but know that when you do serious consequences will follow: consequences that you secretly want to hit you full force.

My friend was right. Brown Bird does play the kind of music you would want to kiss someone’s face to, but not the type of music you used with candles to set the mood with your high school sweetheart. The duo plays music you would want blasting as you power through the woods, the cold air biting at your nose and stomping through mud, to kiss that girl who says your no good.

I made sure that I would not miss seeing them live a second time, and, a few weeks ago, I had to opportunity to do so. The night before they played at Hampshire College, Brown Bird had a show in East Hampton, MA. They preformed on a Persian rug in the corner of a tiny, old style, bookstore called the White Square. The bookstore was crowded with people of all types, clearly only gathered together to witness Brown Bird live. I could barely get in the door. The audience was peering over bookshelves, draped over display cases, stomping and clapping. At one point, the band broke a string and had to send a member of the audience to get a new one. In the excitement of the room, I too, did not wanting it to end and it didn’t.

JLA & The Boyz Debut in Northampton

JLA & THE BOYZ . Sept 24 2011
KARMA . Northampton, MA
Kirby Vasquez
For a band’s first official show together, the Green Room at Karma in Northampton is a great location. An intimate,comfortable environment with cool green lighting, Karma was transformed from a restaurant to a nightclub, creating a relaxed environment for Jla and theBoyz’s first concert together. This folk duo is currently composed of Jayme Aronson on vocals andStephen James on jazz guitar, though the group is looking for a drummer and a bassist. While the sound of Jla and the Boyz would be more complete with a full band, they put on a great set as a duo.
The set began with Jayme asking the crowd for three words. Among the words shouted out, Jayme chose “love” “awareness” and “rituals”, and proceeded to improvise a song about the three. The set was comprised of covers and some original songs. Particularly notable was Jla and the Boyz’s cover of the classic song “Summertime,” which featured Jayme’s smooth and smoky vocals quite well. Jayme sites Ella Fitzgerald, Ella James,Ani DiFranco, and Evanesence as her primary musical influences, and these influences clearly resonate in Jayme’s jazzy vocals and poetic lyrics. At times, the show was very reminiscentof spoken word poetry. Stephen, a very talented jazz guitarist, finds his musical inspiration in the Beatles, and even hosted a Beatles themed radio show on his college radio station, BIRN.
Though Jla and the Boyz hail from Boston, they chose to play their first official showin Northampton because of the town’s environment and because it is a greatplace for music. As Jla and the Boyz continue to build on their sound, you should definitely stay tuned to see what they come out with! For more information on this promising band, check out their website: here.
photo courtesy of the artists