Shenandoah Ableman has the rare ability to turn any genre into sexy time. Comfortable singing in front of styles ranging from German cabaret to doo wop, her quintet Shenandoah and the Night are bringing sexy back... one sultry style at a time. The band's new self-titled debut EP showcases this sensuality with deep confidence, but the best way to really feel the heat is to see the band live. Along with Melati Malay, Electric Child, Beast Make Bomb, Yankee Bang Bang and 5 hours of other up and coming female fronted NYC emerging bands, Shenandoah and the Night will be playing as part of the Deli's Best of NYC Fest May 28 at Spike Hill - this will also double as their EP release party. Their next show isn't scheduled until July, so show some love and come on out. - Mike Levine (@goldnuggets)
We've always been big fans of Luke Temple, and it's good to see that, together with the Here We Go Magic crew, the man is keeping at it with increasingly beautiful records and videos. The band's new album "A Different Ship" (stream it here) will be out on May 8, and betrays at least a partial return to Luke Temple's more intimate and melodic sound from his solo repertoire - in this regard, lend a ear to "Hard to Be Close," "Alone but Moving" and "Over the Ocean". This is welcome news for fans like us who always thought that in most HWGM material Luke's noteworthy songwriting skills seemed a little sacrificed on the altar of textural experimentation. This doesn't mean that the band's signature hypnotic, impressionistic sound is lost - it's just that these two elements work together better than they did in past records, and this is what makes this album one of the NYC highlights of the year so far. Indeed, this collection also features songs more in line with the band's past releases ("Make Up your Mind", "I Believe in Action"), which follow on the steps of brainy-pop icons like Brian Eno and The Feelies, but there's definitely a balance here, also betrayed by the almost perfect alternation of melodic songs and less traditional ones.The just released video of "How Do I Know," telling the story of a rejected dancing robot that ends up revitalizing an older man's appreciation for life, seems to reflect on this brain/heart, mechanic/organic dichotomies and somehow bring them to unity. - PDG
