Le Diamant Brut: Sleeping in the Aviary & Erin Ivey

ERIN IVEY

What’s the Deal: Austin’s very own classy folk chanteuse is trained, equipped and ready to march on the major air waves. She’s been building a steady buzz in town, playing acoustically, with a full band and even with Grand Hotel, which is her 20s-era swing jazz side project. Her music is sweetly sung, classically grand and aching with her stellar folk pop songwriting. And, if you need the approval of the mainstream tastemakers, go check out all the good things that Perez Hilton had to say about her.

If you check out no other song by Ivey, seek out “All In Time” off her most recent Sweet Little EP. It’s dreamy and emotionally potent with a moaning cello and an eerily gorgeous chorus that could fit perfectly in a particularly sad or fantastical moment in a Tim Burton film. Another one to pay attention to is “Amelia” off the same release. It’s a departure from the style of the previous song as far as this one is much folkier, but it still retains that overwhelming beauty that’s present in the shimmering piano and warm vocals.

Something Interesting: You’ll be able to pick up a copy of the DVD of her sold-out October performance at the Long Center in the next few months, and the set is almost as beautiful as her Ivey league voice.

Other Tracks Worth Checking Out: “Chocolate” and “Climbing Up the Walls”

Erin Ivey Official
Erin Ivey MySpace

Image from MySpace

SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY

What’s the Deal: You might recognize these guys from Austinist’s recent post on the best overlooked albums of 2008. You might also recognize these guys if you were at their Trophy’s a month or so back with The Murdocks and Watch Out For Rockets. If you don’t, then you missed a truly inspiring show. The band overcame some dodgy sound issues and impressed the crowd with their enthusiasm, and by the end of it, the singer had danced and thrashed and rocked so hard that his pants fell down around his knees. Their invigorating brand of art-folk is equally poppy and chaotic. Their most recent album, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, is catchier and more acoustic than their previous, Oh, This Old Thing?, which features some pretty inciting tunes leaning a little more toward a garagey punk sound.

“Pop Song” from Oh, This Old Thing? has a vintage pop sound with its simplistic, infectious nature, but it’s beaming with all the energy of a punk anthem. There are some definite That Thing You Do! moments in between the distortion and loud vocals. Then, when you discover the newer “Write On”, you’ll likely be blow away by the no-cheese, rambunctious folk-pop that you’ll be humming for the next few days.

Something Interesting: Apart from a few live performance videos and music videos on YouTube, the band also has some pretty funny random videos, like this one, which illustrate the band’s bizarre humor.

Other Tracks Worth Checking Out: “Gas Mask Blues” and “Lanugo”

Sleeping in the Aviary Official
Sleeping in the Aviary MySpace