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The Organ
Normally when one thinks of cramming five girls and gear into a van and putting a show on the road, bands like The Donnas, Sleater-Kinney, or even neumetal trainwrecks Kittie come to mind. Brittle, haunting gloom-cookie post-punk pop is the last on the list of expectations, but it's what The Organ deliver.
"If I pay you five dollars would you try to make my band?" Katie Sketch pleads in the opening line of "Basement Band Song," and it's the earnestness of her lyrics and delivery that keep The Organ treading just on the safe side of syrupy. Hearts are fragile, and Miss Sketch offers her own, her vocals wringing the best from Morrissey and Robert Smith, but never falling into the self-indulgence that marked both The Smiths and The Cure. It's this fragile accessibility and faithful rendering of the collective new wave past that garners The Organ's endless (and unfair) comparisons to bands like Interpol and Placebo, but the crispness of The Organ's sparse instrumentation and the clarity of Sketch's voice call to early New Order moreso than to The Organ's contemporary peers.
That The Organ are still working hard in relative obscurity in this era of looking back is what's surprising. With the 2002 release of Sinking Hearts and the 2004 release of Grab that Gun (produced by The New Pornographers' Kurt Dahle), The Organ seemed poised to ride on the wave of New York, albeit on the far western fringe being from Vancouver. But the seemingly inevitable didn't happen beyond steady buzz from the indie-est of indie press, even after tours with The Wedding Present / Cinerama, The New Pornographers, and The Dears. A timely move to Too Pure records, ensuring worldwide distribution in time for renewed interest in almost-goth stylings and what Little Miss Rock'n'Roll likes to call "swirly guitars" could be exactly what The Organ need.
The Organ - We've Got to Meet
The Organ - Brother
The Organ - Love, Love, Love
The Organ - No One Has Ever Looked So Dead
The Organ's official website is here. Buy Sinking Hearts and Grab that Gun from Amazon. The Organ play the Mint Records showcase at Nuno's on Thursday, March 16 and the Too Pure showcase at Ruta Maya on Friday, March 17.
Shadows tags:theorgan.
Posted by Last Girl to the Party at 03.06.06 at 8:30 AM
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