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May 17, 2006
when pity turnes into genuine affection
Avey Tare and Kria Brekken - Untitled 5 (Live at the Stone)
Avey Tare and Kria Brekken played a tiny show at the Stone in the middle of last month: brand new songs, mostly acoustic guitar with some piano accents, sweet and laidback. Kria Brekken is another (stage) name for Kristin Anna from Mum (she's credited on "Feels" as 'Doctess'), and to revisit a topic that Sean StG brought up the other day, she has a singing voice that reminds me of Joanna Newsom, in some respects- Kria's voice is bright and pretty but whispery, and has a strange edge to it, a kind of sharp way of pronouncing certain letters and words that I think might have more to do with her natural accent than with any kind of affectation in her vocal style. Listen, in the second verse, when she sings, "there are stars in our water/there is night all around/I take a sip and it tingles/you take a sip and you smile/then we dance around", while Avey Tare provides some complementary toe-tapping and wild hums that unfurl into tongue-twisted non-words. I really enjoy the songs that these two performed together because they seem so casual and effortless (like much of what Animal Collective does) and Kria's voice really provides such a nice contrast to Dave's- I hope they manage to record this stuff sometime in the near future (if they do, I guess look for it on Fat Cat).
This recording (which is just about studio quality anyway) comes courtesy of Bryan from Alias Pail. Bryan runs a beautifully designed and extremely well-written website, and has made a number of fantastic recordings of Animal Collective shows in the past. You can check out his original post about the Avey Tare + Kria Brekken show right here, watch some video clips he made, and listen to the concert in its entirety (the rest of it is just as good and includes an amazing cover they did of Christopher Smither's 'I've Got Mine', from his "Don't It Drag On" album). Go check it out.
Posted by Kevin at May 17, 2006 12:42 PM
Comments
i really like her voice but i'm actually really bugged and unimpressed by Mr Tare's weirdo accompaniment.
Posted by: Sean at May 17, 2006 05:08 PM
I can see where you might not like Avey's back-up vocals on this one, he's kind of squealing at parts- but the songs where he sings the main vocal are pretty great.
Posted by: Kevin at May 17, 2006 07:47 PM
Kev, your title for this post reminds me of G.Greene's _Heart of the Matter_ which I'd like you to peruse when you're finished with _Amos Berry_.
Posted by: Sean Barry at May 19, 2006 01:20 PM