Mad Tracks on The Daily Page
by Tom Laskin

MadTracks -- 'On the Bus' by Elliott Kozel She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde by Elliott Kozel

The Elliott Kozel of Sleeping in the Aviary and Elliott Kozel the solo artist are very different animals. With the former, Kozel careens through inspired pop tunes that are by turns ramshackle, anarchic and sweet. As a solo artist, he paints in far more muted colors.

Lo-fi alt-country-folk lopes easily toward the hazy horizon, atmospheric sonic experiments envelope Kozel's quavering voice as a few piano chords or an echoic sonic filigree blur the line between aural collage and deliberate composition. On his own, playing all the instruments and singing all the vocal parts, he's more surrealist than ash-can pop-punk. "On the Bus," one of the dreamiest pieces on his dreamy debut solo She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, is a light psychedelic smear of wan harmonica, quavering guitar, brushed cymbals, whooshing sound effects that suggest a rolling thunder storm and, most important, Kozel's narcotized, half whispered vocals.

In some ways, the tune recalls Calexico and even Madison expat Carl Johns. But Kozel's definitely exploring personal musical mysteries, too. In fact, like a lot of the album, "On the Bus" is so hermetic it's meant to convey much more than the absurd lightness of being.

An MP3 of the track are available in the related downloads at right. More music by Kozel on She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde can be found on its MySpace page.

BiBaBiDi.com
by Nik Mercer

Way up in college town of Madison, Wisconsin resides a neat little indie label called Science of Sound. The collective could be compared to K Records or Marriage Records or something. Originally, SOS was formed by Terrin and Ricky Riemer so that they could release their own music, but it's branched out to become a "real" indie label. Very quaint and very worthwhile. You can check out some samples on the MySpace page.

Anyway, the artist that stands out most for me is this twee folk-pop singer named Elliot Kozel, although he goes by the length moniker of She Is So Beutiful/She Is So Blonde when recording. The self-titled bedroom recording comes with the usual story: it took a long time to create and produce (four years for Kozel), it features a formidable stylistic range, and the album was by no means the only project the artist was working on during the creative process (Kozel is in the "spastic-pop trio Sleeping in the Aviary, which released its debut LP in February this year, and spent several months touring).

That being said, the music is wonderful and certainly not by-the-book (if you could call any home produced pop album such!) There's a crispness to all the songs, an unusually high quality of production and crispness to the instruments and vocals. Though there's certainly a looseness to the style ... a sluggish folksy tendency shines through many songs, a more energetic and hopeful one in others ... Truly one of my favorite albums of this variety, certainly one of my top for the year, although there may be no sophomore effort ... Sleeping In the Aviary seems to consuming the bulk of Kozel's time!

Isthmus/The Daily Page
by Tom Laskin

With Sleeping in the Aviary, Elliott Kozel tumbles through garage-incubated indie rock that's by turns poppy, snotty and appealingly unhinged. It's geek-rock with guts, and it's little wonder that members of the music press and the blogosphere who actually listen to the stuff they receive from small, unheralded labels based in terra incognita like Madison, Wis., have singled out lead mouth Kozel for praise.

It's likely the same outlets will appreciate the sweet bejesus out of She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, albeit for entirely different reasons. This is quite literally Kozel's bedroom band and disc. He wrote the songs and recorded all the instruments there over a four-year period, and it has the groggy feel of dreamland. I guess you'd say that standout cuts like the wistful, Neil Young–meets–Smog mood piece "On the Bus" and the keyboard-dappled lamentation "Piano Room Blues" are folk-rock. But this is hardly a typical singer-songwriter affair. For the most part, Kozel mumbles and keens in middle space as glockenspiel, harmonica and what sounds like echoed slide guitar tinkle and whirr around him. The result is psychedelia for people who can't stand paisley and lava lamps or references to walls dripping with candy-coated sunshine.

The Devil Has The Best Tuna Blogspot
by The Devil

I've often wondered how important time and place are in the enjoyment and appreciation of music. If I'd first heard Joy Division while lying in the sun on holiday on a hot Saturday morning rather than late at night on a tinny transistor radio followed by the dulcet tones of John Peel eulogising them would they still mean so much to me or would I have dismissed them as miserabilist doom mongerers and loaded my walkman with Duran Durans latest album with renewed relish (it's torture even to merely speculate!)?

Well this week I tested this theory and listened to the forthcoming album by the exotically monickered She is so Beautiful/She is So Blonde, the solo project of Elliott Kozel guitarist of Sleeping in the Aviary (first featured on the Devil's blog back in May 07, click here to read more.), whilst slowly sipping a Caramel Machiatto in the Starbucks in Bold Street, Liverpool. Yes I am fully aware that Starbucks are evil and my soul has been corrupted just by spending time in there but there is no coffee in the world that can match a Starbucks Caramel Macchiatto and how can the Devil's soul get any more corrupt?!!.

So anyway back to SISBSISB's self-titled album, which has been over four years in the making, and my theory on the relevance of time and place in the appreciation of music. After about half an hour spent listening to the usual Starbucks mix of plastic soul and faux authentic and self confessed deep and meaningful singer songwriters I slipped on my headphones and was immediately transported to a world where music is produced for its artistic merit rather than to adorn the walls whilst uninterested people sip their slightly bitter tasting beverages in plastic cups.

SISBSISB's album has a shambling, messy, laid back folk vibe (maaaannn!! I'm beginning to turn into a parody of myself, is this normal?) with a slightly sinister undertow, kinda like a crystal clear pond full of piranhas. One track ('Biography') is accompanied by the sounds of a female who could either be in the midst of a particularly great orgasm or being tortured by a sadistic serial killer (not being able to tell the difference possibly accounts for my lack of success with the female of the species (that and the fact that I'm happily married!!)).

Elliott has created an impressively engaging, Sunday morning album that ranges from the sparse acoustic side of Smog via the gothic dream pop of This Mortal Coil to the spacey soundscapes of Califone and The Microphones . This is one of those albums that rewards repeated listens continually surprising with subtleties easily missed on first hearing. Having time to luxuriate in this album made me appreciate it's subtle textures and intricate patterns and confirmed my long held belief that time and place do have a key part to play in the enjoyment and appreciation of music.

She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde will be released November 6, 2007 on Science of Sound so go check it out. Just don't forget that time and place have a part to play in how you'll feel about the album.

It's The Money Shot
By Joseph John Sanchez III

SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE is the solo project of Elliott Kozel, the guitarist of Sleeping in the Aviary. Much like Cars and Trains, this is exactly the type of music I like. But in a totally different way.

I want to call it "atmospheric" but any time I hear that word describing music, it turns me off more than a herpes-ridden vagina dentata. Which is a lot. So to save you from such trouble, let me just tell you a story about this album:

Once upon a time, I received three packages. One contained several promo mixtapes. Another contained an album by an extremely offensive white rapper with a weak flow. And then there was She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, a self-titled album by a member of a band I already knew I liked. Given that my iPod/CD boombox had been stolen by my older sister so she could play Wonderpets for my nephew while he falls asleep, I had no way to play this disk. So I stole my shit back. Sewiously.

I suppose I could have just listened to the CD on my computer, right? Wrong. I was stuck in my basement cleaning off a shelf full of jewel cases from albums I have purchased since I was 13 years old. This process reminded me of looking through a stack of elementary school yearbooks-- reminiscing about how something so stupid meant so much to me back then, regretting my mistaken purchases, and reveling in the music that guided me through my teenage years. As I pushed aside my water-logged liner notes to Sisqo's *second* album Return of the Dragon, it suddenly occurred to me-- the music playing behind me was perfect for this moment. I savored it. And then I had to pee, so I paused it and listened to more later. THE END.

After several listening sessions of She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, I came to a conclusion that it was an amazing album for doing things. This is incredibly vague and makes it sound as if I am accusing the album of being nothing more than fabulous background music, but no. I actually feel a need to do things while listening to this album...it's like my personal aural adderall. Is that weird?

She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde will be released November 6, 2007 on Science of Sound. Perhaps it will make you want to do things too.

The Onion A.V. Club
- Scott Gordon

"The turbo punk-pop songs of Sleeping in the Aviary can be tough to digest in their own way--is the band trying to give us a catchy good time, needling us, or both?--but singer-guitarist Elliott Kozel makes them sound positively straightforward with the self-titled debut from his solo project, She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde. This collection of 11 home recordings wanders through cluttered and often fascinating brainspace, from patient folk numbers like "Played Your Guitar" to the electronic creepiness of "Crimes (Gutter Scent)." It's easier to see the personal side of Kozel's songwriting when removed from SITA's flustered spectacle, especially on 'Waiting Room Blues.'"

75 or Less
by Mark

This member of Sleeping in the Aviary presents a collection of songs far removed from his punk rock meal ticket. There's the Califone-ish "Tied to the Sound", with drugged-out whispers over acoustic guitar strums. The track "Days" is what Black Rebel Motorcycle Club desperately wanted to be when they "rediscovered" faux gritrock a few albums back. These are atmospheric sketches of mid-fi pop—vocals either buried or high pitched wails—whether it's banjo, harmonica and toy xylophone or the pounding sampled drums on "Crimes".

An interview with Elliott by Adam McKibbin of The Red Alert

Three Imaginary Girls - Live Show Revue from Abbey Lounge in Boston
I biked over to the Abbey Lounge for a show I'd been waiting weeks for: Madison, Wisconsin's Sleeping in the Aviary. I loved their record, Oh, This Old Thing?. Sometimes you see a band live and they just don't live up to the expectations you have from hearing their recorded works; not so with Sleeping in the Aviary. They exceeded my expectations, delivering a fiercely energetic set that included most of the songs off the album plus a few others. They hardly took a breath between songs, much like on the album, and singer Elliott Kozel danced around in socks while bassist Phil Mahlstadt hopped up and down. Drummer Michael Sienkowski impressively kept the raucous beats while singing backup, and on one song lead. The whole thing was wicked awesome, as we say here in the Northeast. Incidentally, I asked Elliott how Maureen feels now (a reference to the song "Maureen" in which he repeatedly sings "Maureen doesn't like me anymore!"), and he says that she and Phil have patched things up. Awwww...
— Betsy Boston
Slugmag.com - April 2007
Sleeping In The Aviary = The Vines + The Strokes + Weezer + a pinch of Ima Robot
The guys in Sleeping In The Aviary are sloppy, but, it’s a good kind of sloppy. Oh This Old Thing? is 13 tracks in 23 minutes. I almost wish this was a live album to see if the band could really race through all these songs that fast. The highlight of this sloppy noise is definitely Elliot Kozel’s spastic, carefree vocals. His voice is reminiscent of the reckless abandon of Frank Black or Serj Tankian. At times it seems that Kozel might just snap before the end of the song arrives. The music is as dirty as garage power-punk can get. The band has mastered several different feelings inside of these 13 tracks-meandering slow songs (“Sign My Cast”), quick 48-second bursts of noise (“Face Lift Floats”) and bouncy pop sings (“Lanugo”). There is enough variation on the album to keep you entertained and in the quick time that it begins and ends, you wish that the time hadn’t gone by so fast.
— Jon Robertson

Strangest review yet: FLYING THE CUCKOO’S NEST: SLEEPING WITH THE AVIARY AWAKENS THE SENSES

Sleeping in the Aviary Take Flight Through the Blogosphere

Oh, This Old Thing – Sleeping In The Aviary
Hailing from the City of Madison in the great state of Wisconsin, Sleeping in the Aviary whips up stomping, stuttering indie rhythms and attitudinal garage pop over the course of 23 minutes and 13 songs. There’s not much here that you haven’t already heard done by plenty of other bands on the dive circuit but rarely have you heard it done with so much promise or unapologetic authority. There are clues to the band’s depth and intelligence amid all the raw power – “Sign My Cast” owes as much to Nick Cave as it does the mellowed-down Violent Femmes; “Lanugo” could be an outtake from the second Strokes album – thought violent, affably arrogant punk reigns supreme, especially in the Replacements-esque “Only Son” and “No Socks.” This band has more to offer than perhaps even it realizes and should it stay in the game long enough to make one more record and another after that we may all be in for a wild, fun and occasionally heartfelt ride.
— Jedd Beaudoin, Wichita City Paper, March 22, 2007

Three Imaginary Girls, Album Review March 2007
In fewer than 25 minutes, Sleeping in the Aviary's Oh, This Old Thing? establishes the band as a viable contender for the Next Big Indie Thing. The Madison, Wisconsin trio's Science of Sound debut is flat out exciting — like riding the Gravitron at the carnival (minus the subsequent urge to vomit). The sound is at times reminiscent of bands like The Libertines and The Vines, filled with driving rock 'n' roll but also offering moments of delightful pop melodies ("Gloworm") or Art Brut-style calamity ("Maureen").

The one-two punch of openers "Face Lift Floats" and "Pop Song" is brilliant. The former perfectly launches the album's raucous lo-fi pop-punk pulse, and then with hardly a breath the latter kicks in, complete with hand claps, do-dos, yeahs, etc. "Another Girl" follows, still maintaining the velocity while toning down the pop, only to be re-initiated with "Gloworm," which winds down to nicely segue into the first ballad, "Sign My Cast" — a magnificently strong song where singer/guitarist/main songwriter Elliott Kozel's gut-wrenching delivery of the lyrics, "Is it safe to touch your broken arm" make you sorta almost start to choke up a little. But then comes "Maureen," one of two songs penned by bassist, in which the only lyrics, "Maureen doesn't like me anymore!" are repeated eight times in a fast-moving high-pitched wail.

"Drug Suitcase" is great fun, with a chorus of "Oh, your body's nice but your mind is a joke" that gets stuck in your head (I mean, who can't relate?). By this point, Elliott has fully sold you on his mastery of the punk vocalist technique. Next comes "No Socks," the second track penned by Phil, the raucous "Only Son," and the poppy "Lanugo," which would serve well as a lead single thanks to its terrific versatility — as much as it is pop (with bops and ba-da-da-das), it also continues the lo-fi rock vibe. "Love Song" follows in another instance of perfect song pairing; the equal-parts pop-punk/lo-fi-rock/emo ballad is one of the album's strongest numbers due to its sheer genre-bending ingenuity. "Getting Thin" brings it all to a climactic near-finish, culminating in a crashing, screaming frenzy that reverts back to quiet-ish for a moment before loudening up again with the lyrics "I'm a doctor trust me trust me trust me!"

The untitled final track, appearing after a brief pause, is a stripped down version of "Pop Song" with only vocals and piano, with an echo as if the recording was done in a cavernous space. It's a lovely rendition that serves well as the album's tranquil signoff, like stretches after a vigorous workout.

Effects and feedback turn up here and there, giving the vocals an occasional Strokes-like muffle or jarring the guitars. Not to be outdone, drummer Michael [last name unknown] provides a solid and inspired beat throughout the stellar album, freshly placing beats and drumrolls where you don't expect them. This is one of those bands whose recorded sound is so thrilling, one can only imagine what kind of high-octane live show they're capable of pulling off. Lucky for us they're on tour throughout most of the U.S. this spring. [Um, guys, could you come to Boston please?]
— Betsy Boston, Three Imaginary Girls

Punk News:
The Thermals released The Body, The Blood, The Machine last year to devastating critical acclaim. Few had complaints regarding the band's edgy, ambitiously concocted, throwback pop-punk, but unfortunately for me I found myself in that group. To at least this reviewer the band sounded tired, drained of the spastic, unrelenting energy from 2004's perfectly titled Fuckin A. Amidst all the mouth-foaming of its reception and personal anticipation for the album It was hard to admit that I just...wasn't into it. Luckily, Sleeping In The Aviary's Oh, This Old Thing? serves as a fair substitute for my expectations.

Oh, This Old Thing? is 13 tracks of snotty, fuck-all lo-fi power-pop. "Face Lift Floats" is brief but punctual as the opener, giving what seems like a preview of the next 22 minutes to come, while "Pop Song" bounces along with effortless handclaps and "Another Girl" self-loathes atop power chords. The band spreads a similar nature over the course of these three but branches out a little more upon the trifecta's completion. "Gloworm" sounds like a drugged up Stephen Pedersen (Criteria) is fronting the band, while the lazy "Sign My Cast" is one of a few more gentle numbers. Of course, the 33-second "Maureen" starts the second 'half' in a blast of a fashion, light screams peppering the end of Elliott Kozel's lines. "Drug Suitcase" slams away silly, distorted solos and a short but sweet Jerry Lee Lewis piano 'riff' to close. "Only Son" even throws a bit of Jello Biafra-style yelps and slurs in the vocals for good measure. And then out of nowhere, tucked at the end is an untitled piano ballad; it's actually pretty pretty.

Sleeping In The Aviary's debut might be a little top-heavy but it certainly deserves points not only for style but variety, managing to capture the listener's interest for the majority of its quick duration. Familiar, sure, but it also nearly fills a void that was left sorely open for me in 2006.
– Brian, PunkNews.org

The Isthmus:
It’s easy to get down when your band plays the same rooms in the same small city to the same crowd. Some acts break up or move on when the walls begin to close in. Others hunker down in the basement or a more sophisticated purpose-built studio and start recording.

Sleeping In The Aviary, the Blueheels, Droids Attack and the hip-hop duo Horton the Irrelevant & August the Creep all embraced the latter strategy last year. Their high-quality new CDs underscore how important getting your ideas down on hard disc is to musical growth.

On Oh, This Old Thing?, Sleeping In The Aviary prove that pop pulchritude and punk frenzy are always a winning combination. Whether singer Elliott Kozel is setting the hook of the too-brief “Gloworm” with his best impression of a vaudevillian warble or the whole Aviary crew are tumbling headlong through the full-scale guitar-bass-drums freakout that is “Drug Suitcase,” the result is always irresistible.

Lots of acts have done the shabby-but-sweet, punky-but-accessible thing over the years. In fact, I can’t drop the laser on this album without recalling how, in the late ’70s, both the Swell Maps and the Only Ones wandered away from punk and New Wave to clear out a space for bands that like a full measure of melody with their madness. (More recent cognates would be Nirvana, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Strokes and clinically out-there screamer/crooner Craig Nicholls of the Vines.)

But just because Sleeping In The Aviary aren’t unique doesn’t mean they’re not outrageously gifted. They are. I can see “Gloworm,” the snotty anti-love song “Another Girl” (as in: “I’m always thinking of another girl”) and the bouncy Kinks-style dance-hall vamp “Lanugo” all being embraced by the star-making U.K. indie audience.

If you like your production artfully scratchy and your pop tunes creatively messed up, Sleeping In The Aviary should cream your burn. It’ll be interesting to see if their upcoming tours of the U.S. get the kind of press attention they deserve.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus

The Isthmus- MadTracks, “Another Girl”:
If you can't get behind Sleeping In The Aviary's chaotic cause by the time the youthful trio reaches the sharp, ecstatic "Wooo!" that neatly bisects "Another Girl," you're probably an irredeemable stiff. Or maybe just an envious hater. Because this is the kind of crazed, effervescent bass-drum-guitar confection that banishes the cares of a crappy day to the small, dark room where they belong.

At just under two minutes, this track from Oh, This Old Thing? is almost too short. It gets to happy land quickly, though, and layers on just enough bird-flipping insouciance to keep you guessing about whether chief mouth Elliott Kozel is "Always thinking about another girl" because he's uncertain about love or because he's certifiably ADD.

Toothsome pop that blends equal amounts sugar of and snot? Hey, it's the best kind. More of this brand of Valentine's candy, please.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus, MadTracks

The Shepherd Express
Madison’s Sleeping in the Aviary calls up the sound of London, circa 1978, specifically, a high-speed collision of Wire and the Buzzcocks, with echoes of the early Kinks. Their songs are short, serrated, sonic jabs, all catchy choruses and arresting hooks, powerful guitar crescendos and Anglophile accents. Oh, This Old Thing? flows dynamically with enough down-shifts from the furious punk tempo to give the ear a rest. Oh, This Old Thing? is the debut album from a band we hope to hear more from in the future.
– David Luhrssen

www.splendidezine.com
www.pastestore.com
www.babysue.com
www.junkmedia.org
www.pitchforkmedia.com

the isthmus
by Al Ritchie
A Thought Process
(Science of Sound)
www.hisandhervanities.com

When last we heard from the Vanities, the Madison now-wavers were warming up the Barrymore Theatre for the red-hot Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and let me tell ya, the kids up front were diggin' 'em). They've been pretty quiet in the six months since, though, with Ricky and Terrin Riemer (the eponymous power-couple at the core of HHV) taking time off to add both another tiny Riemer to their household and a second CD to their discography.

This 10-song disc marks a confident step forward for HHV, as the band's driving, danceable rhythms and angular, Devo-esque melodies are brought into even sharper focus. In particular, Ricky's guitar leads chime, clang and roar like a symphony of metal-stamping tools, while the whole band infuse the catchy "Notapartablurb" with an extra steroid boost. And for a welcome twist, splashes of early-Pink Floyd psychedelia color the soft-toned "Field Fire".

More so than on their debut, there's a discernible sense of warmth coursing through this album. It's a subtle, largely indefinable quality, but one that strongly suggests the Vanities have come into their own.

Emmie Magazine
“…A Thought Process, marks a new His and Her Vanities; a less experimental, more comfortable song-writing entity, one that’s begun to place the raw power of guitar, bass, and drums at the foreground, and glitchy electronics at the back. Every arrangement is so creative, every song a work of surprising ingenuity…” – Jared Harvey

Rick's Cafe
by Patrick Stutz
The release of His & Her Vanities' second CD, A Thought Process, should indicate to critics that the title given to them at the Madison Area Music Awards as "Best Punk Band" last March was not taken for granted.

The musical team of Ricky and Terrin Riemer returned to their basement recording studio, Science of Sound, two years ago to begin toying around with the new project. With the help of Mike Zirkel at Smart Studios and musicians Matt Abplanalp and Sara Winkelman, the couple emerged with a CD that sounds as impressive as their first release, but with more of an edge.

A Thought Process still has Vanities' post-punk feel and the quirkiness of an indie band, but the drumming and bass on this disc are much more dominant than on their previous release. From the beginning of the album, it is not difficult to hear the band's musical influences, such as vintage Devo and the Pixies, come through.

"Moving Forward", the first song on the disc, is driven by heavy drumming. The guitar is simple and extemely repetitive, and Ricky's vocal paralleling of the melody at first seems a bit annoying, but then the song really comes together. Towards the end, as the drums' intensity increases, it actually drowns out the majority of the repetition. This annoyance does not occur on any other track of the CD. From the first song, the new wave sound governs the rest of the disc, but the Vanities bring an unexpected treat missing from their first album. Beginning mid-disc, the band starts to incorporate a strong '60s psychedelic tone.

"Field Fire", for example, is the slowest song on the disc and lacks the drumming that is consistent throughout the rest of the tracks. This song maintains a very mellow vibe reminiscent of the Beatles during their drug-infused, Eastern culture phase.

The song "Auto Pilot", while not as soothing as "Field Fire", remains truer to the Vanties' sound and incorporates vocal reverbs that perpetuate the psychedelic tone. This track is actually one of the best songs on the recording and combines most of the elements the band has to offer. The weighty drumming is still present and the guitar retains its quirky patterning enough to be considered new wave.

The band's lyrics are another story. Althoguh Ricky's vocals nicely accompany the band's style, it is challenging to find anything in the lyrics that could be construed as deep or meaningful. Terrin describes the lyric-writing process as a collage of images that are written out line by line. But the lyrics are almost too puzzling to produce any underlying message. The band's real strength lies in their music-writing ability and the sense they convey that they are truly having fun producing an album together.

Even though A Thought Process is a bit hard to take the first time through, it has nothing to do with the band's talent or ability. Mainstream radio so rarely airs anything different these days that when a band that is willing to experiment and try new things does appear, it takes awhile to recognize the brilliance behind their work.

His and Her Vantiies will probably never make mainstream radio, but receive support only from independent or college stations-outlets that are usually more willing to take risks with innovative music.

KFJC 89.7 FM
On-Line Reviews
Thurston Hunger
Debut from Madison, Wisconsin trio on the guitarist’s (Ricky Riemer’s) label. Punchy guitarwork carmelizes this sugar crunchy pop. I hear XTC, Bob Mould, Pixies, Woozy Helmet, Kaito. Shouty vocals are very condensed, (with effects) Riemer and bassist Steven Riches trade duties, often firing lyrics that overlap each other. That helps give this music an insistent feel, along w/ Matt Abplanalp’s racy drums. Actually what Abplanalp does well is to drop out a beat or two sometimes and let Riemer’s guitar whiplash a bit. That’s especially vivid on the last track, which has some sort of nice whammy on that guitar too…and then the faux runout groove to boot. Shake your Lootbag.

The Austin Chronicle
Greg Beets
Madison, Wis.'s Transformer Lootbag sounds like a dangerously unbalanced Ferris wheel translated into pop music. The dexterous trio's proclivity for rapid-fire, herky-jerk dynamics conjures visions of Fugazi coupled with Akron-era Devo. They just released their eponymous debut on Science of Sound.

all music guide
by Gregory McIntosh
While the arty His & Her Vanities owes a great deal of its canon to post-punkers Devo, the spirited recklessness of the Pixies, and even the pre-punk innovators the Monks (via drummer Sara Winkelman's aggressive and tribal tom-heavy approach to percussion), it would be severely unfair to dub the group as a carbon copy of anything. On its energetic self-titled debut, the group dives right into said thumping drums along with droning keyboard under the stoic, almost robotic vocals of bassist/keyboardist Terrin Riemer and pushes through the entire album with enthusiasm and innovative, contrasting workouts. "52 Pickup" summons sharp and elliptical guitar work, layered intelligently by Ricky Riemer, and catchy vocal tradeoffs between Terrin and Ricky Riemer, while "Back 2 Square 1" forsakes some of the tension for a more summery (a dirty summer, make no mistake) melodic approach, which could easily be plugged into one of the many hipster, feel-good Volkswagen advertisements, provided Volkswagen were looking for a gritty image. At times the fidelity is purposely gross (gro-fi, perhaps?), but His & Her Vanities has the ultimate knack for feeding off this to build layers of clever depth that are slowly unveiled over several listens. Whether or not Madison, WI, has realized what an intriguing group it has in the difficult to pin down His & Her Vanities is a question that begs to be asked; however, one hopes the answer is yes and implores the rest of the world to take a minute to listen to an infectious, fun, and refreshing group that simultaneously stands far out from and somehow fits into the scene of the numerous punk and post-punk revivalist bands that dominated indie culture during the early 2000s.

too much rock
His & Her Vanities s/t
Science of Sound CD 2003 - 12 tracks 34:55:00
I'll let you in on a little secret: If you want to be sure I listen to your album, tell me how you've been compared to Gang of Four, Wire, Pixies and Mission of Burma. I used to spend hours on mp3.com or rollingstone.com just searching for bands that listed the above foursome as influences or "similar artists." Why is it, then, that I haven't heard of Madison Wisconsin's His & Her Vanities before?

Now I'll let you in on another little secret: If you trick me into listening to your album by mentioning the above bands, you are, of course, destined to disappoint me. After all, critics generally refer back to those progenitors of quirky post-punk when they're unfamiliar with the more modern similarities that exist between the band in question, and its generally well- established (and derivative) peers.

His and Her Vanities, naturally, fits into the above category. They are reminiscent of any number of recent, post-punk and art-punk bands. Luckily for all (especially me), this self-titled release is far from disappointing.

The creative force of H&HV is the married duo of multi-instrumentalists Ricky and Terrin Riemer. And aside from the more-than-occasional assistance of drummer Sara Winkelman, all songs are written, realized and recorded by the couple. The sound components are simple: angular guitar, bounding (and occasionally, distorted to be abusive) bass, and snapping drums are augmented by whirring synthesizers and trading or overlapping male/female vocals. The band hasn't discovered new sounds, only ingenious ways to combine them.

Jagged vocal and instrumental lines drift in and out of phase in organic accidents, creating songs so thick that the listener has to experience the music rather than digest its parts. Climbing and falling guitar lines howl beside vocal melodies until one or both drop out to reveal the steady roll of a snare. In fact, throughout the album any instrument is likely to vanish leaving a noticeable hole. That moment of exposed winding guitar or bouncing bass serves as an introduction, forcing the listener into a different segment of the song.

It is true that in the darkest moments, such as the Ricky Riemer sung "Alfonzo," the band is truly reminiscent of Magazine and their ilk, but more often than not the distorted hectic cadence of Terrin Riemer's voice backed by disjointed electronic trickery is much more reminiscent of Le Tigre. Furthermore, in the craziest, silliest, poppiest moments, such those in "In a Culture," the band speaks more to Stereo Total.

The band's engaging musical elements are, unfortunately, seldom combined into complete songs – truly the genius of The Pixies or Mission of Burma. And because of this missing structure, their hooks and choruses aren't nearly as memorable. The band, however, chooses not to think in those terms. "Dispatch Elevation," for example, builds nicely to an expected chorus; however, the song quickly becomes vague and shifty, loosing any structured momentum that may have been built. I believe H&HV prefers its songs to be lessons in audience concentration until ultimately forcing the audience to surrender to the chaos that swirls about. My advice: trust the band to take you on their ride.

the isthmus
by Al Ritchie
Obviously, "new wave" isn't so new anymore. In fact, it's now old enough to watch itself play in a bar. But that doesn't mean its punky spirit of invention isn't still rearing its begoggled head in new and intriguing places.

One of those places is the east-side home of Madison indie-couple Ricky and Terrin Riemer, the basement of which is where His & Her Vanities was conceived and its debut CD recorded. The album traipses through everything from Sonic Youth guitars to B-52's vox to the angular rhythms of Wire. Occasionally augmented by playfully loping synthesizers, HHV's left-of-center labcoat rock immediately recalls the quirk 'n' jerk sound of '80s post-punk, yet largely maintains a modern freshness by embracing that vivifying pomo spirit of fun-fun-fun generally reserved for cutesy/spazzy Japanese bands like Cibo Matto and Buffalo Daughter.

A few of the tunes get lost in the candy-like swirl of sonic bells and whistles, but the buzzing, bratpunky "Slowage" and improbably joyful robot-rocker "52 Pickup" are among those that nail the perfect balance of melody and weirdness. And, it seems to me, that's what the best new wave music was always all about.

a common sense
by Jaques Bluett
The eponymous self-titled debut album from the Madison based quartet His and Her Vanities hit the shelves of the finest fringe record stores in the greater Midwest earlier this summer, but the full effect of this band’s angular tunes has yet to be felt by the rock intelligentsia.

People use words like “punk” and “indie”, “no wave” and “no core” to describe this band. I could reverse name drop similar bands like Sonic Youth, Devo, the Pixies, and the Strokes to try to persuade you to listen to the Vanities. But if you were to put all of this data into a computer and spit out all of the permutations of sounds, I don’t think that the Vanities would emerge as one of the “similar artists” in the categories lovingly offered by your favorite media player. However, I could say that I like the aforementioned bands and also like the Vanities, for what that’s worth. But to do so would sell this band short.

The Vanities have put their best foot forward with the first several tracks on the album. At once sexy and mechanical, “Alfonzo” starts up with rave-up beats and a loving robotic voice that tells us about “the processed king". The songs are artistic and evoke fine images, but the songs never veer toward a statement of human apocalypse, which would spoil all of the fun. Instead, the human element of the enigmatic Alfonzo (“looks on fire/with suave attire/and no strings attached/just look at the man”) invites us to party. It’s a confusing party – a game of Twister with Mark Mothersbaugh in a microwave – you struggle to take the keys out of your pockets, but the music invites you to stay with its beatbox that seems to be in a race to the finish with drummer Sara Winkelman. Guitarist Ricky Riemer throws musical confetti while trying to hold you down to fit you with a party hat. At the heart is Terrin Riemer’s just-in-time bass explosions and many-octave vocal interplay with Ricky, which could be the revamped soundtrack to an Atari sponsored “boys against girls” dodgeball match.

“Slowage” has a much more graceful ascent, an eighteen-wheeler in low gear climbing up a steep mountain, humming with efficient engines. The tension wrought in Ricky’s guitar unwinds violently in the chorus as Terrin screams out in red-shifted tones. This is a song of the celestial sphere, something too beautiful to be born from the earth. Too few songs are crafted with the appreciation for built tension and release that this song evinces.

Too nervous to stop in any one place, the songs keep changing cars, putting on fake moustaches, trying to keep a low profile. “The Shocking Truth” is a noise parade with post-punk guitar riffs screaming over the beat from a drum major that demands that you keep in step. The next songs tend to evoke more traditional indie rock tropes that are sure to keep the kids moving. If there’s a complaint to be issued by this reviewer (I know you won’t believe me if I just keep gushing about this band), it’s that we are promised too much in the early part of the album. The tracks that follow are great pop songs with some unconventional hooks, but they can’t match the intensity established in the early going. At the risk of sounding too harsh, I contend that the later tracks fall short only because of the high water mark that this band has already established.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out the band’s website to check for upcoming shows in your area, listen to sound clips, and purchase the album.

core weekly
by Evan Rytlewski
Especially in the local music scene, there's something to be said for quality control. All too often, even the best local artists fall into the trap of releasing countless, indistinguishable albums, flooding an already oversaturated market and scaring away outside listeners looking to explore the local scene.

His & Her Vanities, however, are a local act that shows some restraint. Their catalogue - two full-lenths released two years apart - epitomizes a "quality over quantity" mentality, and they limit the number of shows they perform to just a few every couple of months.

Despite the band's intentionally low profile, the Vanities have cemented a dedicated local and national following, largely through word of mouth. Their self-titled debut album is widely circulated around the internet by fans of quirky rock, and the group furthered their profile with a well-received show at 2003's South by Southwest festival. Although the Vanities have few plans to promote their recently released second album, A Thought Process, the record will likely win them new listeners and create more buzz around them.

A Thought Process fine tunes the sound the Vanities mastered on their self-titled debut. Traces of Devo, Wire and Gang of Four are still tied together by pop sensibilities reminiscent of the Pixies' and the Dismemberment Plan's most accessible work, but this album has a rawer feel to it than their last one. Missing are the layered keyboards and electronics that were a strong presence on the debut, scrapped in favor of a down-to-basics guitar, drum and bass sound.

The change works well. Without the keyboards, their sound is less cluttered and more urgent, and none of the playfulness that made the first album so endearing has been sacrificed.

Like their deubt, A Thought Process was self-recorded in Science of Sound, the basement studio of guitarist/singer Ricky Riemer. Riemer primarily uses the studio to record with the Vanities and his other band, Transformer Lootbag, but the studio could become a real powerhouse in Madison's music scene. Three of the year's best local releases - the latest Vanities album, the self-titled debut of Carl Johns' pop outfit Charlemagne and alt-country sweetheart MaeRae's YesPlease - were recorded there and more should be on the way.

"I'm still reconfiguring some stuff down there now but soon I want to open up the door to more people," Riemer said.

The Vanities will celebrate the offical release of A Thought Process with a show at the High Noon Saloon Saturday, Sept. 4. Catch them now or your might have to wait a couple months before they play again.