Albums: My Solo Project, Our Constant Concern, Team Boo, Bring it Back
Source: OC Mix 6, cover of "California"
Owns Real Estate: New York (previously San Francisco before they decided the East Coast is where it's at)
Sounds Like: No one else, and their website makes that clear
Learn More: website, myspace, amazon (now with PepsiPoints), iTunes
Pure Joy. That's what these songs sound like. They sound like they love the unique sounds they make with 1970 Yamaha Electone and Gretch Round Badge electronic organs, drumsets, and vocals that skate right on the edge of harmony and synchrony. They sound like they love the fact that they get to create and perform music for a living (after quitting their jobs as a teacher and cancer researcher). They sound like they are crazy in love with each other. And what do you know? They're married and by all accounts enjoying every minute!
Their whirlwind romance is a story for another blog though, today I'm only going to concern myself with their music. I was drawn to MOS by their cover of Phantom Planet's "California," a beautiful harmony of male and female voices set to forlorn piano and flowing organ in a slow tempo that makes it easy to forget the pop culture phenomenon this song usually evokes. So I bought their latest album, "Bring it Back," and was wildly/pleasantly surprised to hear fast, dance-paced songs. Kori Gardner's voice alone is worth listening to, it's the voice of that gorgeous yet sweet girl that drips with sincerity and always has a heart-melting smile. She takes things to new heights in every song, switching from loud, high, sustained notes to light, soft, staccato bits in 'Like U Crazy.' And while I admit to having a mild crush on her (sorry Kathryn), she's found her match in Jason Hammel, at least musically. Though he's usually at a range where most grown men would wobble and crack, he's as smooth as Frank J. Zamboni's product. The two never sing solo for long; the duets are rarely complementary, rather they frequently diverge to disjointed styles and span separate octaves. A favorite trick of theirs is to start together and then split into unique strands scrambling around each other until finally colliding. It at times feel like barely controlled chaos, one wrong note and the whole thing would fall apart and sound atrocious. When they perfect this it's damn catchy, I really think "For the Actor" best exemplifies this and is my favorite off the CD.
It's not all moon-eyes and eating off each other's spoons. Many of their songs are more mellow and incorporate a no-frills piano melody and much more sobering lyrics. The music gets more serious in "Think Long" and "Nature & The Wreck" and the love they sing about grows more mature and reflective.
Good luck catching them on tour, they just had a kid and haven't posted any tour items since October 2005.
They invited fans to submit their own, home-made music videos and choose the following to be their official video for "Goods (All in your Head)"
[Chris' Insertion]
If you want to download a few songs for free, the folks over at daytrotter have a few live tracks that you can read about and grab here.
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