Indie Music Universe

St. Vincent is Annie Clark, born in Tulsa, OK, the middle child of nine brothers and sisters. While most little girls were still playing with dolls, Annie preferred crafting homespun guitars from cardboard and rubber bands. She began playing the real thing at the age of 12 and, as a teenager, worked as the tour manager for her uncle's band Tuck & Patti. She was raised in Dallas and attended Lake Highlands High School, graduating in 2001. Growing up in Bible-belted Texas, Clark found music by means of Coltrane records, found people by means of Tennessee Williams plays, and found philosophy by means of her Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, and Meher Baba-loving family. All of this finds its way, with smirks and reverence, into her music.

After high school, she went on to attend Berklee College of Music, before dropping out 3 years later to join The Polyphonic Spree.  In 2003, during her time at Berklee, she released an EP with fellow students, titled Ratsliveonnoevilstar.  Clark joined Sufjan Stevens' touring band in 2006, bringing with her a tour EP titled Paris Is Burning. It contains three tracks, including a cover version of Jackson Browne's "These Days".

Clark released her debut album, Marry Me, July 10, 2007 on Beggars Banquet Records. Named after a line from the cult-hit television show Arrested Development, the LP features appearances from drummer Brian Teasley (Man or Astro-man?, The Polyphonic Spree), Mike Garson (David Bowie's longtime pianist), and horn player Louis Schwadron (The Polyphonic Spree).  On Marry Me, we see a smartly crafted deluge of guitar, bass, and beats pulsing forward with warmth and immediacy alongside Annie's classy soprano. Her lyrics can be weird or tongue-in-cheek or dead serious, capturing verily what it feels like to be 24 years old in America and caught up in the delirium of love blues and wartime blues and the various swashbuckling adventures of existence.

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Actor by St. Vincent

The follow-up to St. Vincent’s (Annie Clark’s) first album "Marry Me" (2007) features eleven new songs, all written and arranged by Clark. The arrangements are more masterful, the songwriting grander, the performances ever more confident and inspired. Clark toured extensively in support of "Marry Me" with artists like The National, Death Cab For Cutie, and Arcade Fire, and was named Female Artist Of The Year at the 2008 PLUG Independent Music Awards. Before recording as St. Vincent, she was a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens’ touring band, and she performed with Glenn Branca’s guitar orchestra.

Outside Love by The Pink Mountaintops

The third album by Pink Mountaintops, a.k.a. Stephen McBean, was influenced by weddings in Montreal, winter, Pink Floyd’s "The Final Cut", Christmas albums, the Bermuda Triangle, a song by Exile, a song by Echo And The Bunnymen, being depressed in the sunshine, The Everly Brothers, clowns in the ceilings, and bedrooms where skinheads used to live. A veteran of the Vancouver/Victoria punk rock scene, McBean is best known for his contributions to acclaimed rock band Black Mountain as principal songwriter, guitarist, and co-vocalist. Contributors on this release include members of Destroyer, Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter, Jackie O Motherfucker, The Organ, Black Mountain, and more.

Wonder Subtly Crushing Us by Ice Palace

Their first album, 2007′s "Bright Leaf Left", was critically acclaimed from The City Pages to The Onion to The Village Voice. Fifteen years ago, Ice Palace’s singer/songwriter Adam Sorensen and Cloud Cult’s Craig Minowa spent a night writing and recording a song together. After years of separate endeavors, the two have re-aligned on this album. "Wonder" combines the nuanced lyricism of Sorensen with the innovative music of an eclectic ensemble of musicians and the creative conception of Minowa, resulting in an album worthy of attention. RIYL: Pavement, Pela, Frightened Rabbits, Wilco.

Enter The Vaselines by The Vaselines

The Vaselines have long been celebrated by musicians and indie rock enthusiasts across the globe, including superfan Kurt Cobain, while remaining underappreciated by the mainstream. "Enter The Vaselines" is the definitive triple LP/double CD collection. Includes new mixes and re-mastered versions of material previously available on "The Way Of The Vaselines", plus never-before-heard demos, and live recordings from 1986 in Bristol and 1988 in London.

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