the Brunettes - Live @ the Southgate House & Highlights from Mars Loves Venus

I caught the Brunettes Wednesday night opening for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Southgate House in Newport, KY. While totally unfamiliar with their music prior to seeing their performance, I was quite impressed. The band's principle members are Jonathan Bree and Heather Mansfield, but they tour with "a changing, waxing and waning crew of amateur instrumentalists associated with Auckland's Lil' Chief Records", the so-dubbed "Lil' Chief Pop Orchestrette". (via the band's bio) There were 6 people on stage Wednesday night; many of whom were multi-instrumentalists. Some interesting/unusual instruments played: banjo, trumpet, clarinet, sax, vibraphone/xylophone/glockenspiel/marimba (at least two of these, but i'm not that great at telling them apart), synths, and (my perennial fave) harmonica. The band played an extended set and while the crowd was slow to get on board, they won over the majority of those in attendance by the end of their set. Their next record will be released on Sub Pop "sometime around summer/fall 2006"-- according to the label.

I picked up their 2004 effort Mars Loves Venus at the show...and had to get it signed, simply to get the chance to meet the charming Heather Mansfield and listen to her intriguing New Zealand accent.




Two stand-out tracks from Mars Love Venus:

the Brunettes - "Polyester Meets Acetate" (savefile: follow link)

the Brunettes - "Loopy Loopy Love" (savefile: follow link)



Buy the album here!

The Brunettes on MySpace



*Of course, CYHSY were great. That was expected. The band played a few new tracks including "Cigarettes" and the incredibly well-received "Satan". I spoke to guitarist Lee Sargent, who said that we could expect new material in September. Awesome.