The Invisible Cities
Watertown
© 2004 The Invisible Cities (751937253723)
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The Invisible Cities is a San Francisco-based band that make incandescent rough-around-the-edges sometimes-quiet sometimes loud rocknroll pop music with wiry guitars and boy/girl harmonies. Watertown is their first full-length record.
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The Invisible Cities is a San Francisco-based band that makes incandescent rough-around-the-edges sometimes-quiet sometimes loud rocknroll pop music with wiry guitars and boy/girl harmonies. Watertown is their first full-length record, born of late-night, half-remembered reflections about half-remembered places.
The band formed through the meetings of strangers and family. Han found Sadie with her craigslist ad that he says poorly described her musical sensibilities (see? strangers and yet family so soon!). And when Tim was looking for a chance to rock out a little in the midst of his jazz activities, he in turn answered their ad. Han's brother Gary heard what they were up to and started playing shows with them when he was in town, on vacation from his regular life as upright bass player in NYC. They have been playing in various configurations in the Bay Area for the last couple of years, including performances at APAture and piNoisePop 8 in 2003 and APAture in 2004. They feel lucky to have had help from Matt Yelton (Pixies, Frank Black) when they started recording the album, and from Jon Evans (Tori Amos) for mixing it.
Sometimes they think about the album like this: landing softly in a new town, things that make you sad but are so beautiful you bring them out again anyway, the part where you kick the trashcan just because you remembered something that pissed you off, the moonlit night where you were far from the city and the stars and the orange and the snow swirled together, the relentless highway drive that you don't remember because you were listening to the radio really loud.
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Indie pop for grownups
author: Tribe.netThe Invisible Cities is the band you wish you were in. They were the cafeteria table of smarty-pantsed non-blondes who didn't even notice that the jocks & cheerleaders ignored them. Their confidence in no way resembles bravado. They're the expressers of universal sentiment with deceptively dry humor, subtle turns of phrase, and hooks so sweet you don't even noticed they're stuck in your heart until two days later when you can't stop singing that one line under your breath. Sadie and Han are the intrepid duo behind this quiet genius of a band, joined by drummer Tim, occasional bassist Gary and frequent guest Goh Nakamura. Their debut album "Watertown" is a gorgeously crafted package of wistful acceptance. Each song reminds of something, of someone, only kinda but significantly so. You tend to remember the sweetness but the rock comes back and surprises you every time. You're not going to bang your head or bump chests, you're going to sit back down like the adult you are and appreciate someone else singing your song out loud. Sadie's voice is often compared with Liz Phair, low and deadpan and only sarcastic if you're paying attention. She's the sweet thing who tells it to you straight and nails it dead on. Han joins in for the best guy-girl harmonies since I-don't-even-know-who, and steps up for lead vocals on the title track, which is one of the best indie pop songs ever written and was demanded as an encore at their last show at the Rickshaw Stop. Both play guitars that are as well matched as their vocals and energy, and there's even a little keyboard thrown in. Really. It's little. The album should come with a warning label: "may be habit-forming". Buy it and you'll find it in permanent rotation in your car. And it's a jones you'll never want to lose.