The Mercury Lounge hosted a show last Saturday (April 05) involving three NYC bands we have been following closely in the last few months – and a fourth one called Jeremy & the Harlequins that (having generated 80k+ views with the recently released video streaming below) SHOULD have been under our radar. Well, better late than never!
Twintapes got the Mercury Lounge audience to put on dancing shoes at their show this Friday, with another Deli favorite, paris_monster as the opener. Both bands pride themselves on playing rather complex electronic music without relying on the help of onstage laptops – although paris_monster’s “third member,” a sultry analog sequencer, often fills out their sound with an arpeggiator pulsing behind their live drums. Twintapes transported the audience with their peculiar tunes that sound a little like a chilled-out version of disco, drenching their synths in effects, and combining them with soulful, wise sounding melodies and up-tempo but sparse drum grooves.
After the synth bands had their say, a radical change of scenario: two groups of guys with slick back hair, aviators, leather jackets and plain white T-s (recent Deli Artist of The Month The Bothers and Jeremy & the Harlequins) strolled in and begun to set up for their anachronistic set. Both devoted to revisiting the Rock & Roll and Rockabilly sounds and antics, the bands recycled the genres’ signature tricks, stop-times and familiar chord progressions, revitalizing them with a punk-esque attitude in the drumming and vocal departments. For those who like me stayed through the night, the aforementioned dancing shoes came handy for a friendly round of moshing! – Paul Jordan Talbot
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best Alt Rock/Revival Rock songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!