Introducing M.E.A.N.Y. Music's newest writer: Chris Letterii!!!!!

Hi, Everybody!!!! Oscar D. Meany here. We here at M.E.A.N.Y. Music are very happy to introduce you all to our newest writer, Chris Letterii!!! Hello everyone, my name is Chris Letterii and I'm new on the scene here at M.E.A.N.Y. I'm a junior at Fordam University and I live in the Bronx, so I weather many hours on the subway in order to check out the finest bands New York has to offer. I do it out of love of music and dedication to you, gentle reader, that I may share with you my findings. When I'm not on the D train, I make pizza and listen to Tom Waits, often at the same time. And I know you're all wondering, so let me get this out of the way now: my favorite malt liquor is Old English. I don’t know if 40 Skillman Ave is the next Market Hotel (unlikely), but it probably ought to be. Looking for a musical amuse-bouche before the Grizzly Bear show at MHoW last Sunday, I stopped by with friend for the Beets’ first anniversary BBQ celebration at this makeshift backyard venue. It was free, the sky was blue, and I couldn’t think of a single good reason not to go. I picked up a forty of O.E. (obviously) and headed over to a complete stranger’s house to a band whose set I would end up missing because I had to go to another show. Only in Brooklyn. Due to my customary tardiness, I missed the first band, Knight School, arriving instead mid-way through the awkwardly-capitalized caUSE co-MOTION!'s set. As long as you're not a curmudgeon, it's kind of hard to dislike this band. Their particular brand of noisy pop songs rattle along at under two minutes each of hooky, lo-fi bursts of energy, and I couldn't help but to get my toes to tapping. While caUSE co-MOTION! are far less divisively fuzzy than lo-fi bands like, say, Times New Viking, the next band, Air Waves, take an even less abrasive approach to the lo-fi aesthetic. Don't look for polish, but in this case that doesn’t imply a sheet of distortion on every song. Rather than the punky outbursts of caUSE co-MOTION!, they tend more towards a folk approach to songwriting, with a recognizably Brooklyn flair in the execution. Singer/guitarist Nicole Schneit, with a voice at once weathered and resilient, steers the band through melancholy, but (thankfully) stays clear of melodrama. The band shift tempo easily, and after the energetic preceding set, the lovely, 3/4 time amble of "Gems" was a welcome change. Unfortunately, I had to skip out before the Beets went on (had to get to that front row for Grizz!), but I'm sure the gravity of the occasion inspired them to reach hitherto unknown heights of shambolic musical bliss. Happy 1st, gentleman." You see? AWESOME... I wish I was THERE WITH HIM. Stay tuned. O.d.M.