Manishevitz
Tomorrow Never Knows Music Festival
1/13/6 at Shubas
Manishevitz really surprised me, I must say. I only own one of their albums, released in 1999 and entitled Grammar Bell and the All Fall Down and it did not quite prepare me for seeing them live. On this album, they come off as the musical equivalent of a soft drawl with a nice violin to complement the softness overall. It’s not an upbeat album in the least. Live, some things were different I noticed right away. For one, saxaphone was a major component of the songs and really added something. Everything seemed a bit sped up and charged. Although Adam Busch was still adding the vocals and guitar, his singing style was much much different. Almost like an early Roxy Music with a bit of a jazz element to it. He sang a bit like Brian Eno in his early career; it sounded glammy and British. (See “Beretta” song sample on their myspace page )
If their album City Life is an indication of their current direction, I would guess just add maybe a bit more sax to that kind of style and you might be able to predict how their soon to be released album (sometime this year) will sound. Fun live, too. I was worried after The Spinto Band I was just going to fall asleep considering the Manishevitz songs I knew were soft wonders but they really kept up the energy.
click to see a couple more pic
January 18th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
I saw them open for Beulah a couple of years ago. I think they came on before the Stratford Four. Never really listened to them since that night, but I’ll have to check them out. I’ve noticed they play locally a fair amount.
January 22nd, 2006 at 3:33 pm
I’ve also seen Ryan Hembrey play with Edith Frost and that was very nice. I think I have seen him play in CanKyRee at least a couple of times as well play just small bars. I’ll have to ask the friend I went with but I’m pretty sure that is the band we saw around the corner from her place.