eR DoN
Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head is a band whose appeal is hard to deny. Though their brand of electro-tinged teen pop has all the catchy hooks you would expect, that doesn’t begin to tell the whole story. What sets N.P.S.H. apart is the intelligence behind their assault on Seattle’s all-ages scene. Their recent performance at Easy Street Records in Queen Anne was a prime example of the groups ability to provide both the energy and accessibility needed to fulfill the needs of an audience of pent-up teenagers, while at the same putting enough meat on their musical bones to catch the eye of any typical musically-inclined Seattle-ite. Their phenom brings to mind to the deft humor of a Pixar film, and its corresponding flair for charismatic exuberance, a trait that is only pulled off with a more than modicum of talent involved.
On an entirely different wavelength, eR DoN played to a small crowd Thursday night at Nectar, which is quickly becoming the best place in Seattle to catch some of this city’s finest showings of electronica. eR DoN is a wizard behind his MPC, transforming live-recorded samples of guitars, horns, pianos, drums, and other acoustic instruments into the purely electronic compositions that only a sampler and it’s masterful user can provide. The result is a blend of chopped sounds that don’t necessarily define themselves structurally as members of a live band would, instead, elements as disparate as snare hits, piano stabs, guitar plucks, and static fuzz flow organically with one another into abstract rhythms that ebb and flow like the tide.
eR DoN is currently busy in preparation for his album Subroutines, out 8-15-2008 on Fourth City. More on eR Don at his MySpace. The scoop on Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head can be found at their blog.