This is the first installment of Sound Advice. As your mixstress, I hope to build a space where you may discover new (or maybe just new to you) sounds from across a wide sonic spectrum.


Late of the Pier

I recently met Late of the Pier, a quartet from the small Northern English town of Castle Donington, on their first trip to New York, where they were greeted with their hotel block cordoned off by police in riot gear and helicopters hovering overhead. Sadly the crowd control precautions were not for the band, but instead intended to preserve a crime scene. And while the band is used to rousing receptions back at home, where their debut album Fantasy Black Channel was released last summer, this was still a bit of a shocking start.

"A very American welcome," says keyboardist Jack Paradise. "Thank you, America!"

American music lovers will get a chance to more properly greet Late of the Pier when they release Fantasy Black Channel domestically in the U.S. via the Astralwerks label in early 2009, but you can check out their videos on YouTube in the meantime. The band classifies themselves cheekily as "Latin/glam/thrash" on their MySpace page, but are really a smart synthesis of rock and electronics. Their wild imagination has garnered a notable underage following, and they've played at several under-18 clubs to court this über enthusiastic demographic.

"The way we do things is with a sort of childlike wonder and energy, so kids can definitely relate," says bassist Francis Dudley Dance. "They wear their hearts on their sleeves a lot more and they're a lot more instinctive crowd and they're a lot more open minded in a lot of ways."

"And they're no way cynical, either," adds lead singer Samuel Dust. "They really go for things that are exciting and are not afraid to stand out. They really embrace that."

So do we. Check out "Heartbeat" to see what we mean:




Kristeen Young

St. Louis native (and now New York resident) Kristeen Young has built up a loyal and growing following largely due to her arresting live performances. With drummer "Baby" Jeff White, she's known as the conveniently named kristeenyoung, a band with five independently released albums under their belt and one on the way. A collaboration on that forthcoming release is with Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump, which should provide exposure to a whole new group of potential listeners.

She has toured extensively with Morrissey (and released singles on his Attack label) and made many fans out of his followers, but she ultimately parted ways with the British crooner last year after making a sexually suggestive remark about him on stage in response to a heckler that was poorly received by Moz. Someone outspoken enough to make that charming man blush certainly has our attention.

Perhaps the miserable one should get over himself and realize "Life's Not Short" to hold grudges:




Janelle Monae

Like Young, Janelle Monae also originally hails from the Midwest - in her case, Kansas City, KS - but has come to be associated with the envelope-pushing sounds of her adopted Atlanta home. This honorary ATL-ien is like a sister to OutKast, appearing on their Idlewild soundtrack and working extensively with that group's Big Boi. She was signed to his Purple Ribbon label and he executive produced her Metropolis: The Chase Suite, a concept EP dedicated to Fritz Lang's 1927 expressionist silent film Metropolis. That project was co-released by her own independent label Wondaland Arts Society in a unique partnership with Diddy's Bad Boy empire, and will be followed up by Part 2 and Part 3 in the new year.

"Although it didn't have any words, it really spoke out to me," Monae says of Metropolis. "It reminded me that there's a constant struggle between the haves and the have-nots, between the oppressors and the oppressed. I was raised in Kansas City and there are still members of my family there that are kind of like the walking dead. I thought it would be great to elaborate on that story a little more, to make it my own and to use a parallel that I thought of when I watched the film. I'm a huge science fiction head; I love Octavia Butler and Isaac Asimov and films like Blade Runner and of course The Matrix. It's a very compelling story, I feel like it could be very life changing if you allow it to, as it is for me."

A young lady making art inspired by obscure silent films would be enough in itself, but Monae is a study in beautiful extremes, as she demonstrates in her live shows, where she's been known to stage dive and crowd surf some impressively lengthy audience waves.

"You know you have great supporters if they always are there to hold you and uplift you," she exclaims.

It's been "Many Moons" since we've seen such an original musical and visual talent combined:




Tamara Palmer is SuicideGirls' New Music Editor. During a decade and a half of DJing and writing about music professionally, she has found particular pleasure in championing new artists and sounds. Her work has appeared in outlets such as the Associated Press, Wired, and SF Weekly. She is a former editor of URB and the author of the book, Country Fried Soul: Adventures in Dirty South Hip-Hop.