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06/10/08 New York NY Joe's Pub
EP Discography
06/20/08 Red Hook NY Bake 06/27/08 Philadelphia PA World Café 07/03/08 Chicago IL Schuba's 07/04/08 Milwaukee WI Summerfest 07/05/08 Des Moines, IA 80-35 Festival 07/08/08 Kansas City MO Record Bar 07/11/08 Minneapolis MN Macy's Day Music 07/12/08 Madison WI The Terrace 07/13/08 Minneapolis MN Bryant Lake Bowl 07/16/08 Nashville, TN The Basement 08/03/08 San Diego CA Anthology 08/04/08 Los Angeles CA Hotel Cafe 09/13/08 Denver CO Monolith Festival
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Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel, together are KaiserCartel, a pop girl/boy band from Brooklyn, New York. They have a debut album called March Forth coming out June 10th on Bluhammock Music (although wouldn't it have been punny if they released it March fourth?)
Their biography lists that Kaiser's early involvement with music was as promoter and also, notably, as John "Cougar" Mellencamp's backing singer. She eventually moved to New York as an elementary music teacher, which is, I am assuming, where she met Cartel, who was also teacher in the NY area.
It looks like there will be heavy promotion for the new album, with the band already scheduled to appear on local (Minneapolis) station KARE 11 and on the Macy's Day Music. Then they're coming back in a few days to play Bryant Lake Bowl, which is a very tiny, tiny venue.
Apparently this duo loves Minneapolis ("Minneapolis remains our favorite big-small city, and more than anywhere else, a true home-away-from home."), and they even have a "Minneapolis Version" of one of their song, "Favorite Song", appearing on the b-side of Okay... And Other Things We Feel. The mostly Cartel-vocals song is pretty stripped down, compared to the "real" version appearing on their debut album (which features pianos, tambourine, and, what? alarm clock???).
Digging around, I noticed that they offered a free song from their 300 limited EP called Live From BreakThru Radio called "Season Song". It sounds fantastic when performed live, I don't know how they do the whisteling part so clearly and on demand.
The studio version of that song (appearing as the second track on their album) sounds much fuller. You can hear the variety of instruments used in this song: xylophone, bass drums, maracas, clapping (!), and tambourine.
Listening to the album, they do a good mix of girl vs boy songs (when I say this, I mean the main vocals). Here is a breakdown:
| SONG 01. Oh No 02. Season Song 03. Traveling Feet 04. Good Ones 05. The Flood 06. Inside Out 07. Okay 08. The Same 09. Favorite Song 10. Dog Stars 11. Blue Sky 12. Free Will Zone 13. Shira |
MAIN SINGER Kaiser Kaiser Cartel Kaiser Cartel Cartel/Kaiser Kaiser Kaiser Cartel Kaiser Kaiser Kaiser Cartel |
As you can quickly see, it's a good mix, with the scale tipping in Kaiser's favor. Incidentally, there is a hidden track on the album, which I think is called "Shira", officially there's only 12 tracks.
I just read that the official single and video for their album will be "Oh No". I just got a chance to view it, it shows off the comfortable couple, complete with chairs, water, hands and yarn.
If you like boy/girl sweet melodies folk/pop music, be on the look out for their debut, March Forth on June 10th, followed by a promotional tour throughout the midwest and the obvious California and New York spots.
Links: www.kaisercartel.com myspace.com/kaisercartel bluhammock.com
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