I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again—we’re lucky to know so many really awesome, really talented people. The one in question today—Abby Hannan, who we met shortly after moving to New York in 2003 and have been friends with ever since.

Abby’s been involved in music in one way or another ever since we’ve known her and long before, it turns out. Though we’ve been fans of her group efforts, Abby’s solo work is where she really shines.

Written + recorded under the moniker Ruby Rae, Abby’s sound has coalesced over the years into a focused, singular vision, creating a sort of sonic character to back up the musical alter ego and presetting a curated sound that hits you like a fusion of folk, country, pop, rockabilly, and American roots music. All of that’s built around Hannan’s deft skill for writing melodic hooks and her clear, classically beautiful singing style.

On the occasion of the release of her new EP, Voodoo Queen, and record release party tonight New York’s Rockwood Music Hall, we took a few minutes to catch up with Abby to talk about her music, how she’s been so productive over the years, and how discovering she was related to an alleged Salem witch inspired the song below. Listen + read on.

raven + crow studio: First off, thanks for talking with us, Abby. Now, am I correct in remembering that you started doing your solo work while still doing the The Ex-Debutantes?

Abby Hannan: I’ve been working on solo material since about 2002. I tend to write songs in pairs, but half of them didn’t fit with the pop punk sound of The Ex-Debutantes. In 2010 I decided to devote more time to the solo work; there seemed to be something there that I couldn’t ignore any more.

Obviously the scene changes for us all as we get older, but how do you see the NYC independent music scene having changed over the past ten or so years?

The early 2000s (aughts?) in the East Village/LES were really exciting! It seemed like you could get your music out there. We’d play a show at the Luna Lounge on Ludlow and guys from Interpol would be hanging out in the bar. We shared some epic bills with up and coming bands. Since then I think the scene is more focused in Brooklyn, and it’s more collaborative, in a good way. Bands help each other out because you can’t just rely on some buzz.

That’s a really good point. I guess the Internet has created this white noise blanket of buzz that’s just harder to punch through for bands these days. How would you say your personal musical style’s changed over the years though?

Well, I started taking violin lessons when I was five—that was sort of my main musical focus through high school. I always thought I would be a session violin player on other people’s songs or in an orchestra, but then I became more interested in guitars, rockabilly, punk, and pop. I fell in love with Britpop, twee, garage rock, electro-pop, glam, alt-country. My current musical style is an evolution. I tend to listen to bands that fuse several genres together.

Yeah, it really seems like it—in a great way. Do you have any sort of musical/writing routine that you follow? Unless it’s all you do, I feel like it’s really hard to make time for music in your life as you start balancing it with whatever day job keeps the bills paid. It’s so easy just to let creative endeavors fall by the wayside, especially in town like New York.

Absolutely, it’s a struggle just to keep up the momentum. I try to play a little every day, then record demos and check-in with the band a couple nights a month. Recording is squeezed into well organized weekends and vacation days.

I’ve heard you describe Ruby Rae’s sound as ‘swamp rock’ to people before—I think that totally works, but how do you think that’s a fitting description of your music?

Around 2010 I wrote a song called “It Came From The Swamp” and it was a creative turning point for the project. Swamp pop or rock seemed to fit, but I still haven’t found the right words to describe the sound. I’ve heard people call it alt-country or rockabilly noir too. I’m open to suggestions. Any ideas?

I like swamp rock. You know, I’ve never personally been a huge fan of rockabilly or even just most blues-fuled music—I think it’s something about the prevalence of minor chord structures or something. But I like how you’ve pulled that sound into your work, which, at its roots, seems very singer/songwriter. Like, most of your songs seem like they can be presented with just you and an acoustic guitar and sound totally fleshed out. Is that how your song-writing process starts—you and a guitar?

Rockabilly is so vibrant, but remains a pretty small slice of American music. It’s not for everyone. My Dad loved that blues-y sound, so growing up it was always an influence.

In terms of writing, it’s a really nice, simple place to start. I like to write a quick and dirty chord progression on a guitar, and think about the lyrics later. If it’s good, it will stick in my head and I can gradually work it out while I do other things like wash the dishes or ride the subway. If I need help, I’ll play it on a piano, or play it in a different room to see if I can approach the song from another angle.

Only the strong songs survive! My favorite song of yours is still the acoustic version of “Cry Crocodile” you played sitting by a pool in Palm Springs. Let’s make that happen again.

YES. Everything is better poolside. Maybe we can have a tiny poolside festival. Like Coachella, but 5 bands and 50 people. The entire audience has to fit in the pool.

Like Splash House for rock. Excellent. I’m wondering though—what is it about the dark side of creole culture or voodoo or the sort of supernatural macabre that fascinates you in terms of providing fodder for writing material?

I don’t know you guys, I’ve always been into spooky stuff. I think it came from my grandmother, who was interested in all kinds of different cultures.

That’s cool, that’s cool. I’m down with some spooky source material. You’re talking to an ex-D&D-playing sci-fi fan, man. Who’d you say are some musical influences?

My first thought is always Patsy Cline meets the Mistfits. In addition to that are: The Cramps, Loretta Lynn, Townes Van Zandt, David Bowie, Cat Power, Cocteau Twins, Flat Duo Jets, The Ronettes, Darlene Love, The Black Keys, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Beach House, The Detroit Cobras, The Amazing Royal Crowns, The Raging Teens, X, T Rex, Wanda Jackson, Lucinda Williams, Jolie Holland, Betty McQuade, Susy Rose, Mazzy Star, Portishead, The Peach Kings, Widowspeak.

All excellent influences. How about the lyrics? Those are anything but about your personal life…I hope. They’re all like “I loved you but you killed me and chopped me up and took me down to the river where you fed me to the crocodiles but, hey, at least we had that last kiss, that was swell.” Where do you get your lyrical inspiration? Or…what kind of stories are you trying to tell with you music? If isn’t too pretentious a question.

No, they are not autobiographical. It’s more that there are uncomfortable situations I want to untangle. I want to tell ghost stories with my music. I want to tell complicated love stories, and express grief and joy. If there’s one person at a show who gets it, that’s cool with me.

And can you talk specifically about the song “Mary Eastey” from the new EP, Voodoo Queen? Are you really related to a witch‽

“Alleged” witch, yes. Last year while I was writing songs for the EP, I found out that I was related to Mary Eastey, who was hanged for witchcraft in 1692 in Salem. It inspired me to think about both sides of that story. She was a pious woman, and everyone in the community was surprised by the accusation. At one point they let her go, and then arrested her again. I wondered what that might have been like for her family, my family.

Man. That’s so crazy. I’m related to a buncha farmers, I think. Who did the art for the Voodoo Queen EP?

Katherine Hardy is an incredibly talented illustrator based in London. We’ve collaborated quite a bit, and—at least for me—it’s a very inspiring process. I usually give her some vague stupid direction like “I want a boat,” and send her the music, and she comes back with something that just blows me away.

We like it. I’ve also always loved the crossed knives logo too—who did that?

Allison Sall did the first EP cover and came up with the knives logo. She is brilliant!

And you’re celebrating the release of that with a show tonight, yeah?

Yes siree, Tuesday August 12th at Rockwood, Stage 1. We play at 9pm.

Nice! And you’ve been coming out west a good bit in the past year or so—playing the ever-awesome Pappy + Harriet’s last fall (photo, above + right) and then the House of Blues here in LA. Any plans to come back to promote the new work?

No concrete plans right now, but I definitely want to come back soon this winter to play. Pappy + Harriet’s is my new favorite venue.

It’s so awesome. You know all of New York’s moving to California, right? That’s the new plan.

Can we just transplant the whole Brooklyn thing? Last winter was brutal.

Well, we hope to see you soon, one way or another! Thanks for talking and have fun at the release party!

Thank you! xoxo

Ruby Rae’s new EP, Voodoo Queen, is available now on iTunes and you can explore her back catalog on both iTunes + Amazon.

Lead photo by Rose Callahan; Pappy + Harriet’s photo, us.

Did you guys know that emo crooner Chris Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional frontman had a bluegrass-y folk-pop band? Yeah, me neither.

Actually, this track, “Back to You”, made it onto a few of my favorite playlists earlier this year and I had no idea I was even listening the breaker of so many young girls’ early-aughts hearts. But, as fate would have it and much like teenaged mall-goers so many years ago, I’d been tricked by legitimately catchy melodic hooks and overly earnest vocals into liking Chris Carrabba songs.

DAMMIT ALL!

Carrabba’s new band, Boca Raton-based Twin Forks, writes and plays what can only earnestly be described as pop music. But it’s pop music that employs rootsy, folk instrumentation, essentially dropping the songs into a bluegrass spin cycle. All that said, it’s pretty good stuff and it’s undeniably catchy—a guilty pleasure at worst; songs to grow on you at best. But good stuff, regardless.

Plus, you know, they cover a Taylor Swift song, so they can’t be all that bad.

Listen to “Back to You” below. If you like it—and I bet you will—head over to their newly released sampler on Noisetrade to download (it includes the Swift cover). You can listen to + buy the band’s 2014 full-length via the iTunes.

Photo by the talented Tristan Casey.

We’re kind of obsessed with this bizarre new SBTRKT song in the studio of late.

It features Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend on vocals and some pretty weirdly awesome instrumentation from the usually masked London-based producer.

The forthcoming album it’s pulled from—Wonder Where We Land—is SBTRKT’s sophomore release and features further collaborations with Jessie Ware, Sampha, LA’s Warpaint, and many more.

It’s due out Sept23 on Young Turks and can be pre-ordered via SBTRKT’s site.

And for anyone wondering, ‘dorp’ is Dutch for ‘village’. New Dorp’s also a town in Staten Island, who some claim is part of New York City. I’ve never seen official documentation to that point though.

Happy weekend, all!

We’re sent a lot of music here at raven + crow studio. True, our main forte is design, but we’ve written about music since day one because it’s a huge shared passion of ours, especially in the realm of inventive independent music. Doing so for so many years, we’ve gradually built up and maintained the avenues that provide us with new musical discoveries, which, with prevalence of home studios and self-promotion via the Internet, seem more plentiful than ever before.

In such a crowded field, we’re always appreciative of bands that immediately hook us on first listen, making our jobs pretty easy. One such band is newcomer duo, Mideau, based in Salt Lake City and Chapel Hill, NC. We loved their easily accessible, poppy sound right off the bat and, after some quick, relatively unproductive online research, reached out to the band to find out more about them.

Give their excellent track—”Way with Words”—a listen below and read on to find more about the two bandmates, learn about the musical scene in Salt Lake, and find out how the band raised $10,000 in a little over a month to record their forthcoming debut LP.

raven + crow studio: Okay, first off, you’ll have to forgive me—normally I’m either going into this kind of thing already knowing the band well or at least having done a good bit of research up front, but I admittedly don’t know a ton about you guys and, honestly, can’t find that much online. So…introduce me to Mideau.  How did you guys meet?

Spencer Harrison: One of my old bandmates produced Libbie’s solo record—she’d be waiting around our house for him to show up which gave us time to commiserate on his absent-mindedness and more important musicophelia.

Lackadaisical serendipity! I know you’re a duo, but is that more in the song-writing phase of things or do you keep it to two live too?

Spencer: Mideau is a duo in the morning and in the afternoon and in the evening and in the studio and on stage in the night time.

Libbie Linton: We are almost always joined by two other musicians when we perform live—a bass man and a drummer.

Nice—we love a built-out live band. And you’re from North Carolina and/or Salt Lake City, from what I can tell?

Specner: Libbie and I both grew up in Utah, and I currently reside in Chapel Hill, NC.

Libbie: Transcontinental.

Ah, we’re both huge Chapel Hill fans, but what’s the scene like in SLC, musically and otherwise? …also, do people actually even call it SLC or did I make that up? Seems phonetically odd to bring from print to speech….

Spencer: You’re right on, Troy (see SLC Punk Trailer).

Libbie: Utah is home to amazing geography and astonishing talent. The Last few years have seen the launch of Imagine Dragons, Neon Trees, Fictionist, Mindy Gledhill, The Moth & The Flame, to name very few. Kaskade lives in Utah, and so do the Osmonds. Our best friend/photographer, b3njamin, is currently shooting Beyoncé in NYC. The scene is wondrous.

Oh, yeah, I know some of those guys. Had no idea they were from SLC though. So, you did a (successful) Kickstarter to raise money for the album, right? What was that like?

Spencer: That was a wild ride. We started from the bottom and had an amazing amount of support from our community. Many things were learned and many friends were made!

It’s weird—I’m always torn with Kickstarters. Like, I would feel bad asking friends—many of whom are already inundated with that kind of request as is—for money for a project, but I guess it’s about finding a project that you really believe in, right?

Spencer: I think it does get overwhelming, another groundbreaking album with a “big vision” needs your help!! How to choose? The simplest way I can see it—people who would buy the record later can just preorder a copy now. I hear you though, in some ways it feels like jingling your charity-can at a party with your friends and family. But there is a lot that can be done to spread your net wide before you ever launch a crowd funding campaign. And plus, uncle Charlie hasn’t given you a birthday present since you were 5, so he stands with wallet wide open.

No, the whole crowd-funding model’s really cool in theory, so it’s great to see it work. Plus it’s totally impressive that you raised over your goal of $10,000 in 45 days. Did people cash in on any of the perks? You had some good ones—guest list for life, pick a cover for the album, lunch with you all, haircuts by Spencer…?

Spencer: We shipped many a hand written note and recorded special request cover songs that took far more time than we imagined. We did our very best to thank those who quite literally made the recording process possible.

Is Spencer a particularly skilled barber?

Libbie: I’m pretty good, actually. But they were haircuts with Spencer.

I love this, by the way: “Do you desperately want a Mideau cover of Simon & Garfunkel? Consider it done. You want to hear us do a sensitive version of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club”? Fantastic, we admire that kind of out-of-the-box thinking! We will record any song you want, just for you.” Can you clue us in to the cover or is that going to be under wraps until the full album’s announced?

Spencer: If you’ve seen the artwork for the EP or singles, you’ll see a strong visual language that will be represented in the album artwork.

Libbie: We wanted to capture a strange moment in time that would quietly inspire a viewer to wonder what happened before and after the still frame.

Oh, I was more looking into the cover song that was going to be recorded, but that’s cool too. Got an album title yet? ETA?

Libbie: Self titled for the debut. Feels right.

Spencer: Early 2015!

So, we’re always curious with everyone we interview—where does the band name come from? 

Libbie: Honestly, we saw the word as our blank canvas that had the right raw materials—we want to paint it however we see fit.

That makes some sense. I really like the video for “Way with Words” (below). At first I was hoping that was a mustachioed Spencer, but I did some photo comparison and am pretty sure that’s not the case. Who is that dancing?

Spencer: Jonathan Frey, photographer/videographer/choreographer and king of strangely tickling posts on social media.

And did he just wing it or is that highly choreographed?

Libbie: How much can you call it an improvisation if you’ve been practicing in front of your mirror since childhood?

Well-put. I know you supported Katie Herzig for part of her tour—level of 1 to 10, how much fun was that?

Spencer: Touring with Katie for a string of dates was a dream. Her and her crew were extremely hospitable, we loved playing with them.

Awesome. Really liked The Waking Sleep—especially that RAC remix of “Free My Mind”—but have yet to hear her new one.

Spencer: Her new album is darn special. She is a killer writer and performer.

Any plans to play LA soon?

Libbie: Yes, actually. We had plans to be there this June, but plans changed and we will have to wait until fall. But can’t wait to meet you and the other LAers when we get there! Where do you think we should play?

Hmmmmmm. Echo/Echoplex is great, as is the Bootleg. Though, the Fonda’s walking distance for us, so…there!  On a closing note, please share with our audience the weirdest dream you’ve ever had to date.

Spencer: Setting was a prim suburban neighborhood with a park during the golden hour of evening. I watched (and ran away) as a psychopathic samurai in civilian clothes cut through anything/anyone in his way with the sharpest sword one can imagine. I proceeded to try and reason with him when he advanced toward me.

In waking life, I would definitely categorize myself as a lover rather than a fighter but come on—trying to rationalize with an irrational killer in the heat of a rampage?

I don’t recall getting sliced before I woke up … but what does it all mean?

Your father once denied you a bomb pop on a hot summer’s day in your youth rationalizing that your lips would turn blue and people would think you looked like a weirdo; this resulted in both a mild eating disorder and the deeply held desire to ‘stick out’ amongst the crowd, defining, to a certain extend, your adulthood personality and social trajectory. Also, you think samurais are cool. You’re welcome.

You can watch the video for “Way with Words”, starring Jonathan Frey, below. If you like it, which you will, you can download the Way with Words EP and pay what you will via noise trade. Look for Mideau live this fall; they’re full-length debut is due early next year.

Photo: B3njamin Photography

Mexico City’s Rey Pila is new to most—ourselves included—but likely won’t be for long. The band signed to Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records last fall and just announced they’d be opening for Interpol later this year (dates below).

Rey Pila are announcing a full-length in the coming months. Int he meantime, you can listen to the band’s just-released single, “Blast”, below and get a free download of the song by singing up for their email list. Small price to pay, neh?

Tour Dates:
08/05 – New York, NY @ Pianos
08/12 – New York, NY @ Pianos
08/14 – Guadalajara, MX @ Teatro Diana ^
08/19 – New York, NY @ Pianos
08/26 – New York, NY @ Pianos
09/15 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom #
09/16 – Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre #
09/17 – Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom #
09/20 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre #
09/24 – San Diego, CA @ House Of Blues #
09/26 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot #
09/27 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre #
09/28 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theatre #
09/30 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom #
10/02 – Dallas, TX @ South Side Music Hall #
10/03 – Houston, TX @ House Of Blues #
10/04 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
10/07 – New Orleans, LA @ House Of Blues #
10/08 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall #
10/11 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits
^ Julian Casablancas+The Voidz
# Interpol

This track just hit our inboxes and we dig it.

“Folded Out” intricately layers trilling, climbing guitars and choral vocals to result in a surprisingly deep, sweeping song that jumps from intimately quiet moments to raucously melodic ones.

The band behind the song, NY-/NJ-based Stolen Jars, is made up, at its base, of twenty-something duo Cody Fitzgerald + Molly Grund.

Of the song, Fitzgerald writes:

“I started writing “Folded Out” in the middle of the night. Molly and I had stayed up making Joseph Cornell-esque boxes. As the night went on, the boxes got better, the music got better. The song came out of that moment.”

Listen + download below. Easterners—catch the fully built-out band over the next few months:
7.26 Brooklyn, NY – Pete’s Candy Store
8.15 Paterson, NJ – Paterson Art Factory
9.20 Providence, RI – Nissan’s Lair (sorry—no clue where that one is)

I’ve seriously had this song stuck in my head all weekend, so I felt the need to spread the glorious disease that is the infectious love of it.

We first heard “Unbound”, by San Francisco-based duo, Cathedrals, via MS MR‘s most recent Track Addict compilation, which we wrote up in May (as of writing, you can still download that entire track listing, so, if you haven’t already, we strongly suggest you head over and do so). The band’s made up of Brodie Jenkins + Johnny Hwin and their sound can most succinctly be described as addictively smooth, vocal-forward, electronic-based pop.

Maybe that wasn’t succinct, but I’d say it’s pretty accurate. See what you think—give “Unbound” a listen and, if you like it, check out some of their more recent and similarly excellent songs on their SoundCloud page.

Fair warning though—a side of effect of getting this song stuck in your head is the potentiality of getting the chorus of the Lumineers’ “Hey Ho” stuck in your head (the first five notes of their respective hooks are the same).

We caught wind of this song on KCRW the other day and haven’t been able to get it out of our heads since. The track, “Safe Ground”, is a slow-burning, subtly hook-filled song from a British-born Dutch artist who simply goes by BEA (pronounced ‘bee-uh’, we think).

And  that is about the extent of our knowledge on young BEA. But the song speaks for itself. Give it a listen below and stay tuned for more from this enigmatic talent. …we assume.

You can head over to BEA’s SoundCloud page to hear one more track from her, last fall’s “Breadwinner”—another beautifully lumbering number, this one accompanied by a pretty crazy photo.

Long-time favorite British weirdos, alt-J, announced the follow-up to their 2012 debut, the stellar Mercury-Prize-winning An Awesome Wave last week. The lead single to the forthcoming This is All Yours, “Hunger of the Pines”, continues to lead with singer Joe Newman’s creaky vocals, glitchy electronics, and hip-hop-esque rhythms and staves off fears of how the group would fare with the (amicable) exit of bassist Gwil Sainsbury.

Sure, functioning as a trio is actually a little more fitting for a band named after the keyboard shortcut for the delta symbol (∆—now you know!), but any changes to the winning line-up that produced such an innovative sound and a great, start-to-finish full-length with Wave understandably bring on trepidation for us fans. It seems like we’ve been left in good hands though if this track’s any indication. It starts off creepily meek and builds into the bands trademark, sweeping epic-ness and does not disappoint.

Give it a listen.

This is All Yours is due out late September but can be pre-ordered directly from the band along with some pretty cool looking tees and via iTunes…sans t-shirts.

Photo by Gabriel Green.

One of our most prized musical discoveries of 2012 was Brooklyn-based performance art band, People Get Ready. The four-piece marries oft-hyperactive, beautifully rhythmic, deeply melodic music with energetic dance + art-based performances to bridge the gap between high artistic expression and intelligent pop music.

You can read a little more about the band in our original 2012 piece, but for now, you should listen to the title track from their forthcoming sophomore full-length, Physiques, due out June 24.

The album’s currently available for pre-order via iTunes or Bandcamp, but you can stream the entire thing over at The New York Times’ Press Play now. And it’s well worth a listen—it builds off of 2012’s self-titled debut, adding a newly glitchy layer of electronics and an overall sense of emotional weight, especially on the final track, “Bees”. It’s great start-to-finish though.

While you’re at Press Play, scroll down just below Physiques and give our the new album from our friends Trummors a listen. It’s another great find and another example of a band growing into its sound.

Photography of People Get Ready by Catalina Kulczar-Marin for La Moutique.