The Bowery Presents

The Mercury Lounge upcoming shows

School of Seven Bells
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Like many bands before them, School of Seven Bells were born as the result of a late-night revelation. Benjamin Curtis connected with sisters Alejandra and Claudia Deheza in 2004 while their bands—Secret Machines and On-Air Library!, respectively—were on tour. While watching PBS at 3am, Alejandra caught a show about the School of Seven Bells: a mythical South American pickpocket academy that may or may not have existed in the ‘80s. The idea of seven minds working as one appealed to her, as did the phrase’s cryptic musicality, and a creative spark ignited.

By the end of 2006, Curtis and the Deheza sisters had completely disappeared into School of Seven Bells. From the outset, it was clear that the trio’s music transcended the usual genre restrictions. Early recordings popped up on Sonic Cathedral, Table of Elements, and Suicide Squeeze, then Blonde Redhead tapped School of Seven Bells for a tour. Remixes came from Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and Prefuse 73, whose “Class of 73 Bells,” a re-imagining of SVIIB’s “Iamundernodisguise,” ended up on his 2007 album Preparations (Warp).

School of Seven Bells’ music is full of tensions—Curtis’ gentle guitars wrap around jagged beats; silky vocals hide behind grumpy, alien synthesizers—but the resulting songs are effortlessly cohesive, and insidiously catchy. Elements of dream-pop, Afrobeat, IDM, and 4AD’s gauzier moments provide a constantly shifting frame for the Dehezas’ lyrics, which they write as mysterious missives between the School’s imaginary seven members. On their Ghostly debut, Alpinisms, we get the impression that the three seasoned musicians have taken up full-time residence in a dizzying fantasy world; they move freely within the realm of pickpockets and dreamers, composing a soundtrack according to their own odd, beautiful logic.
The War on Drugs
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"Philadelphia's War on Drugs have seem to come out of nowhere with an album that's been in constant rotation on my stereo for the past month. Wagonwheel Blues is an amazing debut, and every time I listen I find different things that I love. At various moments I hear Dylan, Springsteen, the Walkmen, Animal Collective...the list goes on. It's the perfect amalgamation of classic rock and modern day indie, with the songs to boot. And there's no throwback or retro here, just all around great rock music."
-other music, NYC
Linfinity
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It always begins with that lightbulb.

A concept, an idea....born. When Dylan Von Wagner started Linfinity in 2007, the moniker he used to name his project went from mere concept to actual fruition when he recorded an EP with a few friends at The Walkmen's studio, Marcata, in Harlem.

From there, he used this model vision to quarantine a band later that year. St Ives (a vinyl only label) by the Swanson brothers [Secretly Canadian] found interest in this concept and released a full album of demos "Live at Marcata," - a solo acoustic endeavor by Von Wagner full of pure, new, melodic vignettes.

Into the fold came Bassist Nick Hundley, Drummer Russ Lemkin, Guitarist Josh Collins, Megan Berson Violin/Viola, and Omer Shemesh on keys. After assessing the sound of Von Wagner's original ideas, they began to push and tread to find the right direction as a collective.

With some slight experimentation in the line up, Linfinity began to carve out a sound and in the summer of 2008 cut their First EP, "Songs of The Weeping Willow".

Recorded at a barn in New Paltz, NY with Kevin McMahon [The Felice brothers, Titus Andronicus}, the five song EP is snapshots of a troubled time over the recent passing of a family member giving gravity to the formation.

Masterpiece completed, the band decided to put it up for free online and continued to paint the downtown NYC scene with their bombastic, thrilling live shows.

In 2009, with a strong fan base established and shows packed, the band decided once again to capitalize on the sincere interest from the music community at large to record their debut record.

The most recent Linfinity opus was completed at Excello Recordings in Brooklyn, New York. It was recorded with producer Josh Hager, and later mixed in submarine-turned-studio in the Atlantic ocean.
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