as the old saying goes: timing is everything. just ask the limousines. the san francisco bay area duo released a single last year with the backing of a major label. but it was only last month that they self-released their debut album get sharp. "we got the attention of the right people at the wrong time. before we had any songs written, really," says eric victorino, lead singer and songwriter of the band. "there were a lot of industry expectations to do a full-length, which we weren't ready to do."
but with get sharp, the limousines have formally announced their arrival. equal parts exhilarating pop and darker electronica, the album proves the limousines are the dirtiest, grittiest, sexiest, most fun thing about electro-pop/rock right now. i’m hard pressed to think of another band that’s churning out such good music with such flair.
“i guess we’re a real band now,” says eric. he notes that he and band mate giovanni giusti, who acts as instrumentalist and producer, did the obligatory myspace thing first, but that they “didn’t really have plans” for forming and shaping the band into something bigger.
prior to the limousines, victorino was in the rock band strata, but after releasing two full-lengths, the outfit left victorino feeling unfulfilled. "it was like being in a sexless relationship,” he says. “so i started fucking gio." the two met online. victorino was familiar with and a fan of giusti’s work as a producer, specifically a jay-z remix cd, and giusti would send beats and melodies that victorino would sing to and write lyrics. “it was making my [other] band jealous,” eric says. “it was like finding a pair of someone else’s panties in your drawer and saying ‘whose are these?!’” he laughs. “gio’s a homewrecker!”
once eric left strata, he and gio began collaborating exclusively. it wasn’t long before their work attracted the attention of major labels and they signed a one-single deal with universal. that song, a feel-good pop ode to doing a lot by doing nothing called “very busy people,” has become the band’s signature. but the release came with a price. “the single deal was the worst and best thing to happen to us,” he says. “we stepped in a lot of shit that year. our management company was finding cheerleaders and turning them into stars. we didn’t want to be part of that pop manufacturing farm.”
it’s clear the band knows what they’d like their image to be. one has to look no further than the cover art of get sharp: someone blowing a spit bubble. “it’s the best image we could think of that really represents us,” eric says. “every time i see it, i want to fuck it. it’s something different, disturbing.”
although get sharp has only been pressed to CD and made available digitally, eric says it would make a good vinyl LP. “side A has a completely different feel than side B,” he says. and he’s right. the first half, featuring “very busy people” and their current single “internet killed the video star,” are upbeat pop numbers, readymade for the dance floor and featuring tongue-in-cheek, witty lyrics. the flip side, beginning with eric’s favorite track “the future,” has the limousines taking the listener to more sinister places both musically and lyrically, but still grooving along with them. “you’re forcing me/using that witchcraft/it’s sorcery/to torture me,” eric sings on “wildfires,” arguably the album’s best song.
on stage, the pair puts on a high-energy, sexually-charged live show. they’ve been touring mostly around the bay area the last few years – including gigs at live 105’s BFD concert and the treasure island music festival in 2009 – and their followers are loyal. as a gift for fans, the duo autographed the first 100 pre-orders of the album and included a page of studio notes featuring doodles and drawings that were done during recording. it’s a lot of extra hard work, eric says, but it’s necessary.
“i see 50 pages of torrent sites giving our album away for free [online],” he says. “if i were a fan, i’d prefer to get something a little more special. so we make the time to do that stuff.”
No comments:
Post a Comment