Elizabeth & the Catapult @ Tin Angel

Elizabeth & the Catapult
@ Tin Angel
6/27/09
www.elizabethandthecatapult.com

This year Elizabeth & the Catapult will serve as a common ground for middle-aged NPR devotees and their children who are running off to art school. The Brooklyn trio blends a coffeehouse singer/songwriter aesthetic with a clever and modern chicness that would surely catch the ear of anyone studying Picasso, Brecht, or Truffaut this Fall. For their Philadelphia debut, the band found themselves at the Tin Angel (far more suited for the parents), performing songs from Taller Children, their latest release and the year’s most fashionably endearing album. The almost twee “Race You” is the sound of Brooklyn’s hippest embracing their playfullness, the heartwrenching “Apathy” is as elegant as it is painful, and “The Hang Up” is a cheerfully enjoyable breakup song suited for topping VH1 charts. The set also included a few songs from their debut (“Momma’s Boy” and “Waiting for the Kill”) and a handful of covers of tunes from staple hipster folksters. For those who opted to skip the night of dinner theater at the Tin Angel, the band will return to the city on July 17th and find themselves at the M Room in Fishtown... a far more art-student-friendly setting. Izzy Cihak

Butterfly Boucher - Scary Fragile

Butterfly Boucher
Scary Fragile
www.myspace.com/butterflyboucher

For those of you who aren’t music journalists, here’s a summary of 90% of the press releases that come across our desks these days: “Signed major label deal before old enough to drink… toured arenas as opening act for some dinosaur… got a song on Grey’s Anatomy… dropped by major label… released latest album on their own.” Although being surprised that major labels don’t care about their artists would be like being surprised that politicians may not have your best interests in mind, never before has this trend seemed so widespread. Unfortunately, the ineffably fetching Butterfly Boucher is another brilliant indie-goes-major-goes-indie artist who seemed to be set for stardom only to go back to DIY-ing it.

Boucher’s sophomore release, Scary Fragile, has her sounding like a chameleon singer/songwriter, spanning nearly all styles of the genre. “For The Love of Love” has the brash twang of alt. country at its livliest. “Bright Red” is along the lines of the pastiche of indie wit and hum-able hooks that Liz Phair has been practicing in recent years. “Just One Tear” even has Boucher sounding reminiscent of the charmingly juvenile sass pop of Katy Perry with a few years of wisdom tacked upon her. The album’s most satisfying track (“They Say You Grow”), however, has Ms. Boucher sounding more like the playfully romantic Robert Smith than anything suited for a second-coming of Lilith Fair. Izzy Cihak