YELLOW OSTRICH: LIVE AT MERCURY LOUNGE

Of the pilgrims who come to New York to make music, few of them make a lasting impression on the indie scene.  I went into Tuesday evening’s show at Mercury Lounge wondering if Alex Schaaf’s band Yellow Ostrich would emerge as noteworthy or not.  I had heard a live studio recording that sounded good enough to catch my attention, but performance on the radio is completely different than on stage.  Despite some jarring technical difficulties, Yellow Ostrich completely impressed me during their first song.  Schaaf and his drummer, Michael Tapper, put on an energetic and technically striking show.

They opened with my favorite song, WHALE, off of their new LP “The Mistress”.  Unfortunately during the song there was a computer issue and we had a thirty-second intermission just as the song was building to it’s fullest sound.  As soon as the issue was resolved they jumped back into the song on full blast.  Their song structure for “The Mistress” is based largely on loops built by Schaaf, backed by Tapper on drums, with Schaaf also multi-tasking on guitar and bass pedal.  Part of what made the show so impressive is that it sounded like a full 4 person band, with a collective good ear for harmonies and tight beats. When Schaaf builds the vocal backing his voice is sweet and smooth, but when he sings lyrics, his voice has a nasal quality to it, which I think gives the illusion of multiple people singing.  They played primarily songs off “The Mistress” with one new song called “Daughter” and one old song off of the “Fade” EP called Fog.  It was a short set with lots of charming banter in between songs from Schaaf who was clearly shocked by the size of the audience and slightly nervous.

I left looking forward to the inevitable new releases that I am sure Yellow Ostrich will be recording in the future.  Check out their www.YellowOstrich.BandCamp.com to download all eight of their records for free.

-rachel covert