Stereogum » Au Revoir Simone

Air Prep Le Voyage Dans La Lune

corban — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:15:33 +0000

Air’s follow-up to 2009′s Love 2 is called Le Voyage Dans La Lune in tribute to fellow countryman Georges Méliès’ influential 1902 silent film of the same name. The album features contributions from Beach House’s Victoria Legrand as well as Au Revoir Simone (who are, you know, not French. But it’s about the spirit!). Check out the tracklist after the jump.

Washed Out – “Amor Fati (Au Revoir Simone Remix)”

corban — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:34:06 +0000

The last of the tracks from Washed Out’s “Amor Fati” 12” has arrived, taking the form of an “Amor Fati” remix at the hands of Au Revior Simone. Download it after the jump.

Girl Crisis Cover Ace Of Base’s “The Sign”

corban — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:43:05 +0000

Brooklyn cover song collective Girl Crisis, which comprises Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek, Class Actress’s Elizabeth Harper, Au Revoir Simone’s Erika Spring and many other notables, take on Ace Of Base’s FM classic “The Sign” for the latest edition of its ongoing project. Its probably the best one of the series so far, sharp and a touch chill-inducing.

Erika Spring – “6 More Weeks”

amrit — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:19:41 +0000

You’ve seen Erika Spring-Forster in Au Revoire Simone, and Brooklyn’s all-female covers supergroup Girl Crisis, but this is the first music attributed solely to her name, less a -Forster. “6 More Weeks” comes as one side of a split 7″ with Violens. That band’s principal creative force Jorge Elbrecht produces and plays drums on this track, with MGMT’s Will Berman on bass and Erika on all manners of synths and sounds and singing between. The result is a windswept and tom-drum dramatic synth-pop track that communicates with the times Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel were young and center-stage in a manner similar to Natasha Khan’s work as Bat For Lashes. Spring’s vocals are pristine and pretty, emotionally invested but delivered with ease, a nice component to a song with strong intention and sense of purpose and build. Hear it:

Girl Crisis (Chairlift, Class Actress, Telepathe, Au Revoir Simone, Acrylics, Apache Beat) Cover Black Sabbath

jessica — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:01:15 +0000

Last year we posted some of the covers by Girl Crisis, the video-only, female-only, evolving group of Brooklyn musicians who record covers for fun (no plans for releases or touring). This time around they’re covering much-loved Sabbath track “Paranoid,” as per their rule of covering a female-vocaled song in the summer, a male one in the winter. Sophia Knapp handles the guitar solo. Watch/listen:

The 12 Best Videos Of The Week

jessica — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:23:19 +0000

There’s a larger dose of videos this week, since we took Friday off for the holiday. And the best videos this week are varied — there’s a new, interactive clip from Au Revoir Simone, another fan-made clip for Sleigh Bells (that is way more fun than the official one), and inscrutable videos from Active Child, Sia, and Here We Go Magic.

Girl Crisis (The Ladies Of Chairlift, Class Actress, Apache Beat, Au Revoir Simone, Acrylics, Et Al) Cover Taylor Dayne (Stereogum Premiere)

amrit — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:08:46 +0000

Here it is, the latest installment from Girl Crisis, an all-female concept troupe operating on a specifically detailed concept. The idea behind it was to a) name themselves as a joke on Boy Crisis and b) exist only in web-video form featuring c) an essentially revolving cast of indie Brooklyn sirens that d) have nothing for sale and will not play live shows but e) are a “long-term” project that records covers of classic songs, learned and arranged just before performing, in a Greenpoint living room on Super 8mm camera. All of this came to be two years ago, conceived by Chairlift‘s Caroline Polachek, Class Actress‘s Elizabeth Harper (whose apartment hosts the proceedings), and This Frontier Needs Heroes‘ Jessica Lauretti and (sometimes Stereogum photographer) Bek Andersen, both of whom handle capturing the pieces visually while Polachek records audio via room mics. Of course, there is more. Concept!

Songs are committed to tape seasonally, the girls — who are all friends in bands that don’t get to harmonize with ladies otherwise — choosing a classic song to cover by a male singer every winter, and a female for their summer pick. (Past choices have included Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” Sade’s “Smooth Operator,” and Chris Isaacs’ “Wicked Game.”) For this summer’s selection the lineup’s expanded considerably, the tag-set swelling to include (in addition to the aforementioned founders): Erika Spring-Forster (Au Revoir Simone), Ilirjana Alushaj (Apache Beat), Molly Shea (Acrylics), Leah Carey (Amazing Baby), Jane Herships (Spider), and Sophia Knapp and Linnea Vedder (Lights).

The song of choice this time is Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart.” You remember the original — here it is stripped down and less confrontational — both visually and vocally — from a group of friends in the 11222 in a piece that’s a little more sultry, with a lot less hairspray.

New Tanlines – “Real Life”

amrit — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0000

Over the past year, Brooklyn duo Tanlines have been role models for the remix route to launching a new project, letting expectations for their own material take shape around the outlines of their redo-resume. They’ve turned in some great ones, tweaking Au Revoir Simone, The Tough Alliance, Glasser, and Bombay Bicycle Club (all of which you’ll find below) to inform the recently released, balmy “S.A.W.,” their first original with proper verse vocals, sounding like Muscles packed his synths and one inch badge pin for holiday in Ibiza. Their new single “Real Life” is another step up, on another proper song their own (an EP’s in the offing). It stirs up all sorts of percussion and synths with sunset guitars and vocals into a jam that’s danceable but forlorn, humid but chilled out. Listen:

Au Revoir Simone/Class Actress @ Highline Ballroom, NYC 1/7/10

amrit — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:08:26 +0000

It was ladies night at the Highline Ballroom last night, the Chelsea club putting together a bill anchored by relatively longstanding, dreamy keyboard trio Au Revoir Simone, and a launching pad for singer-songwriter Alexa Wilding and the highly promising Class Actress — a project taking its cues from ’80s pop and the sound of its vintage synths, fronted by the memorable presence of Elizabeth Harper’s vocals, signed to Chris Taylor’s Terrible Records. As Kyle Dean Reinford‘s photos show, Au Revoir made it snow — quite literally — and as that lead pic captures, ARS invited Elizabeth and Alexa for an a cappella cover of Kylie’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.” We have some video of that moment, photos of the night via Kyle, and a take-away sample from Class Actress’s excellent debut EP Journal Of Advocacy.

New Au Revoir Simone Video – “Shadows”

brandon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:31:49 +0000

Our last look at Au Revoir Simon came via Tanlines’ “Shadows” remix. This time, the Brooklyn trio offer the Still Night, Still Light track in pristine form via a moody, quick-cutting video. Stereogum’s co-presenting the premiere of Brendan Colthurst and Vikram Gandhi’s deceptively simple clip with the David Lynch Foundation. Lynch had this to say about ARS and “Shadows”‘ visual treatment:

I LOVE AU REVOIR SIMONE ….. THESE GIRLS HAVE WHAT IT TAKES ….. MUSIC JUST FLOWS OUT OF THEM SO NATURALLY — AND IT’S GREAT MUSIC …… THIS VIDEO FOR “SHADOWS” — FROM THEIR NEW ALBUM STILL NIGHT, STILL LIGHT IS MIGHTY — THE COLOR AND THE LIGHT ARE STELLAR — THE MOVES AND LOOKS — MINIMAL — CLEAN — MODERN AND SOLID ….. IT ALL COMES ALONG SO WELL SUPPORTING THE GIRLS AND THEIR MUSIC ….. ANNIE, ERIKA AND HEATHER HAVE GOT THEIR ACT TOGETHER — THEY’RE BIG — BUT THEY’RE GONNA BE BIGGER — THEY’RE GONNA BE REAL BIG

Watch the video, along with a band interview, at dlf.tv. It’s not difficult understanding why it’s up Lynch’s alley.