Sitting at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, I noticed that every time someone made a joke about the flailing music industry, the entire ballroom paused to take a swig from their drinks. The gut reaction of music lovers has been to blame the collapse of music industry on corporate greed: the inflation of prices on goods that are cheap to produce, while artists gain minimal profit. The sudden introduction of free online file sharing and downloading pulled the carpet out from beneath Big Business' feet, leaving record companies scrambling. Traditional album sales have fallen 40% since 2000, and they only continue to decline. Well, not so much decline as plummet. No one really knows how to make money off music any more... but that doesn't mean that the music itself has suffered. On the contrary, mix tape culture is still going strong and bands all over are still invested in creating, inventing and playing for audiences rabid for something new. And that's what matters. Case in point: my favorite NYC indie band, La Strada.
Anyone who loves music knows the joy of discovering a new band. Someone mentions them to you in passing, maybe you catch their name on a flyer, and before you know it, you're hauling yourself across the city on a freezing cold night to pay too much for a bad beer, hoping that this band is worth loosing two toes to Old Man Winter.
Wandering into Sound Fix on just such a night, the first thing I noticed about this band I'd heard about was the accordion. It wasn't really what I was expecting. Same with the cello -- really, the entire string section. Lord save me from these "lots of instruments" bands! You know what I mean: there's a bevy of quirky instruments like a hurdygurdy or a harmonium, and everyone switches around playing them. Without a strong drummer leading the way, these bands fall apart like flan in a cupboard.
About half way into their first song, I realized... Not only does this band have it together, they've got something to say, and they're... good. Named after the film, La Strada combines gypsy influences with what sounds French drinking songs. They make you want to swing red wine bottles around, pretend to speak French, and make out with someone. Which, if I'm being honest, I always want to do, so really, it was love at first sight.
Photo: Jamie Goodridge
The band came together like most people hook up in New York: Craigslist. Paris-born lyricist James Craft posted an ad looking for people to make "music with fire," "It said 'accordion, driving rhythms, gypsy inspired, lots of vocal harmonies.' People had to be able to play, they also had to be able to sing." Devon Press, the man behind the melody, responded and brought along guitarist and long-time friend Ted Lattis. Classically trainer viola player Corrina Albright, was drawn by the promise of something new and challenging, "In the conservatory, I was always more drawn to what the jazz people were doing -- improvising. It's not that I don't love classical music -- I do -- it's just that I'm never satisfied." Cello player Maria Jeffers was solicited on the subway by Craft: "I was on the train in midtown and saw someone with a cello on their back, and I'm like "Do you play cello?" and asked her if she's like to play with a band."
When I asked about all the instruments, Lattis replied, "We can do everything we want to do, any fantasy of sound, we're not hindered by the very classic rhythm section set up with a frontman. We're all constantly trying to expand our repertoire - especially Devon. His apartment looks like the back room of a Sam Ash." As long as their "fantasy of sound" keeps people singing along like they're at a soccer match, I'm all for it.
With bands like the Decemberists, Beirut, Gogol Bordello and others, popular rock music has evolved past the standard set up of guitars, bass, possibly a little piano thrown in for kicks. Says Baer, who also comes from a classical background, "It seems like people are really hungry for stuff that sounds different these days. I started playing in bands in San Francisco ten years ago, and I was always in bands that had a similarly eclectic and unusual instrumentation. But at that time, it was an uphill battle to be playing in a band that wasn't a standard rock band. I don't feel like that's true at all anymore."
Overall the band has seven members: Craft on the accordion and lead vocals, Lattis and Press trading up lead, rhythm and bass guitar, Daniel Baer on violin, Corrina Albright on viola, and Maria Jeffers on cello (she also occasionally plays with Sufjan Stevens). I would tell them that if this whole music thing doesn't pan out, they have enough people for a great intramural dodgeball team, but seeing La Strada live, it's obvious music is what gets their blood pumping. The cacophony and crescendo of "Starling," (the band's favorite number at the moment) makes your heart pump and your throat ache to join in -- even if you can't harmonize for shit.
Drawing on Jungian archetypes, folk tales and Franco-Baltic harmonies, La Strada offers up the best of the New York indie scene: interesting music made by talented people who have a point of view and a love for what they do. With a new drummer in Brady Miller, and plans for recording an EP, La Strada exudes the optimism and joy that all young bands need to keep slogging. Craft gushes, "It's transcending the folk influences, it's getting bigger. And that's exciting." Indeed.
If CD's aren't selling like they used to, let's focus on this: if the music is good and exciting, people will always buy it. Businesses have to learn to evolve like the rest of us, and if more publishing and recording power stays in the hands of bands, whether they're recording their first EP in Brooklyn, or if they're Trent Reznor or Radiohead, who recorded and released their most recent record, In Rainbows, without a record company. As Tom Yorke said, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'Fuck you' to this decaying business model."
If you'd like to check out La Strada and live in the New York area, come on out to Brooklyn and catch them April 5 at the Luna Lounge or you can see them April 25 at Union Hall, both fabulous venues. See you there!
La Strada Blog
La Strada MySpace