Elvis Perkins and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Rock the New Lupos

Elvis Perkins w/ Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands

One week ago (sorry for the delay), I saw Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the new and greatly improved Lupos Heartbreak Hotel. Elvis Perkins and his long-time friends are AMAZING! They are fantastic performers, musicians, and seem like genuinely nice dudes. It was kind of like a homecoming for them because all of them (I think) went to Brown at some point and in the recent months they have been touring with hot bands like Cold War Kids (awesome) and now CYHSY. Elvis' songs are alternately sad, rollicking, fun, and always beautiful. If you are depressed about the state of music today (like many of us are) and look for something that echoes the classic singer-songwriters, this is the band for you. They have a rich, timeless sound that reverberated through the hall of the newly classed-up Lupos (*I have seen so many shows at Lupos during my years at Brown and it is so much better now that they took the pole-dancing cages out and added lots of chandeliers and loungey couches). Bringham Brough's upright bass sounds so wonderful and full and there's lots of harmonica, acoustic guitar, keys and a cool old accordion type thingy. Nick Kinsey is also really fun on the drums.

Elvis (whose Dad was Norman Bates) has a voice that sounds haunted and strong at the same time and there's a sweet variety in his songs (i.e. they're not all sleepy singer-songwritery types--some are up-tempo and really fun sing-alongs).



Clap Your Hands was also really fun but in a totally different way. After Elvis Perkins I knew the show would be all downhill because they were so freaking good. CYHSY were great though. They're an uber-indie band w/lots of whiny singing and affected rocking out--I had a great time dancing my ass off and so did everyone else. When you can understand what Alec Ounsworth is singing like in "Satan Said Dance" (what a perfect indie anthem title) they're great to sing along to.


Check out their songs on MySpace:
Elvis Perkins
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Some videos I took of Elvis Perkins:
While You Were Sleeping:


All Night Without Love:

Jamming(sorry the sound sucks, but you get the idea):





Tonight, I'm off to see M Ward and Norah Jones! I live a charmed musical life ( :