Month: November 2014

An Interview With Syvia

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A few minutes after walking through the door of Greenwich Village’s The Bitter End, it became clear that Syvia would not be playing for one of its usual crowds. The members of the dark, Scandinavian-inspired electronic rock band stood to the side of the stage as a singer-songwriter finished his set with a string of covers.

If a Taylor Swift jam and Marc Cohen’s “Walking in Memphis” were the kind of tunes that got the crowd leaping out of their seats, throwing high-fives in every direction, and screaming with pleasure, what chance did Syvia have at capturing the attention of the room?

Fortunately, Ruthy Mirsky (vocals and keyboard), Frank Banisi (guitar), Sheldon Chow (bass and keyboard), and Richard Moyle Jr. (drums) came to play, and their brooding songs (including the just released new single “Soon“) soon won over the cover-loving crowd.

More at Punchland.

An Interview With Typefighter

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Throw together a bit of Weezer, a bit of Jimmy Eat World, a heap of Washington D.C. charm (of course, that’s a thing!), and four beards of varying lengths, and you’ve got Typefighter, purveyors of nostalgic ’90s garage-pop.

We caught up with Ryan McLaughlin (lead vocals and guitar), Thomas Orgren (vocals and guitar), Will Waikart (drums), and John Scoops (bass) before they jumped onstage at Mercury Lounge on November 7th and melted the faces off of just about everyone in the building.

It was their second-to-last performance on a mini-tour with Canadian rockers PUP and Brooklyn’s own Chumped, and in between some light stage banter they got the crowd moving on a cold November night. (Though, probably no one was jumping around as much as the extremely energetic Scoops!)

More at Punchland.