Holly Miranda – Waves
I first heard Holly Miranda a little over a year and a half ago when she did a cover of the late Elliott Smith’s “Between The Bars” with another great vocalist, Scott Matthews. She has a wide range of vocal ability, from her highs to her lows that can be best explained by watching the video yourself. It gave and still continues to give me goosebumps and is simply wonderful and is as good, if not better, than the original Elliott Smith song. Here is the link to the video via Youtube.com (Holly Miranda and Scott Matthews – Between The Bars ) and please support her music by purchasing her album or by catching her on tour with The XX and The Friendly Fires on the west coast starting Nov.19th at The Mohawk in Austin,TX. All the info you need can be found on her website here:hollymiranda.com
“Holly Miranda is a Michigan born vocalist, guitarist, trumpeter and pianist, famous for her work with the Jealous Girlfriends in New York in 2003 and before that, for her solo work in and around East Village in 2001. It was at this time she recorded her first album, a 20-track ‘High Above The City‘, which was only available at shows. She has also recorded under the moniker of Raven Mayhem, as well as her own name and with the Jealous Girlfriends since dropping out of high school in Michigan at age 16. It is her solo work which is the latest to expand. She released an EP at the start of 2009 called Sleep On Fire, which acts as the precursor to her full-length due in the beginning of 2010.
She signed on to XL Recordings in September, (amazingly, she has spent almost a decade as an unsigned artist) and has already toured with The XX, Wild Beasts and The Antlers as well as Florence & The Machine and Friendly Fires. Not only this, but her songs have been played on Grey’s Anatomy and CSI, and she was directly mentioned in a recent blog post from Kanye West. Her new album is being produced by Dave Sitek (Tv On The Radio, Foals, Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and her EP has been reviewed by the New York Times and Time Out amongst many others.
Her sound is slightly on the ethereal side, and a lot calmer and folkier than her work with the Jealous Girlfriends. Her voice intertwines beautifully around calm waves of ambient synths, and retains every bit of Massive Attack style grandeur with every note. Underneath all of these effects you can really hear just how good her voice is. Without knocking the Jealous Girlfriends, her talent is brought out in a much clearer way on this project, and her sentimentality in expression is shown far more with these new songs…” To read the Full Post visit indieshuffle.com
Bonus: Before you listen to this song, let me say that The XX album simply titled “xx” is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. It’s hard to stop listening to from beginning to end and each song has it’s own uniqueness so don’t be surprised if you never get tired of the album. Here is one of my favorites and please check them out if you haven’t already.
The XX – Crystalised
