SLEIGH BELLS DELIVERS!

"got my 'a' mchns on the tbl, got my 'b' mchns in the drwr" 

I first discovered Sleigh Bells (duo Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss) back in December09 and at this time all they had were 4-5 singles that all sounded like live-to-tape recordings from local sets. Though, a little underproduced and over-distorted A/B Machines instantly got me scrounging random blog entries on Hypem to track down as many recordings from this band as possible. Without a produced full length album, and hailing from Brooklyn, NY they officially became my MOST ANTICIPATED album/live-set for 2010.

When Pitchfork Fest turned away from us on media accreditation (until the last minute), I pretty much gave up on my mission to see Sleigh Bells live; but of course, upon the release of their album they embarked on a North American Tour which brought them to me last night in Toronto. 
As much as  I would love to see their small-venue, floor-level-set in Brooklyn, there's no way I would be able to 'tough'-out such an event, and so I settled for the 'bat cave club' atmosphere of the Phoenix in TO. Despite the fact that we stood in one spot waiting 2 hours for the band to come on stage, they really made me forget the less-than courteous people around me and remember why I bought the ticket in the first place.

Their set was packed full off non-stop energy. I'm pretty sure they played every track on the album, plus one I've never heard before. Alexis Krauss lives and breathes every single beat on that stage, without missing a key. They might have a 'drum machine' taking care of those hard beats, and back vocals but those screams you hear on the tracks are NOT samples, they are hers and they are live.
It's duo's like this that leave me wondering where all of that performance art even sprouts from, are they freaks of nature? Nah they're just from Brooklyn and know how to party hardy.

SLEIGH BELLS | A/B MACHINES from BDM on Vimeo.

[So, the iphone is clearly not made for bassy live-tunes. Maybe Apple should look into this. This was the best clip I had that didn't drop out audio completely.]

After listening to the LQ singles for 5 months, their full length was a real 'treat'. When I first listened to it, all tuned up, cleaner, louder and way less distorted, it felt like I was plugging my headphone jack into a light board. (This may or may not be a result of PC'ing for the majority of my teens and watching all my music on Windows Media Player). As I'm not the best at explaining the way music sounds, but what I saw was explosive saturated rainbow patterns encoded with the hard beats and pull backs that make you want to do nothing but rock out.

Favourite part: In the reproduction of A/B Machines, which is still purposefully distorted,  they've created a blend of noise that makes the guitar sound as though it's being sucked from your ears rather than blasting them to 'deaf'. This contrast just makes you want it harder for longer. 

Beforehand the only way I could pinpoint what their music made me see were keywords like "bullies, hard, playground music." Like the stuff your high-school bully kicked your best friend's ass to, after school by the hopscotch on the elementary grounds.
 
Now that I'm familiar with their album art work, their sound has taken on a much bigger, tougher, team/teen-spirit feel, like the stuff cheerleading acrobats choreograph their sets to.  ------>>>>>>


Either way, Sleigh Bells does not sound like Christmas, so pick it up, party hard this summer, and learn how to fight before it's back to school!

-Brittknee Withikaye, Editor | BDM

SLEIGH BELLS | HYPEM | PITCHFORK | PHOENIX