One of the best things about SXSW is the totally obscure bands you can discover en route to see a band you know about. Case in point: Florence and the Machine. Who the hell is Florence, and, um, what kind of machine are we talking about here? A keyboard? A mannequin band like at Chuck E. Cheese? Or something I shouldn’t be mentioning here? Well, she’s Florence Welch, a Londoner with a serious set of pipes. Interestingly she was diagnosed with dyslexia (and some other related conditions), but it hasn’t hindered her musical career. Apparently the Machine is her backing band which at one point included Dev Hynes of Lightspeed Champion, another band I saw at SXSW and loved.
Florence Welch
As you can see here, and in my Flickr photostream pics, Florence is a fan of unusual garb while performing, not that she’s a Lady GaGa or anything like that. Eric Chiang and I managed to see her open for MGMT 2 years ago at the Rio Grande restaurant (a horrible music venue, but no reason for the place to go under; for that we’ll blame the food which was improved too little, too late). Not sure about Eric, but Florence blew me away (MGMT were good too, but downplayed their keyboards which irritated us). On stage it was little more than just her at that show, but her stage presence and giant, powerful and soulful voice filled the joint. We found her first EP somewhere and devoured it, eagerly awaiting her debut album Lungs which finally came out in July 2009. I don’t think it has made a dent on American radio (but really, who cares about American radio?), but it went to #1 in the UK after many weeks in the top 40. Her voice sounds like a mix of K.T. Tunstall, Allison Moyet, Kate Nash and Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes, with a little punk rock girl thrown in there. I challenge you to not like “Dog Days are Over”, “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)”, “Kiss With A Fist” and “You’ve Got the Love”. These are singalong anthems of an unusual variety. They’re a bit poppy, but filled with enough odd notes and instrumentation to keep you coming back to hear the nuances of each song. She even displays a twangy, sort of alt-country influence in her voice from time to time. I tend to prefer her more upbeat songs, many of which have a driving rhythm section that is infectious. Most songs have a sprinkling of synths, which usually help them to be my favorites. A little synth applied just right knocks songs out of the park for me. She aspires to a career like that of PJ Harvey, and you can definitely hear her admiration for PJ in these songs.
There are no duds here folks. Give her a listen and I think she’ll be added to your playlists pretty quickly. Enjoy the vid!
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