St. Vincent's heavenly sounds hit shelves, Atlanta

So far 2007 has been a great year for women in music.  Feist released The Reminder.  Bjork returned with Volta. Gather alerted us to Courage the new release from Paula Cole. Kelly Clarkson fought for My December.  Not to mention that before year's end Stars, fronted by the talented Amy Milan, will release a new record and July 24 will see Canadian twins Tegan and Sara release their own new pop gem The Con.

But now, meet the new queen of orchestral pop- St. Vincent.  The album, Marry Me, was released last Tuesday on Beggars Banquet and Wednesday night (July 11th) she graced East Atlanta's The Earl with her ornate pop sensibilities.

Before she took the stage, I got a moment to chat with Annie Clark, the girl behind the St. Vincent moniker, just down from The Earl, outside of Joe’s Coffee shop.  She is a total sweetheart.  Only 24 years old, she seems at home in this particularly arty section of Atlanta; a normal girl with a voicemail aversion and caffeine addiction. On stage, however, she commands the room like one of the seasoned musical elite.

“We’re playing all Spin Doctors covers,” she joked, referencing the 90s act. “But they just had two hits so we’re just playing them back and forth.”

Far from it. Her live show creates the sounds expected of a female Sufjan Stevens only Clark does so with less than half the manpower of some of indie rock's larger touring armies. The pixie-like Clark was joined onstage by Bill Flynn (bass) Daniel Heart (violin) and Walker Adams (drums)--all three men dressed in red pants with white shirts--and with their help St. Vincent created more than enough angelic sounds to fill the bar backroom.

A former member of The Polyphonic Spree and member of Sufjan Steven’s touring band, it’s easy to see where those experiences wormed their way into St. Vincent’s own sound.  “The number one rule is to make everything your resources can allow,” she told me, acknowledging the lessons learned from these larger acts. “Anytime I can make anything that shouldn’t be verbs, verbs I’m really happy.”

“I wanted to create a place where music was removed from the mundane and become its own existence,” she said, her eyes every bit as big and enchanted as they are on her album cover. “I wanted to make a space for that kind of creativity.”

She transfixed the entire crowd, myself included, playing an hour-plus set of songs from <i>Marry Me</i>, including the much-acclaimed title track and my personal favorite “Landmines.”  Clark switched effortlessly from furious guitar to enchanting piano, constantly comfortable with her place in the center of The Earl’s corner stage.  While the venue was hardly as beautiful (or as big) as The Fox, St. Vincent made it the most beautiful place to be in Atlanta.

“Usually people smile when they’re happy,” she excitedly told the crowd during a pause while discussing the release of Marry Me. “My mouth is moving but there’s jubilation behind it.” 

Her excitement and happiness was contaigious--even through her emotional, acoustic solo encore--and as the intimate crowd let out out onto Flat Shoals Dr. a bit of the excitement dispursed with us.

Be sure to catch St. Vincent if she stops by a city near you.

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St. Vincent tour dates:

Jul 17 2007     Bowery Ballroom    New York, New York
Jul 18 2007     Middle East Upstairs    Cambridge, Massachusetts
Jul 19 2007     La Sala Rossa     Montreal, Quebec
Jul 20 2007     Horseshoe Tavern     Toronto, Ontario
Jul 21 2007     Beachland Tavern     Cleveland, Ohio
Jul 22 2007     Empty Bottle     Chicago, Illinois
Jul 24 2007     7th Street Entry     Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jul 25 2007     The Waiting Room     Omaha, Nebraska
Jul 26 2007     Record Bar     Kansas City, Missouri
Jul 27 2007     Hi-Dive     Denver, Colorado
Jul 28 2007     In The Venue     Salt Lake City, Utah
Jul 30 2007     Lamplighter     Vancouver, British Columbia
Aug 1 2007     Doug Fir     Portland, Oregon
Aug 3 2007     Cafe du Nord     San Francisco, California
Aug 4 2007     The Echo     Los Angeles, California
Aug 5 2007     The Casbah     San Diego, California
Aug 7 2007     Modified     Phoenix, Arizona
Aug 8 2007     Club Congress     Tucson, Arizona
Aug 9 2007     Launchpad     Albuquerque, New Mexico
Sep 1 2007     Bumbershoot     Seattle, Washington