Barsuk RecordsYou may be more familiar with Viva Voce from television than you are from their albums or performances. Though they’ve toured with seemingly every popular indie band of the decade, they’ve managed to avoid super-stardom, befalling the same fate as many of their contemporaries by winding up as the background to Volvo commercials or the latest teen drama on the WB. Perhaps indie pop musicians have to earn their daily bread somehow, but I can’t help feeling a little nostalgic for the late '90s. (You know what I’m talking about.)
Luckily for Viva Voce, they’re with Barsuk Records, an honest-to-goodness independently-minded label that produces and releases honestly great music. The double disc album, Lead the Way!/The Heat Can Melt Your Brain, was first self-released as separate albums in 2003 and 2004, respectively. Much like the band itself, consisting of married couple Kevin and Anita Robinson, the two home-recorded albums are a perfect compliment to one another, their psychedelic pop sounds maturing and becoming more complex and layered as the albums progress. Anita’s voice is uncomplicated, even sweet, which works to ground the more distorted arrangements that surround it.
Their music has changed a bit since these early days, and they’ve released another album since, but these songs showcase the beginning of a long career, which will hopefully in the future stay as far away from catering to the pre-teens as possible. Far, far away.
Review by Jessica Star Rockers
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