SCHUBAS :: FRIDAY :: JULY 25 :: 10
BIO:
Brent Pulse met Lizz Kannenberg on a late-night Chicago el train, after Lizz nodded off and Brent tried to lift her worn copy of Franny and Zooey. What should have probably been a quick kick to the shins instead became a heated debate about who does a better karaoke version of David Bowie’s “Queen Bitch,†and a fast friendship was born. The unlikely pair got off that el train and threw records around a studio apartment for three days, discovering that they share a not-so-secret love of “acoustic pussy music,†a mutual fear of most kinds of cheese, and genealogy – they’re first cousins, the offspring of twin mothers who were separated at birth. This auspicious beginning is just about the only bond that could bring their musical backgrounds (Him: funk, soul, and hip hop; Her: post-punk, garage, and Brit pop) together in one project, and the result is the glam-rock-on-cough-syrup pop of Grammar. Built around the songwriting process of Brent’s lyrics and melodies being taken out back to the alley and roughed up by Lizz’s less refined, DIY approach, Grammar started as a way to blow off steam during downtime from running their children’s birthday party entertainment business. Gradually, playing their quirky brand of bright indie pop became more of a reason to get out of bed than dressing up as clowns for an audience of 6-year-olds, and Brent and Lizz solicited the help of producer and engineer The Colonel Josh Shapera to commit their musical sins to tape. The resulting soon to be released as yet unnamed 6-song EP is a brave chamber folk record with the pluck of today’s best independent rock, the sly, something-up-the-sleeve sexiness of baroque cabaret and the whipsmart sarcasm of dark pop. It’s a demented little love story between two overgrown kids and the world, somewhere between the obviously doomed and the kind that’s meant to be.
What others have to say about Brent Pulse:
NEWCITY:
On 2007's "Low," it takes only five tracks for the listener to learn Pulse's appeal—that his music is the lingering kind. Comforting, heroin soft and inescapably human, the release is akin to the jagged lines and splintered corners of city buildings blanketed in snow. To say the title track is "haunting" is to say not nearly enough. Hesitantly tapping into some innate, universal soundtrack, Pulse strokes pianos, guitar strings and glockenspiels to arrive at a sound as dense as a firmly packed snowball, but also vulnerable enough to fall apart without notice. Pulse has found a way to abandon the singer/songwriter stigma, building in its place a new road, one paved with his history in hip-hop, the magic of his Chicago home and a fearless pursuit of the human condition. There's little doubt amongst those in the "Low" that the forthcoming EP from Pulse will stand out as one of 2008's best. (K. Tighe)
