Excepter is a six-person improvisational vocal and electronics band based in New York City. The group’s noisy mix of psychedelic rock and deranged house music fetch comparisons to Animal Collective, Black Dice, and Gang Gang Dance, but Excepter is far more devoted to chaos and infinity than its more structured contemporaries. While records released on labels such as Paw Tracks, 5RC, Load and Fusetron suggest an interest in pop construction, Excepter’s anarchic live shows display a real focus on provocation, alienation and obliteration. Pioneers in digital documentation, Excepter offers up recordings of most of its live shows as free mp3s through its website.
Brooklyn-based Mirror Mirror has earned a reputation for its curious blend of music and performance, as well as its polymorphous membership. Chief songwriters David Riley and Ryan Lucero met in 2003 and quickly recruited percussionist Matt Bagdanoff, guitarist Jill Kaufman, and a rotating cast of friends, performers and guest musicians. Their unpredictable live shows incorporate theater, visual art, video, design, and even food. MM has played sold-out shows at rock venues and clubs, as well as site-specific shows at galleries and art spaces, where they have been known to construct mazes, offer massages to strangers and lead their devoted followers in song. The Society for the Advancement of Inflammatory Consciousness was born, and claimed as its goal nothing less than “Cosmic Erotic Ecstasy.” Mirror Mirror’s first full-length album (on Cochon Records) is a schizophrenic exploration into the multiple personalities and points of views of the (fictional?) Society, as well as aspiring followers, runaways, hustlers, partygoers, and music producers. The compositions are lush and complex blending folky sing-alongs, sinister rock songs, cult lullabies, robotic choral pieces, and meditative interludes. Ultimately, the album raises more questions than it answers: Are these people real or imaginary? Are they visionaries or are deluded? Capitalizing on the tension between devotion and terror, Mirror Mirror narrate the rise and fall of a utopia…
In the past few years, Mirror Mirror has played shows around NYC, LA, Paris and Miami, with bands like Get Hustle, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Japanther, Aleks and the Drummer, Lansing Dreiden and Telepathe (in which Ryan is also the guitarist). In the run up to their album release on September 16, Mirror Mirror will be releasing a 7 inch in the UK (on Half Machine) on June 16 and planning a summer tour in the US and Europe.