Buffalo’s sunken treasure
Indie band Lemuria is an island unto itself
Music
Sometimes DIY really
means do-it-yourself. And Buffaloindie-pop band Lemuria
certainly takes that credo to heart.
This is one band that
doesn’t need much help marketing, entertaining, or feeding itself. Its members
run a record label, own a screen-printing business, perform in several
side-projects, and serve up some great $0.99 breakfasts. And that’s just their
day jobs.
By night, Lemuria’sindie-pop-meets-punk
combines sweetness and energy with melody-driven hooks and charmingly intelligent
lyrics. The band follows in the tradition of early ’90s punks Jawbreaker and
Discount with music that emphasizes candor, friends, and wall-to-wall basement
shows.
The trio’s dueling
vocals — guitarist Sheena Ozzella’s confident
confessional voice versus drummer Alex Kerns’ mellow foundation — blend into
a playful mix of storytelling and emotion. And bassist Jason Draper gets in on
the back-ups, too.
The band has played
more than 200 shows in two years, so conversational sing-a-longs must come
naturally with the three crammed in the same van for so long. The constant
traveling demands that the band’s members stick to day
jobs that are, as Kerns notes, “very open for us to go touring.”
And they’ve got good
reason to get out of the house once in a while: in 2006 the band recorded a
split CD/LP, Your Living Room’s All Over
Me, with prolific and recently retired Portland songwriter Ben Barnett
(Kind of Like Spitting), as well as a 7″ single for Art of the Underground, the
record label run by drummer Kerns. Its Single Series mails a new 7″ record to
subscribers every other month for $25 per year (including shipping).
The Single Series
features more than 100 subscribers, including more than 50 from Japan.
Initially there were doubts about its chances for success, but, due to the
subscription service, Kerns says, “they always sell out before the release, so
each single kind of takes care of the one before it.” Past singles have hosted
songs by Washington
singer/songwriter Robert Blake and The Only Children, a project featuring
former members of The Anniversary.
Despite majorlabels boo-hooing
over the “the death of the CD,” Lemuria’s music lives
mostly on tiny plastic discs, both digital and analog, which suits them fine.
“The problem with
[full] albums,” says bassist Draper, “is that none of
the songs really stick out because it takes so long to listen to the whole
thing.”
EPs — short, cheap,
four- or five-song recordings — give bands like Lemuria
a chance to get onto stereos without too much, while keeping the benefits of an
old-fashioned case and disc.
“I’ve never bought an
iTunes release,” says Draper. “I like hard copies of
albums. I like being able to look at the art work.
“I think actually
owning a copy gives you more of a connection to a band,” Draper says.
Connections that
thrive in medium-sized cities like Buffalo and Rochester, places that
Draper notes are “big enough that there’s a lot of people, but not big enough
that you get lost in the crowd.”
Lemuria’s connection to Buffalo’s Custer Street — an area home to
basement concerts and an important touring stop for traveling independent acts
— has allowed the band to build connections with like-minded musicians
throughout the Northeast, what Kerns describes as “a tight community of bands
that…all kind of book our own tours
through a similar network of friends.”
This spring the band
will put out another 7″ split with New
Jersey band The Ergs before the pair tours the
country. After that, the summer will see Lemuria
recording a full-length record, followed by a tour of Europe.
Clearly the band has
the sound and smarts to go big, but it’s more than capable of success on its
own terms.
“If people like us
and want to help us with it, that’s cool,” says Kerns. “All we want to do is
write music and tour.”
Lemuriaplays with Potboiler,
Tin Armour, Break the Glass, and John & Trevor Experience Thursday,
January 11, 7 p.m., at the A/V Space, 8 Public Market, 615-8446, $6.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2007.
