Biography
Frances is a coed sextet from New York. Their debut full-length, All the While, carries on the great tradition of pop music that plays with itself, taking the fun parts and discarding the dumb ones, flirting with chaos but always returning to a gloriously catchy, melodic center. It's resolutely childlike, fanciful stuff (toy instruments abound, as do sing-sung lyrics about stagecoaches and telephones made of paper cups and string); but then, Frances are correspondingly serious in their execution, employing whiplash-inducing chord changes, bizarre stylistic touchstones (Van Dyke Parks' pop oddities, classic AM-radio rock, a little Stravinsky, a little Sondheim), and darker moments that hint at something terrifying lurking behind the swooning strings and oom-pah horns. Frances is currently working on their second full length album, a few songs of where performed on Daytrotter Sessions this year.
Instrumentation
Paul Hogan - vocals/keys/extras
Stephanie Skaff - vocals/melodica/glockenspiel
Nick Anderson - bass
Tlacael Esparza - drums
Brian Betancourt - guitar
Julia Tepper - vocals/violin
The Francines - a rotating cast of guest musicians on violin, viola, trumpet, trombone, tuba, French horn and clarinet.
Discography
"Frances" LP (self-released, 2004)
"Night Light EP" (self-released, 2006)
"All the While" LP (released on Gigantic Music, 2008)
Links
| http://www.francestheband.com |