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Camera

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The best kept secret in music

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"Deek Magazine"

Camera’s sound is like stuffing ten pounds of
toe-tapping, emo-free punk into a five pound guitar
case. The opening track on EP # 1, “One is Only” sets
the tone for an album that is not shy about keeping
things quick, dense, and alert. It keeps a sing-alongy
hook consistent throughout without plugging a catchy
riff every other downbeat. Camera manages to be catchy
without endless repetition, and “One is Only” is an
auditory appetizer for an album that continues to be
easy to digest.

The next track, “Red 12,” presents a pseudo-Anglo
style of music reminiscent of The Clash. It manages to
sustain a sense of style that is definitive, unique,
but not wholly original. It’s possible to listen to
this album and feel that, maybe, just maybe, Camera is
a homogeneous amalgamation of different influences and
not a band unto itself. However, the sound is
pleasantly light and up-tempo, and the mere fact that
it is enjoyable diminishes the voice of the critic
inside that is all-too-eager to cry out “WANNABE,”
especially in dealing with this genre of music where
anti-image is almost as clichéd as image itself.

The third, and final, track of EP #1, “That City,”
maintains the up-tempo style rife with catchy synth
melodies and pulsing rock rhythms that drive the first
half of this album. Another likeably simple track,
this serves as an easy transition between EP #1 and EP
#2. While this track keeps in with the album’s style
it also remains independent in its sound so that it
doesn’t run together with the previous track. Camera
does a phenomenal job of presenting a signature sound
without making every song sound the same. It shows a
confidence that is infects your listening.

EP# 2 is musically stronger than EP # 1, but it
carries a heavier tone to it. The opening track,
“Showers to Sunshine” oozes a pseudo-Elvis Costello
musical intellectualism that makes you feel as though
you’re missing something. The track ends quickly, and
makes you realize that “abrupt” is a great adjective
for describing Camera.

“East Busway,” the second track of EP # 2 is the
strongest track on either EP. With garage sounds
ranging from hand clapping to kazoos this track draws
together all that makes Camera sound like Camera on
this album. Stuck-in-your-head-all-damn-day synth
beats, pulsing guitar and bass riffs that march along
the chords, and the repetitive chant of background
vocals propel this song along a course so addictive it
almost feels pop.

EP # 2 closes with “Upside Downtown,” a track which
features more of the same. This is another example of
Camera capturing a sound that you can recognize, but
doesn’t repeat itself across the tracks. You don’t
mistake one track for another, they all stand apart
but there’s no questioning they originate from the
same source.

All in all both EP’s offer a casual selection for your
CD player. Nothing on this album will blow your rock
socks off, but your toes tap inside them. A fun,
simple, easy listen, Camera’s EP’s #1 & 2 provide the
kind of music you can have a good time to.
- Mo Mozuch


"Pittsburgh Post Gazette"

Making the mod: scooters and the right shoes

Friday, January 23, 2004

By Ed Masley, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette







In the opening scene of "American Mod," a character who then goes on to spend all 18 minutes of the movie riding scooters, scoring drugs and pursuing the ultimate bird explains the appeal of his culture.

"It's about the clothes," he says, "A style of dressing. Shoes. I mean, look at my shoes. Do you see these? These are right on, man."

And they are.

But as much as the clothes -- or shoes -- inevitably make the Mod, that emphasis on fashion didn't stop the scene from spinning off some awe-inspiring music as a sideline, not the least of which you could find on the earliest albums by The Who, whose inspiration can be felt in any decent Mod-revival band, American or otherwise, including Headquarters, the sharp-looking band in the movie.

You can check out both the film, which takes you on a joy ride (via scooter) through the New York Mod scene, and the band tomorrow at the Rex, where Mod Night also features Soulcialism DJ Soccer John and Pittsburgh's Camera, who aren't necessarily Mod but are the ones who called it Mod Night.

"I don't consider us Mods at all," says Joe Dello Stritto, their bassist. "I think we pull some of the influences from the '60s-era mod scene -- '60s Kinks, the '60s Who, Motown, stuff like that. But we were just looking for something to offer Pittsburgh other than the regular show that you see every week in the club."

Although he says "I think we can relate more to this kind of scene than any other scene" and further points out that "I kind of wear my hair the same way those guys [in Headquarters] do," he does not, for example, ride a scooter.

"Me and Curt [Biondich, Camera's drummer] ride Harleys," he says, with a laugh.

So he's a rocker, then.

Another thing that makes this Mod Night better than the average show you can see every week in the club is that Camera, one of Pittsburgh's best new pop groups, is using the night to celebrate the release of a second EP and a re-release, in stereo, of last year's stunning debut EP, which the band had mixed in mono, Dello Stritto says, because "nobody else was doing it."

If Camera is shy about wrapping itself in the Mod flag, Headquarters certainly isn't. "American Mod," in fact, is the brainchild of Headquarters frontman Charles Wallace, who according to the soundtrack's liner notes "created the concept for 'American Mod' in the same milieu of stylish soirees the film seeks to represent."

OK, that's two words I just learned to spell.

But they've certainly captured the spirit and sound of classic mod groups on the soundtrack, "Cakewalk," with production by the Strokes producer, Gordon Raphael.

Saturday's show begins at 9 with Camera and is being presented by Luxx (a South Side Mod shop), Vespa scooters and the Mini-Cooper. Tickets are $5.

- Ed Masley


"City Paper"

[pittsburgh city paper december 4th 2003]

Camera


Snapshot Pop
Writer: JUSTIN HOPPER
Photographer: SHAWN BRACKBILL


To hear Camera frontman and lead singer Shane Sahene tell it, he and
guitarist Shawn Bann's previous band -- and, in a way, everything about the
'90s -- needed therapy. Maybe not Freudian analysis or a daily dose of
Prozac, but rather 100 cc's of pop immediacy and Dionysian delight, stat!
Thus was it that Sahene and Bann took the nine-minute shoe-gazing opuses
that had brought their band Lowsunday regional fame and a record deal with
vaunted goth label Projekt Records, and traded them in for a handful of
Holland-Dozier-Holland 45s and a T-shirt with a target on it. All part of
exorcising some demons of seriousness, you see.

"I think it's a psychosis," says Sahene. His speaking voice wavers between
soft-spoken and downright timid -- nothing like you'd expect from a
long-time band frontman. "You get up there [on stage] and you can pour
anything out of yourself -- you've got a little bit of everything in you.
Hopefully that psychosis is coming to an end where people find the need to
get up and complain, and not celebrate life. If there is any kind of
movement away from that, then we'd certainly like to be a part of it."

Thus it was that Sahene and Bann took to the streets -- from the hilly
terrain of Lowsunday's perception (thanks to song style and label choices)
as an atmospheric goth-gazer group to the relatively clean lines-of-sight
of Carnaby Street and Motown. The result is Camera, a band whose six months
or so of live gigging has already made it a firm favorite of the indie-pop
set, but not without hard work: While a half-year seems short for a band to
establish itself, Camera spent the previous year solidifying its lineup and
creating a sound.

"For about eight months, we were looking for a second guitar player," says
Sahene. "We auditioned a lot of people and everyone was good, but it wasn't
that missing piece. When we started playing with the organ, that was really
the final piece -- it was right."

"Over that [first] year," says Bann, "we became really used to playing
[together], but we ditched most of the songs we initially had, as we got
more and more in touch with what we wanted to do. It was frustrating, but I
think we needed every bit of that time to get everyone up to speed and get
everyone together."

For bassist Joe Dello Stritto and drummer Curt Biondich, the pop-heavy,
new-mod sound that Camera was looking for made perfect sense -- the pair
had already begun exploring that territory in Suburban Sect. Organist Jack
Flynn, another name from the east-suburban music roll books (he and
Biondich were in seminal late-'80s band Bastard Squad), completed the
band's round-up of American-influenced, Anglo-maniacal pop. As evidenced on
the band's three-song debut EP, Camera is one part My Generation energy,
one part Madness' pub-piano rhythmic corners, equal parts Blur's
post-Davies everyman pop and Oasis' lads-'n'-lager casualness. But only for
the moment -- another mod-era attitude the band displays is an
unwillingness to stand still. Rather than the time- (and money)-intensive
album process, Camera plans on a series of EP releases, as resources allow.

Those EPs may fly off shelves, but they aren't likely to change anyone's
vision of music. Camera is a band intent more on creating events -- shows,
recordings, situations -- that alleviate those damned psychoses than on
dogma-shattering music. But any cries of "retro" and "derivative" may go
unheard and unheeded by a band set firmly in the here and now.

"I don't see it that we're necessarily going out for invention -- we're not
really trying to take on the world; we're sticking with inspiration," says
Sahene. "You sort of go wherever it goes; whatever makes you feel that much
better each day is what you do. For us, we're sticking with classic song
structure, classic writing teams and classic producers like [Who svengali]
Shel Talmy.

"How it all relates to now, I really don't know, but it just feels good,
and I think that whenever you finish playing, you should feel uplifted --
by the time you're done, you should feel better than when you started."


Camera opens for Hot Hot Heat 7 p.m. Mon., Dec. 8, at Club Laga, Oakland.
412-682-2050.
Camera and the New Alcindors perform at 10 p.m. Wed., Dec. 10, at the Lava
Lounge, South Side. 412-431-5282.

- Justin Hopper


"Pulp"

[pittsburgh pulp november 6th 2003]

Camera, a modish set of psyched-up popsters, played an early spot at the Lion's Den in the Village on Saturday. They had a lot working against them -- small club, first spot on the bill, Echo and the Bunnymen playing across town at virtually the same time. But despite it all, their performance was the true Pittsburgh highlight of the week, and it meant everything to the band. In a surreal, cinematic display, a typical Pittsburgh club night was recreated. A dozen or so Pittsburgh-to-New York transplants showed up, as did an extremely large number of locals who'd either traveled with them, came for CMJ or just happened to be in the neighborhood. Nearly the entire floor was filled with us -- it was unreal. Once Camera took to the stage, after the first few beats of their energetic, stylish pop rock, everyone was dancing -- and not just nodding their heads with crossed arms and tapping feet. They were jumping, bouncing, doing flips and making spectacles of themselves. Shane Sahene, vocalist, looked more than pleased.

"It was overwhelming to see so many friends bouncing around with smiles on their faces," he said. "New Yorkers are notoriously unexpressive toward bands, so it was especially cool that the situation became more of a chaotic blowout...and turned into a nice little dancing party. We walked away from that show feeling so much more connected to everyone, and realizing that our friends are the ones who bring life to what we do."

Camera was probably the least established of the local bands to play that weekend -- they'd been together for only about a year -- but group members had connections that went much farther. Sahene and guitarist Shawn Bann were both in Lowsunday and never stopped playing together in between. Keyboardist Jack Flynn, bassist Joe Dello Stritto and drummer Curt Biondich had performed in various groups, including Bastard Squad and Suburban Sect. Together they create a fresh brand of pop -- the kind that one would dance uncontrollably to -- and they are sure to become favorites back home, as long as there's room to dance. Cindy Yogmas.

- Cindy Yogmas


"Pittsburgh Post Gazette"

[pittsburgh post gazette november 21st 2003]

CAMERA ACTION

Fresh from rocking the CMJ Music Fest with a really big organ, Camera, one of Pittsburgh's more inspired up-and-coming bands, returns to New York City, where its three-song EP recently cracked the Top 20 at WNYU, for an A&R showcase Saturday at a club called Pianos on Ludlow Street. They're set to hit the stage at midnight or so. If that sounds like a road trip, call the club at 212-505-3733 or go to CMJ Music on Ludlow Street.
Ed Masley PPG
- Ed Masley


Discography

EP1
EP2
EP3

We have website streaming

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

the band CaMEra was formed in 2002 in the city of pittsburgh. with a sound characterized as invasion influenced pop....as original as it is classic. the band's bounce and smoothe harmonies freshen up to timeless pop structure ...from Motown to Carnaby St. ....from Stax to the 100 Club.... with Shel Talmy inspired production. as a touring band, cAmEra desires to bring the Beat Club with them...to stripe the kids, starved by eMpty TeleVision, with a little Ready ..Steady...GO !