Emily Easterly
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Emily Easterly

New York City, New York, United States | SELF

New York City, New York, United States | SELF
Band Rock Singer/Songwriter

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This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Amplifier Magazine "Cole" Review"


Amplifier Magazine review of "cole"
by Larry O. Dean

A fragile-sounding voice doesn't always suggest mere fragility; take Aimee Mann, for instance, whose resonant odes to human frailty are conveyed in haunted and muted tones, or Chrissie Hynde, a master of soulful understatement. Both artists refrain from the vocal histrionics that are common in popular music and their songs are stronger for it. Emily Easterly is another singer with similar good taste and restraint. Her second disc, Cole, follows the previous year's debut, Assembling Emily. Ostensibly, this is folk based music, with a solid acoustic guitar construct on which Emily lays her bare-boned lyrics. But thanks to creative input from recording pros who have worked with other Richmond, Virginia-area peers like Sparklehorse and Cracker, Easterly's songs are fleshed out with gorgeous pedal steel licks (the sublime "Bad Luck"), anachronistic analog synth sounds and plenty of ballsy rhythm electric guitar. Her words are refreshingly naïve and straight forward, thankfully free of brainy browbeating and designer despair, yet nothing noteworthy; it's the combination of voice, melody and production that makes Emily Easterly one to watch, and Cole is a great place to start.

- Amplifier Magazine


"Village Voice Show Preview"

Village Voice

Sultry auburn-haired guitar-and-piano-playing singer-songwriter from Virginia who recorded in Miami, dark indie folk fading fast through gritted teeth, with words about cobblestones, old wooden houses, and cartwheels. Fortunately not introverted enough to deserve the Cat Power comparisons. Seasons Never Change, her album title claims, which isn't really true but sort of is.

-Chuck Eddy, Village Voice, December 2005


- The Village Voice


"Split 45rpm Review"

In the first of a series of seven-inch records brought about by Split 45 Vinyl, Brooklyn-based duo Emily Easterly and J Seger have teamed up to release their double a-side record 'Please, Please Say Goodnight / City Love Is Strange'.

For Easterly's part 'Please, Please Say Goodnight' is a triumphant continuation of her recent, and finest, work to date. Encompassing the, now unmistakable, pulsating bass line so many of records possess, Easterly's striking vocal fluctuates from the soft, brooding opening of the track to the urgent and powerful climax. The brief ten-second guitar work mid-way through pays playful homage to her Beatles influence as the song builds to a rousing finale with Easterly imploring to the song's main target to concede to the inevitable. This Virginian songstress' rapid rise continues abound.

'City Love Is Strange', Seger's offering on the record's flip-side, is saturated in the kind of folk-blues tradition that is fast becoming synonymous with his work - despite his novice recording career. Seger writes songs with the maturity of an artist two lifetimes' his senior and, but a mere window into his upcoming sophomore LP, 'City Love Is Strange' sparks an intrigue within all great music enthusiasts. Timeless in its simplicity, an almost apologetic drum beat maintains a soft, smouldering aura throughout as Seger's delightfully imperfect vocal steers the song to an unheralded fade-out. - Joel Crane (NME, Q, Mojo), September 2008


""Heart Comma Heart" Review"

Inspired largely by the music of Neil Young and the poetic soul of Sylvia Plath, Emily Easterly's fourth offering - Heart Comma Heart - is an album that embodies a coming of age for this Virginia-born, Brooklyn-based songstress. Having stripped away many production regularities such as bass guitar, Easterly has finally captured on record a striking resemblance to her emphatic, pulsating live shows - helped, in no small part, by long-time accomplice and drummer Sarab Singh. With songs packed full of urgency and determination coupled with gritty lyrics of distain, Easterly appears to be one artist at ease with her sound and, in a live environment, comes second to nobody - a blossoming, must-see talent on the rise. - Joel Crane (NME, Q, Mojo), August 2008


Discography

Emily Easterly- Assembling Emily (2001)
Emily Easterly- Cole (2002)
**Cole charted on the College Music Journal (CMJ)'s top 200 radio charts in 2002.
Emily Easterly- Seasons Never Change (2005)
Emily Easterly- Heart Comma Heart (2007)
Emily Easterly/ J Seger Split 45 rpm "Please, Please Say Goodnight"/ "City Love Is Strange" (2008)

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Bio

With a mix of D.I.Y. attitude, guitar proficiency, and songwriting skills modeled after Cat Power and Exile in Guyville-era Liz Phair, Emily Easterly made her debut in 2001 with the self-released Assembling Emily. Featuring collaborations with several of Easterly's hometown heroes (including Sparklehorse's Alan Weatherhead and Cracker guitarist Johnny Hickman), the record was issued during the songwriter's final weeks of high school in Richmond, VA. The following months saw Easterly relocating several hours south to study music at the University of Miami, where she released Cole in 2002 and garnered support from college radio. Seasons Never Change followed in 2005, boasting an intimate, stripped-down sound that reflected upon the singer's four-year stay in sunny Miami, and Easterly subsequently moved to Brooklyn to pursue her craft full-time. Inspired by Neil Young, the Beatles, and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, Heart Comma Heart arrived in late 2007.
-Andrew Leahey, allmusic.com

In 2008 she and fellow songwriter, J Seger released a split 45rpm single on vinyl with her song, "Please, Please Say Goodnight" recorded in Brooklyn at Galuminumfoil Studios.

"Well-rounded to the point of perfection, sweet, slyly inventive and ultimately highly memorable." -Richmond Times Dispatch

“The combination of voice, melody and production makes Emily Easterly one to watch.” -Amplifier Magazine