Erin Brazill and the Brazillionaires
San Francisco, California, United States | SELF
Music
Press
Erin Brazill and the Brazillionaires waltzed into Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco in March 2011 with 5 new songs in their hands. Ian at the board tracked it all to their lovely analog 2" tape machine. They used the best vintage instruments both they and TT had to offer and the results were fabulous. Melt In My Pocket has cigar box slide interplaying with gentle keys as Erin brings you inside her lovely world. My Backyard tells the story of a back patio party that veers into the darkness of a long night lost to drink and debauchery. Chupacabra is a driving homage to stormy weathers of the heart with a mythical beast bearing down on us all. Give a listen. We'd love to hear what you think. - Cafe du Nord
Erin Brazill and the Brazillionaires
Self-described noir pop six-piece Erin Brazill and the Brazillionaires is set to use its Amnesia performance as an opportunity to release a new video. Not just any run-of-the-mill, song-to-performance video, this is the visual version of a song suite based on Hitchcock films including Rear Window, The Birds, Psycho, and Frenzy. A brow-raising undertaking indeed. But this talented local group – which includes the use of a washboard, clarinet, cigar-box guitar, and organ – doesn't seem to shy away from a challenge. Plus, Amnesia says there will be a “lingerie fashion show” that night, whatever that means, presumably not the bands in their delicates. - San Francisco Bay Guardian
Erin Brazill and the Brazillionaires waltzed into Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco in March 2011 with 5 new songs in their hands. Ian at the board tracked it all to their lovely analog 2" tape machine. They used the best vintage instruments both they and TT had to offer and the results were fabulous. Melt In My Pocket has cigar box slide interplaying with gentle keys as Erin brings you inside her lovely world. My Backyard tells the story of a back patio party that veers into the darkness of a long night lost to drink and debauchery. Chupacabra is a driving homage to stormy weathers of the heart with a mythical beast bearing down on us all. Give a listen. We'd love to hear what you think. - Cafe du Nord
Erin Brazill and the Brazillionaires waltzed into Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco in March 2011 with 5 new songs in their hands. Ian at the board tracked it all to their lovely analog 2" tape machine. They used the best vintage instruments both they and TT had to offer and the results were fabulous. Melt In My Pocket has cigar box slide interplaying with gentle keys as Erin brings you inside her lovely world. My Backyard tells the story of a back patio party that veers into the darkness of a long night lost to drink and debauchery. Chupacabra is a driving homage to stormy weathers of the heart with a mythical beast bearing down on us all. Give a listen. We'd love to hear what you think. - Cafe du Nord
Playing music with a sense of mystique is an extremely difficult thing to do, considering how much of the modern music scene is dominated by skin-deep, one trick ponies. To bring a persona to the table is pretty rare.
Then there’s Erin Brazill and The Brazillionaires. This well-dressed and energetic sextet based in beautiful San Francisco fronted by the doe-eyed chanteuse Erin Brazill, has carefully crafted their mystique and it’ll no doubt have you reaching for the closest whisky flask and 10-inch long silver cigarette holder. Their particular brand of voodoo follows them to the stage, takes a shot of hooch and proceeds to drag you by the elbow down secret passageways to some velvet-ensconced underground parlor. That’s how potent it is.
The Erin Brazill sound seems suited to other eras: prohibition speakeasy taprooms maybe, or vaudeville cabarets in turn of-the-century Budapest, maybe even the underground clubs of Belle Epoch Paris. If you close your eyes you might even feel the breeze from the flappers’ twirling tassels or the stares of zoot suit thugs watching you over their empty glasses.
The band calls their sound “vintage noir pop”. I would go a little farther, putting it under the categories of klezmer or vaudeville, with twinges Eastern European gypsy, dancehall, swing and jazz entwined, each song a carnival belted out with a complex energy from Brazill’s haunting pipes. And with a garage sale of instruments on stage—clarinet, washboard, musical saw, stand-up base, cigar box slide, accordion, topped by Erin’s sparrow-like whistle, you begin to understand how this band excels at crafting music under such a theatrical persona.
Turns out Erin Brazill has an odd fascination with Alfred Hitchcock. She hasn’t expressly stated where it comes from but I imagine it has something to do with his spooky enigma, the way he reveals himself with a sort of terrorizing cleverness. It’s almost exactly the methodology behind The Brazillionaires’ song onslaught—they come at you unexpectedly then build into rather astonishing crescendos.
Recently the band recorded their song suite “Theories About You” as a music video. The song, allegedly inspired by Hitchcock classics was chosen specifically as the background to the video short below, a veritable riot, and comes complete with a cast of characters from 50s noir: narrow ties, amorous gentlemen getting slapped, even Hitchcock himself, and a band that plays ever on. The piece was filmed in a low-ceilinged performance space in the basement of an antique shop in San Francisco and makes for a handsome and mysterious debut of a great group of players.
Check out the video, if you don’t mind. It was filmed and edited by the singer’s talented brother Nelsen Brazill and is, in fact, wildly entertaining.
http://vimeo.com/50722852
And some behind the scenes photos of the video shoot and the band by Nikolas Zvolensky:
http://www.nikzphoto.com/uncategorized/theories-about-you-music-video/http://www.nikzphoto.com/uncategorized/theories-about-you-music-video/
If you want to listen to more if this great band’s music, their website is packed with titles for your headbopping pleasure. So grab your highball glass, your girlfriend and your jock, they’re kind of a hoot, doncha know. - Ten Times One
Discography
Speakeasy EP (2009)
Last Night In Town EP (2011)
Theories About You (video single) (2012)
Photos
Bio
Check out our brand new video Theories About You in the video section! Erin's brother Nelsen Brazill directed it. The song and video are a beautiful homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window.
A little bit from Erin Brazill...
I was born and raised in Mendocino, California and was fairly entrenched in music, community theatre, and writing poetry from a young age, and there was always a fiddle or a banjo around the house for after-dinner family jams. I studied classical piano and voice as a child up through college, as well as literature and creative writing. After college I moved to San Francisco and worked in jazz clubs in North Beach in SF bartending, booking bands, immersing myself in jazz and writing constantly, feverishly, and glamorously with great beatnik flourish, filling little notebooks with florid lines and flowing, sparkling prose, treasuring those little journals stashed behind the bar.
In the past five years I have been lucky enough to play with a group of very talented, creative and generous people who have stirred and blended their musical gifts and ideas into my music. We play original compositions that I have written, reflective of my time in San Francisco, my rural child hood and travels, and my experiences with friends and loved ones. We primarily focus on our original tunes, though we do throw in a few well-loved or unusual covers here and there.
I call our sound Vintage Noir Pop... often based on blues progressions with fairly involved lyrics and often eclectic arrangements and scratchy Tom-Waits-ish instrumentation, topped off with my cabaret-meets-jazz vocal stylings... a slide guitar here, a musical saw there, a clarinet and an accordion for an Eastern European flair... a bit of old Americana and the Great American Songbook, all mixed and mingled into our very own unique sound and style.
We all love playing together, and love each other dearly... we have fun, work hard and honestly appreciate and enjoy the sheer pleasure of making music with friends... most often, this playful, sprightly spirit leaks out into the audience as well, and often there's a little dancing and romancing out there, and a bit of that ephemeral magic that only happens when live music spins and twists it's way through a crowd of energetic people.
We are always so excited and honored to play music in different venues, in our native San Francisco & Bay Area, traveling up and down the West Coast, and even to parts of Europe this past summer: to meet new people; to mingle, learn, listen, and perform; and to share our wonderful music and make new friends... and that's what makes it all worthwhile. It's those moments of connection that keep us inspired. :-) So we send out a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who supports us and appreciates our music, and we look forward to sharing our love with you again soon!
Band Members
Links
