Fragile Gang
Los Angeles, California, United States | SELF
Music
Press
"Russian Snows," the opening song of Aisling and Arlo's self-titled debut, is a childlike vision of a train ride across SIberia imagined from "under the red blanket/keeping us warm in your room." There's no auto-tune, no noticeable reverb, no production tricks. Instead the L.A. based, guitar/violin, male/female duo delivers infectious acoustic sing-alongs, colored with touches of Appalachian fiddling, the occasional harmonica entrance, and a subtle punk rock disregard for overcooking the songs' wonderful simplicities.Their unison singing moves from hushed closed-eye delivery to ecstatically shouted "yeah yeahs." The simplicity of the production keeps the frailty of their voices in the forefront and makes for a startling honest and heartfelt sound. Aisling and Arlo aren't hiding anything -- this is how they feel, how they sound. And they make you want to listen. --Hannis Brown. - The Deli
"Aisling & Arlo make music so filled with innocence, beauty, and
fragility that it immediately carries you off away from anything holding you down in your day to day life to another place entirely." -Jim Ward (Sparta/Sleepercar) - Jim Ward
Discography
Valley of Static - LP - 2003
Psychedelic Feelings - CDr - 2004
On the Other Side of the Love We Hear - LP - 2005
Aisling & Arlo - LP - 2009
Twister in the Ocean - LP - 2010
Photos
Bio
The band was formed in El Paso, Texas in 2001 by founding members Arlo Klahr and Aisling Cormack. Klahr grew up on Cape Breton Island, Canada and was exposed to the local traditional Scottish Fiddling music of that region, as well as the 60s and 70s folk and rock n' roll that his parents listened to. When he was a teenager his family moved to El Paso and he became involved in the local punk scene and after some early bands formed the band Foss (http://www.myspace.com/fossband) which included Cedric Bixler-Zavala of At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta. In addition, he helped form and run the independent record label Western Breed Records, which put out the early records from these El Paso punk and post-hardcore bands. He also organized two cross-country tours that saw the band playing in the United States and Canada with many influential bands of the time, including several shows with the Calgary band Placebo, an early band of Leslie Feist of Feist. Cormack was born in Dublin, Ireland and played traditional Irish music on the fiddle. With her two sisters she played music and harmonized with Beatles' songs, the first musical love of her life. When her family moved to Texas she became involved in the same punk scene as Klahr. Her and Klahr first began their creative partnership when she played violin and sang on some of the early Foss recordings. From there it was just a matter of time before the two began the experiment of blending the sounds of their upbringings with the adopted sounds of their teenage and young-adult years. While living in New York City they put out their first record, Valley of Static (2003) and toured around the U.S.A. They've recorded three records as Fragile Gang and one as Aisling & Arlo (Aisling & Arlo 2009 - myspace.com/arloandaisling) and played many shows in select cities across the country. They now live in Highland Park, Los Angeles. They have a new record, Twister in the Ocean, that is dedicated to Arlo's artist mother, Susan Klahr, who passed away in early 2010. It came out in June, 2010.
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