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Gets the Girl, a duo based in NY, is a bold band name in these days of quippy hipster critique, putting their credibility on the edge a bit too early. But I applaud the sincerity, as it’s truly an accurate portrayal of what the guys are aiming for. Per their MySpace:
The music of Gets the Girl always begins with a girl. In songs inspired by the transient passions of youth, guitarist/vocalist Allen Tate and pianist/producer Ellis Ludwig-Leone break their own molds, revealing themselves while rendering the lost or gotten girl unrecognizable. These are love songs, no doubt, for dancing and for kissing, but they also reveal a softer side: sad memories, closed-eye wishes, the touch of hands in the dark. Allen and Ellis lead the listener to the places where closure is less than complete, where words are more searching than smooth, and vulnerability is more telling than sexy.
…And where poetry seems to be just as glorious as the music itself.
Lovey-dovey aside, Allen Tate and Ellis Ludwig-Leone, mere underclassmen at NYU and Yale University (respectively), craft the simplest of songs without losing the necessary bite. They play a soft brand of acoustic pop with hints of folk here and there, as piano takes the forefront and a lightly strummed guitar plods away in the background with the occasional percussion. The harmonies put listeners in their proper place, and the crisp but rough-around-the-edges production perfects this style of pop. You can, however, tell that the boys have a bit of growing to do – both musically and lyrically – but hey, don’t we all? I expect them to carve their niche soon enough.
Gets the Girl have released two albums, Where We Land (in 2007) and the Just Pretend EP which is in the process of being re-worked into a full-length. The track below is from Where We Land, because I’d rather wait for the finished product of Just Pretend to hand its songs out here, but if you’re all Curious Cassies like Jamie, the guys have both albums up for free download on their MySpace (linked above). - Knox Road
Discography
Where We Land - full-length, release in 2007
Just Pretend EP - release in 2008
"Slow Song", from Where We Land, has streaming play on Hype Machine, a music video on YouTube, and press coverage on KnoxRoad.com.
Photos
Bio
In songs inspired by the transient passions of youth, guitarist/vocalist Allen Tate and pianist/producer Ellis Ludwig-Leone break poetic molds, revealing themselves while rendering the lost or gotten girl unrecognizable. The two young musicians met in 2006 at a songwriting clinic hosted by the Berklee College of Music. Allen, a freshman at NYU, sings and plays guitar; Ellis, a sophomore at Yale, plays piano, produces, and arranges the songs. The duo’s latest release, the Just Pretend EP, expands on their first album, Where We Land, in multiple directions, offering hand-clappers and headphone tracks that make clear how Allen has grown as a songwriter and Ellis as a producer and songwriter. The subject matter is the same (“I never change,” sings Allen on “Talk Me Down”), but the sound is bigger, the songs more focused. Though it may seem like Just Pretend is closing the books on the girls in their lives, the duo have left the windows wide open for the future.
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