PUPPIES & KITTENS

A little less than 2 years ago, Jeff Levitz and Lauryn Tyrell were strangers to each other, not knowing that a trip to the pet store would pave the path to their next musical endeavor. Levitz was in search for a puppy, and Tyrell a kitten, and this cute scene ends with the two bumping into each other, trading each other's artsy tastes, and starting a band called Puppies and Kittens.

The LA-based duo formed a Rhodes/guitar/drums rock trio with a heavy, hold-steady, lo-fi sound with homage to Frank Black and Velvet Underground. But pigeonholing Puppies and Kittens to any group or genre would be unfair.

Tyrell admits, "I like Dolly Parton... a lot." Levitz, in a dash to salvage some street cred, quickly interjects, "...And foundations in the history of rock and roll."

In their not-quite-2-year existence, Puppies and Kittens have recorded 3 albums that have yet to see the light of day (the first of which is produced by The Knack's Doug Feiger, and the sophomore produced by Alex Dixon) for reasons all too mysterious: "We're just waiting for the right time."

Confused yet? Don't be. Though their influences and unconventional album-pushing tactics prove buzzier than their distortion pedals, their live show is electric with curiosity. Puppies and Kittens demand that intimacy shouldn't mean chamber music, that dedications should be bold and sexy, and that allusions to love don't always have to drip like syrup. Puppies and Kittens are loud in performance, but even louder in message. More importantly, they're not reinventing the wheel; Puppies and Kittens are the reminder that rock remains the last vestige in unique music outfits -- not "acts" -- in this town, shitfaced drunk on safe conventions.

-Hugo Gomez - The Deli

Puppies n Kittens
Puppies n Kittens play free show tonight
PnK live and FREE TONIGHT!!!!!
michele mcmanmon
LA Indie Music Examiner
Puppies n Kittens rock Echo Curio Tues. night
michele mcmanmonFebruary 20, 2010
Puppies N Kittens will electrify the Echo Curio art house this tues night. Bring your 40oz and brown bag it artsy style! Echo Curio has plenty of street parking around and is usually a $5 donation at the door. Inexpensive night and usually multiple, local Indie bands. No seats, all standing room. Get their early and be beatific. If you don't understand what "beatific" means, read up on beat writer's and grab your copy of "On the Road". The shows about to start, at Echo Curio there is something for all live art enthusiasts. Echo...
Tags:Echo Curio indie music Puppies n Kittens rock
Puppies n Kittens @ Spaceland "Against the Stream" Benefit Review
michele mcmanmonDecember 10, 2009
Silverlake. Spaceland. A spiritual buzz surrounds the club tonight. Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, founded by Noah Levine (author of Dharma Punx & Against the Stream), is raising funds. This is a great excuse to go out on a Wednesday night to support a righteous cause and listen to fantastic musicians. Puppies n Kittens quietly set up on stage to kick off the nights jam-a-thon. In the blue light of the stage, the three-man set up, bass, electric guitar & harmonica, and drums, seems stark and simplistic. Slamming into classic...
Tags:indie music Puppies n Kittens Spaceland
Puppies n Kittens CD Reviews
michele mcmanmonDecember 08, 2009
Puppies n Kittens 2006 Produced by Doug Figer (The Knack) using a commune of various artists. Overall this CD has a bluesy, country quality and sound. Constant experimenting as an artist, Jeff Levitz pens songs like “Trouble up ahead” which have an honest relate ability in its lyrics, while flowing into a 1950’s stroll musically. “Dear Elliot” leaves no illusion about who he’s referring to (Elliot Smith) nor the feelings about his overdose and death, “your no hero of mine”. The CD finishes with a rock n roll nod to The Pretender’s “...
Tags:indie music Puppies n Kittens Spaceland
My Pod: Jeff Levitz of Puppies n Kittens
michele mcmanmonDecember 07, 2009
"Tell me when It's over" Dream Syndicate "Sad eyes kills" Rain Parade "Israelites" Desmond Dekker "Waterloo sunset" The Kinks "Hazy Jane II" Nick Drake "Going down" Freddie King "Are you sure Hank done it this way" Waylon Jennings "Done got old" Junior Kimbrough "The harder they come" Jimmy Cliff "These days" Nico Junior Kimbrough There is a true rawness and authenticity that exudes from Junior Kimbrough. His music is...
Tags:indie music Puppies n Kittens Spaceland
Jeff Levitz of Puppies n Kittens: constant art of becoming Part 2
michele mcmanmonDecember 06, 2009
“I just love creating…making music, making films, creating and painting…” smiles Jeff from Puppies and Kittens. Music videos are an integral part of Jeff’s mixed media approach to his art. He works with various artists in order to try different ideas and approaches to visually representing his work. Danielle Parson’s directed “Doctor Heartstring”. Blake Monahan directed “Corrina” which Jeff describes as “Goddard-ish with one long shot and a lot of slow pans…” Azalia Snails directed “You took more than I...
Tags:indie artist indie music Puppies n Kittens Spaceland
Jeff Levitz of Puppies n Kittens: constant art of becoming Part 1
michele mcmanmonDecember 05, 2009
Hollywood. Bronson Canyon. Jeff of Puppies n Kittens glides up on his old school bicycle. Young at heart and casually comfortable in his skin, an air of peacefulness surrounds him as he sips a berry smoothie while he chats. He’s promoting his next gig Dec 6th at Spaceland, which is a benefit for “Against the Stream Meditation Society” on Melrose (between Vermont and Heliotrope). “{The} Spaceland show’s a really good cause, so I want to help out, it’s a benefit for the meditation center…for Dharma Punx.” Her smiles warmly “My old art... - Examiner

“I just love creating…making music, making films, creating and painting…” smiles Jeff from Puppies and Kittens.
Music videos are an integral part of Jeff’s mixed media approach to his art. He works with various artists in order to try different ideas and approaches to visually representing his work. Danielle Parson’s directed “Doctor Heartstring”. Blake Monahan directed “Corrina” which Jeff describes as “Goddard-ish with one long shot and a lot of slow pans…” Azalia Snails directed “You took more than I did”. Smiling contently, he says “I like all the videos, they’re all so different and unique to themselves”. Jeff has made films and explains briefly “I had my film shown with Fastbender and Cocteau” then changes the subject back to music.
His process in “songwriting works so many different ways. Early on there were just fragments, then the fragments became songs, then when I got a grasp on writing songs, I just started writing albums. It’s hard to say, but I’ll just write a song, and then get together with people and I’ve got to say, I love writing on an acoustic guitar, but I love writing them on electric too. I love writing them on all formats. Have melodies first, then lyrics, or have lyrics first, then melodies, or sometimes just find the chords.”
“Sometimes it’s not working…sometimes it doesn’t work…through the process of making art I’ve learned to not treat things so precious that if something’s not working you can’t just scrap it, or destroy it, or start over….if it comes back and you want to revisit it…nothing is ever really truly scraped. I don’t want to force things to come to fruition.”
Jeff went on a weeklong silent meditation retreat in Northern California. He says, “The work is just always such a constant flow that like that affected my entire life. Did it make me a stronger writer? Or more creative? I don’t know. Everything is a constant work in progress.”
He thoughtfully adds “Silent meditation has deepened my understanding of the human condition, given me a better sense of wellbeing and has helped me to become a more kind and compassionate person. It has also provided access to an infinite stream of wisdom, knowledge and information. Channels for creativity seem to have been improved and widened.” He continues “these are just some noticeable benefits, but I have only been practicing for a few years and they say one should do it for about 20 years to really check it out.”

Noticing his beautiful ring, on his right hand he explains ”the setting fell out and I kept wearing the ring, this hippy in the Sierra Nevada {range} was into jewelry making…his name was Rama, and he had this slab of uncut green tiger’s eye, that was handed down from his great grandfather to his grandfather to his father to him, like {he} just tapped into it and made this stone…he pounded it in and buffed it.” Jeff hasn’t taken it off since and it seems to be helping protect him on his artistic, mystical journey since he is in a constant state of becoming.
- Examiner

30.08.2008
A BAND YOU SHOULD KNOW:
PUPPIES AND KITTENS

Jeff Levitz and Lauren Tyrell met while trying to find the perfect puppy and kitten, respectively. Although we can’t be sure this is a true story, it’s officially my new favorite “how we met” band story. Musically, they just get it so right. They sound very 60s retro without being at all contrived. A quick look at their pictures will bring you to pages of pea coats, beatle boots, vespas, and other classic symbols of Mod-ness and basically no real band pictures. They take the catchy hooks of the British Mod era and the spaced-out harmonies of American psychedelic bands to create songs that are cool, catchy and different. Jeff Levitz’ vocals on “When I Lean Into You” are reminiscent of Lou Reed in one of his better moods while “Karina” starts out with a raw little blues riff and finishes with a simple but grand piano melody placed over sporadic slide guitar and the repeated line “karina, karina, you’ve got the powers of love”. Even if 60s throwback isn’t your thing, I think everybody can appreciate the raw talent here. - NU RAVE BRAIN WAVE

Hollywood. Bronson Canyon. Jeff of Puppies n Kittens glides up on his old school bicycle. Young at heart and casually comfortable in his skin, an air of peacefulness surrounds him as he sips a berry smoothie while he chats. He’s promoting his next gig Dec 6th at Spaceland, which is a benefit for “Against the Stream Meditation Society” on Melrose (between Vermont and Heliotrope). “{The} Spaceland show’s a really good cause, so I want to help out, it’s a benefit for the meditation center…for Dharma Punx.” Her smiles warmly “My old art band was one of the first to play Spaceland, when Mitchell opened it up, that was in the early 90’s.”
“I’m so lucky I get to play with the most talented people in the world”. P n K band mates are Dave Krusen on drums, Lauryn Tyrell on female vocals, fender roads bass piano/Wurlitzer, and Jeff on lead guitar/vocals. “We’ve had all sorts of different members, but it really gelled when it became a trio with me, Dave, and Lauryn. We have that documented on recordings we are working on now, our latest recordings are of that format. Wag is producing. The recordings don’t yet have a release date, but will likely be out by Spring 2010.
When performing, Jeff ‘s performances are always different. “I change it up. Some songs stay in the set always, because they just work across the board.” This show at Spaceland Dec 6th , will be Jeff on guitar/vocals, Denny Fongheiser on drums and Wag on the bass. “That gig might be a hybrid gig, start acoustic then go electric…” which makes for interesting shows because you never know what will come out of these performances creatively speaking because they’re very spontaneous.
P n K’s first CD was in 2006 produced by Doug Fieger (The Knack) using a commune of various artists. In 2008, the next release came produced by Alec Dixon (Heartstring Symphony), which led to the two bands playing some gigs together.
“We’re just rock n roll” Jeff smiles describing their Indie style. “We don’t have a label…we do everything ourselves…we pretty much run the ship, but it’s more like a dingy, or a life raft.” He pauses, reflecting over his music “but we’re all those things…Pop, Rock, Alternative, Blues, and R&B”. Jeff’s influences are “Early 60’s bands, Rolling Stones, Animals, The Beatles, Kinks, Yardbirds, and blues, like Son House, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Junior Kimbrough.” Listening to P n K, one can’t help but notice there’s an undertow of Velvet Underground that’s undeniable in certain songs.
Jeff’s constantly creating as he explains, “We’re always recording and I’m always writing songs. Some songs I’m finishing that I started {writing} 15 years ago and some I write in one sitting, like in one minute, then others are a variation in between.”
He says thoughtfully “writing happens all different ways for me, there’s no particular method I use, it’s just a pure source of creativity and a pure form of expression. It feels like I’m a conduit or receiver, or these songs even pre-exists, but I’m writing them.”

Jeff talks about films, videos, and silent meditation in Part 2... - Examiner