Shana David
Duluth, Minnesota, United States
Music
Press
GoTour Roadshow
Claudia La Rocco, Associated Press Writer. Associated Press. New York: Jul 11, 2005. pg. 1
Abstract (Document Summary)
The showcase of independent artists, including opera singers, dancers and comedians, celebrated the first anniversary of GoTour. The free networking Web site encourages grass-roots touring for performers, especially those who lack institutional support.
GoTour is run by The Field, and in keeping with the New York- based arts organization's egalitarian bent, the 14 acts at Performance Space 122 were selected by their peers following an essay contest in which they were asked to address what it means to be an independent artist and what the benefits of touring are. Seventy-three artists answered The Field's call.
Full Text (395 words)
Copyright Associated Press Jul 11, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) _ What's that? You missed the show at Performance Space 122 this weekend?
Don't worry. Chances are some of the artists in the GoTour Road Show are heading to a city near you.
The showcase of independent artists, including opera singers, dancers and comedians, celebrated the first anniversary of GoTour. The free networking Web site encourages grass-roots touring for performers, especially those who lack institutional support.
GoTour is run by The Field, and in keeping with the New York- based arts organization's egalitarian bent, the 14 acts at Performance Space 122 were selected by their peers following an essay contest in which they were asked to address what it means to be an independent artist and what the benefits of touring are. Seventy-three artists answered The Field's call.
Friday night's show served as a New York debut for many of the performers, including some of those based in the city. Just shy of three hours, the evening had a homespun feel, from supportive, cheering audience members to do-it-yourself stage setups by the various groups.
Singer-songwriters Erin Lee Kelly and Marci Appelbaum kicked things off with the "Hello Song," its catchy, dysfunctional lyrics (rhyming "My boyfriend's ex-girlfriend keeps calling me" with "appalling me"). It was very different from the children's songs they usually perform.
This charming disconnect set the stage for the non-curated show, in which Mary-Elizabeth Holby and Shana David's absurd but poignant songs followed Julie Troost's overwrought dance-drama about her grandmother's death, and Greek tragedy preceded wordless physical comedy.
Jennifer Lanier inhabited several personas in "None of the Above," her take on the agony and ecstasy of junior high romance _ a coming-of-age-story complicated by homosexuality and ethnicity. The Hawaii-based actress was equally convincing, whether contorting her body as she folded and refolded imaginary notes for the object of her affection or transforming a stool into a La-Z-Boy recliner for the straight-shooting Aunt Vera.
Hometown band The Switch provided another highlight with their electronic pop, lead singer Kai Altair's raggedy glamour and voluptuous voice fronting a pokerfaced quartet of hipster musicians.
Despite a few clunkers, the evening provided exciting evidence that the indie arts scene is alive and kicking. Making art, especially when you have no assurances that it will ever be seen, is an incredibly hopeful endeavor.
___
On the Net:
GoTour: www.gotour.org
Performance Space 122: www.ps122.org
The Field: www.thefield.org
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Dateline: NEW YORK
- Associated Press
Shana David record release show
Friday, Oct 6 at 10PM
Yesterday's Social Club, 3638 Park St.
Jacksonville
387-0502
On her new white-vinyl 7-inch, "Terminally Bourgeois" (released on Shrug Records), Shana David shuns complexity for breeziness, allowing any sense of responsibility for wowing her audience to fall away. Despite the current trend of pianist/songwriters -- Charlotte Martin, Jennifer Terran, Regina Spektor -- who focus on their skills as pianists, David opts for an MG1 mini-synth. That's it. Just the mini-synth. And rather than dense, arpeggiated runs and stacked chords, she plucks out simple, near-robotic electronic lines.
The result is nothing short of delightful. The two standouts -- "I Fucked Up" on side one and "Bad Sandwich" on side two -- speak of love lost and jealousy, less Carole King than They Might Be Giants. It's terrific, quirky stuff, with David's girlish vocals tripping all over the witty keyboard patterns. The lyrics are clever as hell, and David never takes herself too seriously.
Even the cover of, "One," made popular by Three Dog Night in the 70s features a unique twist, beginning with a plodding cadence and ending on an almost-happy note. David's vocals really shine on this one, too. (Full disclosure: I worked with David on a composing project a few years back).
If David is capable of releasing an album's worth of Tori Amos-style angst, thank Lucifer she hasn't. Instead, she has crafted a super-neat collection of short funness. Now you just need to go out and buy a turntable to play this sucker. - Folio Weekly
Twee pop’s response to Sarah Silverman, and it comes with its own garbage bag. Capable, overly cutesy pop otherwise, all banged out on chord organ synth, sounding like an Atari. Ms. David displays an understanding of pop arrangements but not necessarily a respect for her audience. Nilsson cover redeems it for novelty’s sake (it’s “One,” by the way). Pretty odd, so all you weirdos will likely dig it. White vinyl. - Dusted Magazine
Discography
Shana's first (but not last) record is Terminally Bourgeois, an EP released by Shrug Records in October 2006.
Photos
Bio
Shana David discovered what fun it is to compose at age nine, the year she wrote a song for her summer camp clarinet ensemble. She still enjoys most the challenge of composing pieces with eclectic instrumentation.
She has performed her music, primarily piano based power pop, in Boston, New York, Jacksonville, Florida and Duluth, MN where she currently resides. Shana was selected to perform in the Go Tour Road Show and has been commissioned by both the Jacksonville Film Festival and Theatre Jacksonville. She is also an elementary music educator who includes David Bowie songs in her curriculum whenever possible, and has received a grant from the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra to pilot a children's Ukulele Ensemble called The Flea Circus.
Shana received a Bachelor of Music from Berklee College of Music. Her primary course of study was vocal performance but she dabbled a bit, as she is wont to do, playing bass clarinet in a Klezmer ensemble and working as composer and lyricist on "Weight Loss Center of the Damned," a musical about an obese preteen preparing for her Bat Mitzvah while resisting Satan who is posing, of course, as a nutritionist.
Her first EP, "Terminally Bourgeois," as Andre Breton declared all music to be, was released in October, 2006 by Shrug Records. It is a 70g white vinyl 7" that features artwork by local Jacksonville artist and collaborator Ryan Strasser. An MG-1 Mini-Synth (played by Shana) and vocals (also Shana) are, "...nothing short of delightful," or so said Jacksonville's Folio Weekly. They also called it "witty," with lyrics that are "clever as hell," and referred to the album as, "a super neat collection of short funness," a phrase that rather aptly describes Shana herself.
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