The Da Vincis

The Da Vincis are an incredibly talented young band from Jackson, Mississippi that sound like Jens Lekman covering Morrissey in a '60s crooner lounge. Let's throw a little Jazz Butcher in there just for fun. And if all that's not the most unlikely juxtaposition of sound and place, I don't know what is.

It bears repeating, they sure don't sound like they are from Jackson, Ms. and they sure don't sound like they are still in their teens. This is one of the great things about music-if we stereotype, we are so often wrong. Before I gave this band a listen, I thought "teen pop band with a bad name".

Wrong!

They have the off kilter, story telling humor of Lekman (one of my favorite Swedish artists) which is really hard to pull off without becoming a cliche. It permeates every track --don't miss the hilarious "Friend Request" about FB jilting-- but on this track, they manage to turn a song about being afraid to leave your house to go to a party into an anthem of jazzy pop that absolutely soars. Dig those twinkling piano keys!

The sound is sophisticated, smart, witty and almost dead pan. My guess is it won't be long before we're hearing The Da Vinvcis on one of those Gossip Girl soundtracks we love to hate! - The Music File

This is going to happen more and more as I get older, isn’t it? Yet another extraordinarily talented band who are younger than me. Much younger. They all have the best part of a decade on me, which is bloody scary. Yet despite my default setting of hating them for that very reason, I can’t because they are so good.

Part of what makes The Da Vincis interesting is how they seem to have not grown up with the standard indie influences shaping their sound. These aren’t kids that grew up with Nirvana or even Pavement. This is a band that whose tastes seem to lie in 60s lounges, crooners from the good ol’ days, and little quirks that may go back further still. There’s a modern sound in here too, but it takes a backseat to nostalgia to a time when they weren’t even born.

If I have just one quibble, it’s the name. ‘The’ bands are finally going out of fashion, and the ‘Da Vinci’ part just recalls shitty Dan Brown novels at this point. It doesn’t just doesn’t suit at all. Maybe that’s the point though. Through our expectations from the start. - Another Form of Relief

“50’s Film” is your standard indie pop track influenced by an array of bouncy pop influences, but the band behind the song, The Da Vincis, is not your typical band. Their sound is mature and refined, yet the trio that make up The Da Vincis aren’t even old enough to hold a high school diploma. The juxtaposition gives their songs a special style of innocence, one backed by expertly pieced-together pop. Keyboardist Andrew Burke lends bouncy notes and deep tenor vocals to “50’s Film”, while Gavin Fields backs him up on vocals and pounds out impressive percussion.

The Da Vincis is a band poised for greatness as long as their parents don’t impose an early curfew, so don your favorite argyle sweater (as this music is perfect for the attire): The Da Vincis will release See You Tonight on Olympic Records this coming October. - Fense Post

J’aime les morceaux très riches comme “Standing In Line” de The Da Vincis, les morceaux qui se découvrent progressivement, en plusieurs écoutes. Ces morceaux qui sont tellement différents de la merde formatée qui passe en boucle sur les ondes FM. Cette chanson passe en boucle depuis que je l’ai découverte chez MBV (une de mes principales sources de découvertes, j’vous le recommande) et je suis à peu près sûre que c’est une de ces chansons que je ne vais jamais me lasser d’écouter, sans pour autant qu’elle m’ait explosé au visage par son originalité, par une mélodie (pas plus accrocheuse que ça)…

Elle dure 8 minutes 30 secondes, vous ne l’entendrez jamais à la radio ou à la télé, et c’est un extrait du premier EP (8 titres pour un EP, c’est beaucoup quand même) du groupe, See You Tonight, dont la sortie physique est prévue le 28 mars.

Vous pouvez le télécharger pour 10$ (un peu plus de 7€) sur digstation.com. Je vous le recommande si vous aimez l’indie pop de qualité. Ils incorporent des éléments de jazz, le tout dans une ambiance un peu “lounge”, un peu d’ukulélé par-ci par-là, de belles mélodies au piano et pas de guitare.

Oh, et les membres du groupe ont tous un plus ou moins de 17 ans. Et ils ressemblent tous les 3 à des personnages d’un teen movie à l’américaine (photo ci-dessous). - Le Choix de Mille Eddie

Age is nothing in rock n roll. It doesn’t matter whether you are 12 or 72 if the tune stinks no one is going to buy it or listen unless of course it has been shoved down the throat on prime time TV on a Saturday night and then re inforced through saturation marketing of the kind that if it had been employed by CND in the seventies we would now be living in a nuclear free Britain.

The three chaps behind The Da Vincis are an unbelievably talented on listening to this CD. Each song is crafted, full of tempo and key changes, catchy and knowing choruses, melodies that hook and jazz rhythms that dazzle.

There are hints of Todd Rundgren, Hal , The Beach Boys, Supergrass, Wilco and many many others but the most apt comparison would be Neil Hannon’s Divine Comedy. There is a lightness here, possibly a sense of joy or untrammelled innocence – the shouted chorus of ‘Nickels and Dimes’ which arrives after numerous tempo and key changes and lamenting coda of an unnamed reed.

There is also a sense of the weirdness of They Might Be Giants and indeed the vocals sound far more mature that the years of the singer should produce but it is endearing weirdness, not pseudo or fey. The vocals have a crooners quality which takes the music to a Lynchian place without the violence. - The Proper Blog: Americana-UK

“Standing In Line” is not a shockingly weird song, but there are enough unexpected bits in it for it certainly qualify as an unlikely oddity, particularly when you bear in mind that the band is a trio of high school seniors from Mississippi. The track begins with a guy crooning “I took a shower / I went to a movie last night / a woman approached me / and we became bff’s that night / best friends forever, that’s what we became that night” like a teenage Morrissey with a stuffy nose, and then it only gets more peculiar from there, with its farfisa lounge groove shifting into a series of darker tangents. The novelty does not entirely wear off, but as it becomes more familiar upon repeated listening, the internal logic of the band’s aesthetic decisions is more apparent, and it starts to seem more sensible than strange. - Flux Blog

The Da Vincis are a band from Jackson, Mississippi with each member still in high school and not older then 17-years of age. However, they have some serious talent making music is that is part jazz, lounge, all without a guitar.

Expect a review of their debut album See, You Tonight (out October 27th later this year) but I’m here to talk about their fantastic cover of MIA’s Paper Planes.

It’s not quite what you’d expect from the content but the band covers the song to their own unique style (a lounge cover of Paper Planes!). They really adapt the entire song and alter it to something better. The chorus is gold with the use of footstomps and various instruments to replace the sound effects used in the original. It’s a whole different song, catchy in its original while the band shows they are self aware and hilarious (making sure they aren’t taking it too seriously) but musically they don’t really try too hard to cater to the original. It’s quite impressively vocally too where the verses are sung with Andrew Burke’s deep and mature voice while the chorus is more loose just showing they aren’t trying too hard.

I’ve become a huge fan of this song. Highly entertaining but a high level of musical ability is evident - AW Music

Barely high school seniors from Mississippi, the members of The Da Vincis are quite remarkable from a background standpoint. It’s also pretty remarkable that they make such mature sounding music. These aren’t the sounds of teenagers hacking away at cheap guitars, but rather of a dusty, bossa nova group, with loads of piano, breezy synths, jangly guitars, and soothing vocals. This a terrific accomplishment for a band of such a tender age, and if I were in the band, I’d probably have a copy of See You Tonight hanging around my neck at all times.
The music has a fantastic charm to it, always establishing a fun and loose vibe. Andrew Burke’s voice has a very distinct croon to it, similar to Zach Condon’s of Beirut, as he always is rolling off jazzy melodies. “Friend Request” is a song about exactly what the title implies, Facebook and accepting friend requests. Admittedly, the lyrics are too juvenile to be charming, but the instrumentation is worth the listen, and not because their teenagers, but because it’s genuinely good. Burke is, however, a classically trained pianist, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he excels at crafting these songs. No track’s instruments settle for being backdrops to Burke’s melodies, rather they become melodies of their own. Gavin Fields is a formidable sidekick to Burke, by offering a complement to his booming voice. They team up beautifully on “John Wayne” where Fields controls the track, as Burke peppers in his melody in between Fields’. “John Wayne” is a stomping, melodically driven song that is easily the album’s best, by taking all of the singular musicianship and colliding it with more melody and catchiness than every other song by a longshot. All of the supporting songs are only mild in their hooks, yet are still very nice listens, but it’s when “John Wayne” goes for broke on melody that things get really rewarding. “John Wayne” is an outstanding song for any band, and See You Tonight is definitely a good album age notwithstanding. As these teens grow and refine their songwriting (turn up the melody and drop the Facebook themes) they’re going to have something special ready to burst out. - Bradley Hartsell (http://www.adequecy.net)

No one likes the snobby rich kid who's clever as fuck and knows it. Think Reggie from Archie Comics. And yet, if Reggie had made music as worldly and sophistico-pop-savvy as the Da Vincis, I'd be willing to let the world be the target of his haughty glances. At an age when, by all rights, the trio of young guns that make up the Da Vincis (high school seniors to the lad) should be bashing out power chords in a two-car garage, or haphazardly splicing together white noise loops with a detuned banjo as a tribute to their idol, Animal Collective, the Da Vincis are brewing up a blend of the Smiths, Burt Bacharach, bossa nova, blue beat and a touch of the Beatles without breaking a sweat on brows free of worry lines.

What I love most about the Da Vincis is that they sound so fucking wonderfully effete and self-possessed and secure in their pretentious soundworlds that they make the patrician Vampire Weekend come off like Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. Their whole stance is a throwback to the likes of Morrissey, Felt, the Pastels, the STYLE FUCKING COUNCIL -- snobby oddballs who shut themselves away to create their own reality. Sure the album has faults, but guess fucking what? They're like seventeen, so they have time to figure it out and fix what doesn't work. Instead of chaining themselves to guitars, the Da Vincis employ more exotic fare -- melodica, organ, piano, xylophone, accordion, echo chambers, toy Casios -- to elbow aside the usual power trio weapons-of-choice for breezy, self-assured but despairing pop nuggets. One of the vocalists manages to out-Morrissey Morrissey in terms of vocal affectation, magnificently tuneless and poised. When he coos, "You're so young," and invites the object of his affection to drink some lattes, you're just like, "Come on, man!" And the lyrics about Facebook requests? But they turn awkward gambits like that to their advantage. So continental, so smooth. And am I crazy or is there more than a hint of psych-freakout in their skewed arrangements? - Matthew Moyer (http://www.ink19.com/)

The Jackson, Mississippi lounge-pop trio The Da Vincis have a debut LP coming out October 27th. The bossa nova and '40s jazz aficionados are seniors in high school but know their pop music more than musicians twice their age. On See You Tonight's debut single, "50's Film," the trio set the stage for a love narrative during the holidays with a Kings of Convenience-like shuffle and bassist Peyton Randolph's plinking kalimba.

Lead singer/keyboardist Andrew Burke may sing about the "beauty in black and white" but those strings near the outro are definitely set off in glorious Technicolor. Throw in some sleigh bells and you've got the definition of an earworm. Speaking of earworms, the young Southern lads recently covered M.I.A.'s monster indie hit, "Paper Planes." See You Tonight is being released by the album's producer Misha Hercules through his Mississippi-based label, Olympic Records. - Under The Radar

Three high school seniors from Mississippi show a bossa-tinged mastery of the three-minute pop song that has Zach Condon counting his gray hairs ("Friend Request," "50's Film"). - Richard Christgau: Consumer Guide