The Lovely Feathers

If Lovely Feathers were a foetus, it wouldn't even be born yet, but this local band has come a long way since its January conception. Before winning IROCmusic's and le Swimming's second annual Indie Rock Contest last week, they scored a Battle of the Bands gig at Café Campus on the strength of their very first show, and won. That initial victory encouraged some serious elbow grease on the part of singer-guitarists Mark Kupfert and Richard Yanofsky, bassist Noah Bernamoff, drummer Ted Suss and absentee keyboardist Daniel Suss, who's wrapping up his studies in Singapore in time for a Pop Montreal gig.


For now, the "eccentric alt-pop" act is launching its debut album, a 13-step program of manic power pop, murky indie rock and graceful instrumentals called My Best Friend Daniel - the title is their way of saying they miss their piano-playing buddy.


"It's weird, it's strange," says Kupfert, flattered by the band's victories and flabbergasted by the sight of 1,000 Lovely Feathers discs, hot off the presses. "We just couldn't decide what songs we wanted for our demo so we kept recording and suddenly we had 13 tracks."


Though the record captures all of the band's songs to date, Kupfert acknowledges that it's slightly slacker than their high-energy show. Kupfert, in particular, was practically frothing during their Swimming set, and there's a lot more where that came from.


"I'm an anxious person," he admits. "I fell in love with playing guitar because it's therapeutic. It keeps me stable, so I can't stop now."


Kupfert actually started out as a drummer, and it took a harsh dose of rejection while studying in New York City, along with a growing obsession with melody, to drive him to the guitar.


"When I'd go to shows, I'd always be inspired but also extremely jealous because no one wanted to play with me." Undaunted, he schooled himself in the ways of the six-string and eventually fell in with his friends and future bandmates back in Montreal. "To make rock music, you only need your 16 chords, and as long as you're creative and you have other good musicians around you, there's no limit."


CD launch at Petit Campus on Monday, Sept. 6, 8:30 p.m., $5 - Montreal Mirror

A famous musician once said that in the not-too-distant future, as a result of our super-technological society, people will come home at the end of the day and have the urge to touch something made out of wood. That said, in their debut album My Best Friend Daniel, The Lovely Feathers sound to me the way wood feels; at once both grainy and smooth, while also being very familiar, even nostalgic.

This outfit seems almost stuck in the nineties rut, combining certain elements of punk, Britpop, jazz, and that distinctive sound that can only be described as “indie college-rock.” But these are people who work hard. The album itself is tightly wound around guitars that both buzz and screech, and vocals that hover around falsetto. The band’s talent is clear from the manic greeting “Jeremiah, Jeremiah! Hello, Hello!” to the dying notes of the final track, “Wrong Choice.”

Though most of their lyrics seem nonsensical, themes surface from time to time; they ain’t teenagers anymore, and they’ve only just realized that there’s no going back. As they get older, they get lonelier. On “Photocorners,” one of the finest tracks on the album, vocalists Mark Kupfert and Rich Yanoffsky make the astute, if typically ridiculous, observation that “Lovers, they meet guided by master planners/ Mine’s name is Lauren, and she needs a manicure.” They then add poignantly, “Oh, we’ve taken in all those lovey-doveys/ We’d laugh if we were younger.” Overall, this album is a classic, high-energy romp through a campus near you. And it’s not bad at all. In fact, it’s quite lovely.

-CFE
- Mcgill Daily

POP MONTRÉAL (PREMIÈRE PARTIE)
C'est mercredi prochain que commence le Festival Pop Montréal. Voici nos choix pour les soirées du 29 et du 30 septembre:

- The Lovely Feathers

le 29 au Swimming
La formation Lovely Feathers pourrait bien faire sa marque sur la scène anglo de Montréal. Un rock explosif proche des Unicorns. - voir

Franz Ferdinand are sure great but the LOV-THERS are the real deal. Rocketing out of pastoral academe straight to the top of MTL QC’s fickle pop scene, the Lovely Feathers have already been dragging print from city’s alt-press pundits. What next’ Feather duster or Lovely flight’ You decide. - POP Montreal program

By Benjamin Barna
The McGill Daily


If you’ve been lucky enough to see the magical Lovely Feathers in concert over the past few months, they want you to know that Daniel isn’t just a name they made up for the sake of a crafty album title, like U2 did for The Joshua Tree. The name of their debut disc, My Best Friend Daniel, is actually a reference to their temporarily departed pianist and friend, Daniel.

Just as things began happening for the band, Daniel left for a semester in Singapore. “On the CD, he’s amazing on the keys, and it’s a whole different sound, so we’re extremely excited for when he gets back in December,” said singer/guitarist Mark Kupfert. “Right now we’re a lot more guitar-heavy, but in December it’s all going to change.”

Not that a change is needed. Since the school year began, the band has enjoyed successes rarely seen for musicians of the McGill student variety, including a slot in this year’s Pop Montreal festival and an opening gig for The Fiery Furnaces. Rarely do two weeks pass without a Lovely Feathers show at a venue near you. Whether they’re playing to a jaded crowd of Mile-End scenesters at the Green Room, or in front of their friends, their friends’ friends, and their friends’ friends’ parents at Petit Campus, the Feathers don’t care who’s in the audience, so long as electricity is pumping through the amps and beer is flowing into glasses.

“We love playing shows, that’s all we want to do,” Kupfert says. And it’s evident. No matter what the mood or the size of the crowd is, the band is never one to show restraint, consistently bringing their trademark hyperactive showmanship to each stage.

Their vocals are an absurdly melodramatic banter between Kufpert and the band’s other front man, Richard Yanosky. The two can go from a whimper to a whisper to a weep to a wail in the same song, without it ever feeling artificial.

Not to mention that The Lovely Feathers are also physically hyperactive. If you were at OAP on that sunny Thursday in September, they were the band with the singer who moved like Elvis on speed. “At the Fiery Furnaces show, I caught a glimpse of Mark’s ass and it was vibrating,” said Ted, the band’s (often shirtless) drummer.

It is rare for such a young band to have already released a full-length album before a demo, but after winning a Montreal indie rock competition, the band felt they were ready to take their live act into the studio and see what would happen. “I feel like we come off much better live than we do on CD. We come off a little serious on the CD. We’re more engaging live and it’s not a reproduction of the CD, but I don’t really want to say that, because it’s a great CD,” Yanosky recants.

The Lovely Feathers are perfectionists about their live acts. Rarely does a show go by without at least one of the band members feeling unhappy with an aspect of their performance.

Regardless of their own self-criticism, the band can take pride in accomplishing so much in such a short period of time (they’ve already been featured in the Mirror and the Hour). And they aren’t the only ones. “Our parents just want to be proud. They are dying for something to be proud of,” said Kupfert. To the parents of The Lovely Feathers: Your sons are in a really good rock band! So be proud, because it doesn’t get more chilled out than that.

The Lovely Feathers play their next show November 13 in the Shatner Ballroom and then at Le Swimming. They will be OPENED FOR by for The Golden Dogs, which makes this humble band feel uncomfortable. Go to www.thelovelyfeathers.com for more information. Their album is available at L’oblique, 4333 Rivard. - Mcgill Daily

The Lovely Feathers
My Best Friend Daniel (Love Your Diary)
Fresh new figures in the local indie landscape, the Lovely Feathers have found a distinct, quirky voice for themselves. They don't rewrite the indie pop-rock rulebook, but they certainly fill the margins with hand-scrawled clauses and loopholes of their own devising. Oddball lyrics, exceptional keyboard work and agitated, nervous-nerd vocals personalize what's already a solid batch of clever, energetic tunes. I'd keep an eye on these kids because I suspect they're only getting started, and they've started right. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg) With the Golden Dogs and Boy at le Swimming tonight, Thurs., Nov. 25, 10 p.m., $3 - Montreal Mirror