Olassa

As a music journalist of nearly eight years, it has become rather noticeably difficult to stumble across new “firsts.” There comes a point where everything to be seen has been witnessed and everything to be discovered has been found. At times music begins to just feel played out—the bucket lists slowly start to lean towards being more completed than unchecked and everything becomes rather redundant. Then just when I stop looking, someone throws a tuba into the mix and shifts my perspective of everything.


In this instance that band is Olassa.

With a Midwest, alt-country impression of Gogol Bordello a la The Moldy Peaches (yes kids, that is that band from the movie Juno), Olassa brings an updated thrift store charm and chemistry to the otherwise straightforward, blue-collar Lawrence/Kansas City music scene. Packing a pretty hefty collection of bass and catchy song-styling, the band’s male to female vocal structures allow them the ability to come out swinging and sock their audience in the teeth, with enough talent and ability to leave a listener enamored with a song. Quite honestly, Olassa is the type of band that is easy to become completely smitten with.

Upon first spin of the album I fell in love with five of the six cuts on I Love You, Come Back to Me. “Where Will I Live,” the album’s opening track, sets the stage for Olassa’s unique style. With tuba breakdowns providing the bass and accordions replacing the lead guitar (or organ) parts, the cut provides an interesting and intriguing lo-fi gypsy punk feel. The song also gives us our first glimpse at the blended co-ed vocals, before shifting into the fully female-fronted “Sloe Gin.” With a beautiful front porch guitar intro and a truly Americana vocal structure, the album’s second track strives to give Beth Orton and Emmylou Harris a run for their money (long-term). The song is secured in its deep, stable songwriting as it builds and progresses slowly and accurately. The track shuts down suddenly before reentering with a flawless accordion and cello combo, which closes out the number. Overall, the track does wonders in terms of setting the tone of where Olassa is headed in 2013. If “Sloe Gin” is an indication of their future to build upon, I expect nothing but an upward swell.

Unfortunately, “Sloe Gin,” the album’s strongest track, lands coupled with the somewhat disappointing “Vega.” Feeling a bit incomplete and unfinished, regardless of its obvious intentions of being this way, the song seems to lack the lyrical strength and structure of the whole of the album. However, Allison Olassa’s beautiful vocals remain intact as she uses gorgeous vibrato as the song swells around her. While the song itself is not a total waste, it is certainly the weakest cut on the otherwise flawless EP.

The final three songs on the album, “Little Darlin’,” “Ponder,” and “Pretty Flowers,” close out the impressive early-season release. “Pretty Flowers” slams the door on the release in a solid and impressive way, combining the glimpses of Americana noise with the rapid use of tuba and accordion filtered throughout the album. The song has a sunshiny feel to it with an elegance highlighted previously through “Sloe Gin.” With split vocals attacking each ear equally through the headphone of the listener, the song manages to surround you with its flawlessness.
The same can be said for the album as a whole. With the band dropping such a well-crafted album so early in the new year, the bar has clearly been set to a higher level in the area for local album of the year. I personally want to thank Olassa for throwing out such a challenge to their peers and fellow mates in the scene. I am wholeheartedly looking forward to watching each of them try to keep up.

SCORE: 9/10 - The Deli Magazine

As a music journalist of nearly eight years, it has become rather noticeably difficult to stumble across new “firsts.” There comes a point where everything to be seen has been witnessed and everything to be discovered has been found. At times music begins to just feel played out—the bucket lists slowly start to lean towards being more completed than unchecked and everything becomes rather redundant. Then just when I stop looking, someone throws a tuba into the mix and shifts my perspective of everything.


In this instance that band is Olassa.

With a Midwest, alt-country impression of Gogol Bordello a la The Moldy Peaches (yes kids, that is that band from the movie Juno), Olassa brings an updated thrift store charm and chemistry to the otherwise straightforward, blue-collar Lawrence/Kansas City music scene. Packing a pretty hefty collection of bass and catchy song-styling, the band’s male to female vocal structures allow them the ability to come out swinging and sock their audience in the teeth, with enough talent and ability to leave a listener enamored with a song. Quite honestly, Olassa is the type of band that is easy to become completely smitten with.

Upon first spin of the album I fell in love with five of the six cuts on I Love You, Come Back to Me. “Where Will I Live,” the album’s opening track, sets the stage for Olassa’s unique style. With tuba breakdowns providing the bass and accordions replacing the lead guitar (or organ) parts, the cut provides an interesting and intriguing lo-fi gypsy punk feel. The song also gives us our first glimpse at the blended co-ed vocals, before shifting into the fully female-fronted “Sloe Gin.” With a beautiful front porch guitar intro and a truly Americana vocal structure, the album’s second track strives to give Beth Orton and Emmylou Harris a run for their money (long-term). The song is secured in its deep, stable songwriting as it builds and progresses slowly and accurately. The track shuts down suddenly before reentering with a flawless accordion and cello combo, which closes out the number. Overall, the track does wonders in terms of setting the tone of where Olassa is headed in 2013. If “Sloe Gin” is an indication of their future to build upon, I expect nothing but an upward swell.

Unfortunately, “Sloe Gin,” the album’s strongest track, lands coupled with the somewhat disappointing “Vega.” Feeling a bit incomplete and unfinished, regardless of its obvious intentions of being this way, the song seems to lack the lyrical strength and structure of the whole of the album. However, Allison Olassa’s beautiful vocals remain intact as she uses gorgeous vibrato as the song swells around her. While the song itself is not a total waste, it is certainly the weakest cut on the otherwise flawless EP.

The final three songs on the album, “Little Darlin’,” “Ponder,” and “Pretty Flowers,” close out the impressive early-season release. “Pretty Flowers” slams the door on the release in a solid and impressive way, combining the glimpses of Americana noise with the rapid use of tuba and accordion filtered throughout the album. The song has a sunshiny feel to it with an elegance highlighted previously through “Sloe Gin.” With split vocals attacking each ear equally through the headphone of the listener, the song manages to surround you with its flawlessness.
The same can be said for the album as a whole. With the band dropping such a well-crafted album so early in the new year, the bar has clearly been set to a higher level in the area for local album of the year. I personally want to thank Olassa for throwing out such a challenge to their peers and fellow mates in the scene. I am wholeheartedly looking forward to watching each of them try to keep up.

SCORE: 9/10 - The Deli Magazine

A couple of years ago, Allison Olassa returned from a trip to the grocery store and told Cain Robberson, "I met a tuba player while shopping for frozen fruit."

This turned out to be fortunate news. Olassa and Robberson, late of the Lawrence group Tiny Tuxedo, had found a new bandmate.

"At the time," Tyler Bachert says, "the tuba was the last thing I wanted to play." He had focused on the big brass instrument in college but more recently had become interested in the upright bass. (He also knows a thing or two about the drums.) Olassa made a convincing case in the frozen aisle, though. The result is the three-person outfit that shares her name — Olassa — and is about to release its debut EP.

Bachert is telling me about his role in the Americana trio's origin at Frank's North Star Tavern in Lawrence. It's karaoke night here, and a loud Pink Floyd rendition threatens to drown him out. Over drinks and the sometimes deafening sounds of people trying to sing the catalogs of Lady Gaga and Kanye West, he and Robberson and Olassa tell me how they came to make I Love You, Come Back to Me.

The group pulls from two distinct energies: Allison's and Robberson's. Her style is highly focused but mellow, and his is frenetic. He's a jump-on-the-amps-and-play-it-hard musician. Bridged by Bachert, who says his way falls somewhere in the middle, they're making some very appealing music. And they've become a captivating live act, thanks in part to the way that Allison's and Robberson's voices work together.

"Allison's big on people singing with their own voice," Robberson says as the karaoke buzzes around us. Someone is boldly and somewhat effectively belting Radiohead's "Creep." Robberson finishes his thought: "And this is her voice."

It is her voice that you notice first when you hear the band. Her vibrato is distinct, just a little waver that she might deploy once or twice per phrase. "I call it a quiver," Bachert says.

"It would just come out when I sang softly," Allison says. "And then I learned to use it when I was singing louder." It accentuates Olassa's rootsy sensibility, blending easily with a sound that finds room for guitars, accordion, tuba, bass and drums.

Allison arrived in KC from Wichita about five years ago and started making a name for herself playing solo shows and in the Old Country Death Band. She had met Robberson at the Walnut Valley bluegrass festival in Winfield by then, and their time in Tiny Tuxedo taught them to love each other's styles. So when that band split up because of another member's move, Robberson and Olassa kept at it. As Robberson tells it, their sound began to "come down to a more beautiful, controlled place" from Tiny Tuxedo's less restrained approach.

Together, the three band members share 30 years of collective Winfield experience, and that easy association means that the group ends up on bluegrass bills. "We can definitely connect with that bluegrass crowd, but I feel like musically we belong more with the folk or indie crowd," Robberson says. And while it's true that the band has appeared here and there with a banjo player or with someone at the washboard at this or that bluegrass festival, the band's music lacks most of the usual bluegrass elements.

The members of Olassa hope that I Love You, Come Back to Me, recorded earlier this year at Robberson and Olassa's house, clears up any confusion and cements the group's identity. All three musicians shared production duties, with Bachert engineering. (He produced albums for his other band, Lawrence's Ample Branches.) "We cut our teeth making this record," Robberson says. "We learned how to record. Before [in Robberson and Allison's previous bands], the sound wasn't ready yet."

"There's just never enough time, never enough money to record in a studio," Allison says.

They're proud of this first, appropriately homespun effort — and the feeling is warranted. I've spent some time with the EP since the getting-to-know-you night at karaoke, and it's a strong showing. With six songs totaling 22 minutes, it accurately reflects the band's personality. Allison takes three of the songwriting credits here, and Robberson the other three, a split that effectively echoes the duality of the band's live performances. Yet it's also a cohesive blend of these two personalities and styles, with Bachert's inventive, playful percussion and instrumentation holding it all together. It's a lovely album, with enough metaphor-heavy lyrics — encompassing death, friendship, lost connections and relationships — to keep lyric parsers busy, and just enough accordion, too.

The band plans to release it before the end of the year, and they hope to herald its arrival with a - The Pitch

A couple of years ago, Allison Olassa returned from a trip to the grocery store and told Cain Robberson, "I met a tuba player while shopping for frozen fruit."

This turned out to be fortunate news. Olassa and Robberson, late of the Lawrence group Tiny Tuxedo, had found a new bandmate.

"At the time," Tyler Bachert says, "the tuba was the last thing I wanted to play." He had focused on the big brass instrument in college but more recently had become interested in the upright bass. (He also knows a thing or two about the drums.) Olassa made a convincing case in the frozen aisle, though. The result is the three-person outfit that shares her name — Olassa — and is about to release its debut EP.

Bachert is telling me about his role in the Americana trio's origin at Frank's North Star Tavern in Lawrence. It's karaoke night here, and a loud Pink Floyd rendition threatens to drown him out. Over drinks and the sometimes deafening sounds of people trying to sing the catalogs of Lady Gaga and Kanye West, he and Robberson and Olassa tell me how they came to make I Love You, Come Back to Me.

The group pulls from two distinct energies: Allison's and Robberson's. Her style is highly focused but mellow, and his is frenetic. He's a jump-on-the-amps-and-play-it-hard musician. Bridged by Bachert, who says his way falls somewhere in the middle, they're making some very appealing music. And they've become a captivating live act, thanks in part to the way that Allison's and Robberson's voices work together.

"Allison's big on people singing with their own voice," Robberson says as the karaoke buzzes around us. Someone is boldly and somewhat effectively belting Radiohead's "Creep." Robberson finishes his thought: "And this is her voice."

It is her voice that you notice first when you hear the band. Her vibrato is distinct, just a little waver that she might deploy once or twice per phrase. "I call it a quiver," Bachert says.

"It would just come out when I sang softly," Allison says. "And then I learned to use it when I was singing louder." It accentuates Olassa's rootsy sensibility, blending easily with a sound that finds room for guitars, accordion, tuba, bass and drums.

Allison arrived in KC from Wichita about five years ago and started making a name for herself playing solo shows and in the Old Country Death Band. She had met Robberson at the Walnut Valley bluegrass festival in Winfield by then, and their time in Tiny Tuxedo taught them to love each other's styles. So when that band split up because of another member's move, Robberson and Olassa kept at it. As Robberson tells it, their sound began to "come down to a more beautiful, controlled place" from Tiny Tuxedo's less restrained approach.

Together, the three band members share 30 years of collective Winfield experience, and that easy association means that the group ends up on bluegrass bills. "We can definitely connect with that bluegrass crowd, but I feel like musically we belong more with the folk or indie crowd," Robberson says. And while it's true that the band has appeared here and there with a banjo player or with someone at the washboard at this or that bluegrass festival, the band's music lacks most of the usual bluegrass elements.

The members of Olassa hope that I Love You, Come Back to Me, recorded earlier this year at Robberson and Olassa's house, clears up any confusion and cements the group's identity. All three musicians shared production duties, with Bachert engineering. (He produced albums for his other band, Lawrence's Ample Branches.) "We cut our teeth making this record," Robberson says. "We learned how to record. Before [in Robberson and Allison's previous bands], the sound wasn't ready yet."

"There's just never enough time, never enough money to record in a studio," Allison says.

They're proud of this first, appropriately homespun effort — and the feeling is warranted. I've spent some time with the EP since the getting-to-know-you night at karaoke, and it's a strong showing. With six songs totaling 22 minutes, it accurately reflects the band's personality. Allison takes three of the songwriting credits here, and Robberson the other three, a split that effectively echoes the duality of the band's live performances. Yet it's also a cohesive blend of these two personalities and styles, with Bachert's inventive, playful percussion and instrumentation holding it all together. It's a lovely album, with enough metaphor-heavy lyrics — encompassing death, friendship, lost connections and relationships — to keep lyric parsers busy, and just enough accordion, too.

The band plans to release it before the end of the year, and they hope to herald its arrival with a - The Pitch

“Where will I live when I die?” is the first lyric we hear on Olassa’s EP. Not only is it a dark way to start a terrific record, but it poses a heavy question about faith and the afterlife. And the response we get to said question comes from an accordion. In these two moments, the style and theme for the album are revealed: unflinching questions and images with a folky attitude.

Olassa (named after co-lead singer Allison Olassa) have a country/western, folk-pop sound that would make you believe that they have roots in Tennessee or Texas , but the trio are bonafide Kansans and their Midwest mentality shines. Personally, I was raised on country music and though I’ve strayed from the genre, Olassa makes me feel nostalgic. Not just because of the memories I have, but the classic (and at times gospel) sound they feature on the EP.

Photo courtesy OlassaAllison has a remarkable voice; strong and even haunting at times, which fits the lyrics. Cain Robberson splits the vocals with her and his gruff whisper not only drive the songs, but when the two harmonize (especially on the track “Podner”) it’s absolutely fantastic. The musicianship from all three members is impressive as well; the drums marching along and the strumming guitar reinforcing the bluegrass vibe. And let’s talk about that accordion. Never have I been so in love with an accordion before. Olassa uses it without a hint of irony and there’s nothing gimmicky about it. The epic track “Sloe Gin” starts as a toe-tapping song with with a bouncing guitar until we get to the last lyric, “I’ll see you, I’ll see you/Long as you alive” when the music cuts immediately and we are left with an epilogue from the accordion that seems like a eulogy for the subject of the song. Tyler Bachert’s tuba on “Where Will I Live” drives the music and fits hand in hand with the accordion tunes. Call me a believer.
Emotions run high on I Love You, Come Back To Me. “We write songs you’ll never hear again/We get tattoos you’ll never see again” Olassa sings at the beginning of “Vega.” That idea of seeing someone for the last time (for whatever reason) and how brief our encounters in life can be drives the song, and most of the record. And don’t let me lead you to think it’s all despair in the lyrics; “His fire burnin’ hot and red, they say it’s the devil’s son/Say it’s the devil’s son in him” sits between the beautiful imagery of nature on the song “Pretty Flowers.” The youth and intensity and dare I say romance, is captured perfectly in that verse. Olassa’s debut EP focuses on harmonies; not just between Allison and Cain’s vocals, but the mixture of melancholy and pop on the record. It’s got a good, country sensibility and that makes their sound timeless. I Love You… makes me want to sit on a my friend’s porch and watch the stars in the summer heat and while it makes me pine for warmer days, it has a way of making the gray, hazy Winter easier to deal with. Olassa has a bright future ahead of them and that will keep everyone coming back.

by Nathan Cardiff - I Heart Local Music

“Where will I live when I die?” is the first lyric we hear on Olassa’s EP. Not only is it a dark way to start a terrific record, but it poses a heavy question about faith and the afterlife. And the response we get to said question comes from an accordion. In these two moments, the style and theme for the album are revealed: unflinching questions and images with a folky attitude.

Olassa (named after co-lead singer Allison Olassa) have a country/western, folk-pop sound that would make you believe that they have roots in Tennessee or Texas , but the trio are bonafide Kansans and their Midwest mentality shines. Personally, I was raised on country music and though I’ve strayed from the genre, Olassa makes me feel nostalgic. Not just because of the memories I have, but the classic (and at times gospel) sound they feature on the EP.

Photo courtesy OlassaAllison has a remarkable voice; strong and even haunting at times, which fits the lyrics. Cain Robberson splits the vocals with her and his gruff whisper not only drive the songs, but when the two harmonize (especially on the track “Podner”) it’s absolutely fantastic. The musicianship from all three members is impressive as well; the drums marching along and the strumming guitar reinforcing the bluegrass vibe. And let’s talk about that accordion. Never have I been so in love with an accordion before. Olassa uses it without a hint of irony and there’s nothing gimmicky about it. The epic track “Sloe Gin” starts as a toe-tapping song with with a bouncing guitar until we get to the last lyric, “I’ll see you, I’ll see you/Long as you alive” when the music cuts immediately and we are left with an epilogue from the accordion that seems like a eulogy for the subject of the song. Tyler Bachert’s tuba on “Where Will I Live” drives the music and fits hand in hand with the accordion tunes. Call me a believer.
Emotions run high on I Love You, Come Back To Me. “We write songs you’ll never hear again/We get tattoos you’ll never see again” Olassa sings at the beginning of “Vega.” That idea of seeing someone for the last time (for whatever reason) and how brief our encounters in life can be drives the song, and most of the record. And don’t let me lead you to think it’s all despair in the lyrics; “His fire burnin’ hot and red, they say it’s the devil’s son/Say it’s the devil’s son in him” sits between the beautiful imagery of nature on the song “Pretty Flowers.” The youth and intensity and dare I say romance, is captured perfectly in that verse. Olassa’s debut EP focuses on harmonies; not just between Allison and Cain’s vocals, but the mixture of melancholy and pop on the record. It’s got a good, country sensibility and that makes their sound timeless. I Love You… makes me want to sit on a my friend’s porch and watch the stars in the summer heat and while it makes me pine for warmer days, it has a way of making the gray, hazy Winter easier to deal with. Olassa has a bright future ahead of them and that will keep everyone coming back.

by Nathan Cardiff - I Heart Local Music