Pomplamoose: your new favourite band
Alison Potstra
Issue date: 11/4/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
If you're disenchanted with the current music industry, if you're tired of indie going slick and mass-produced Top 40 pop where every new musician looks like they're from Laguna Beach, then look no farther than YouTube for your new favourite thing.
A grassroots multi-musical project of various fascinating layers, Pomplamoose is what happened when two YouTube musicians, Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte, joined forces. Similar to the one-man-show tradition of musicians like Beirut, Pomplamoose is a one-man-one-woman band that combines the talents of Dawn and her boyfriend Conte.
Dawn's style brings to mind Carla Bruni's sunshiney adorableness mixed with the vocals of Leslie Feist and Regina Spektor. Conte, on the other hand, draws the obvious comparison to Thom Yorke of Radiohead, as well as a little of the melodramatic howls of Muse (without the excessive flourish) and the melodic spite of Brandon Boyd of Incubus without the rock-hard abs (I'm just kidding, Jack. I'm sure your abs are rock-hard too).
What sets Pomplamoose apart from their influences is the fact that they do all of their own stunts. That is, every instrument you hear on their tracks, from drums to the piano to the xylophone to the accordion to the finger sliding along the edges of a wineglass, was produced by Conte and Dawn themselves and then multi-tracked and mixed for your listening pleasure.
Their music videos showcase the amount of work (and fun) that goes into making your own music by adopting a new medium known as the "VideoSong". VideoSongs follow two simple rules:
What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice), and
If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).
Pomplamoose's VideoSongs can be found on YouTube along with other traditional music videos, but there's something so amazing and endearing about watching musicians create an organic sound without the heavy hand of a producer or record label. At first glance, Pamplemoose is just a couple of musicians from San Francisco making unique VideoSongs for a generation of YouTubers; but their music is actually quite brilliant.
A grassroots multi-musical project of various fascinating layers, Pomplamoose is what happened when two YouTube musicians, Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte, joined forces. Similar to the one-man-show tradition of musicians like Beirut, Pomplamoose is a one-man-one-woman band that combines the talents of Dawn and her boyfriend Conte.
Dawn's style brings to mind Carla Bruni's sunshiney adorableness mixed with the vocals of Leslie Feist and Regina Spektor. Conte, on the other hand, draws the obvious comparison to Thom Yorke of Radiohead, as well as a little of the melodramatic howls of Muse (without the excessive flourish) and the melodic spite of Brandon Boyd of Incubus without the rock-hard abs (I'm just kidding, Jack. I'm sure your abs are rock-hard too).
What sets Pomplamoose apart from their influences is the fact that they do all of their own stunts. That is, every instrument you hear on their tracks, from drums to the piano to the xylophone to the accordion to the finger sliding along the edges of a wineglass, was produced by Conte and Dawn themselves and then multi-tracked and mixed for your listening pleasure.
Their music videos showcase the amount of work (and fun) that goes into making your own music by adopting a new medium known as the "VideoSong". VideoSongs follow two simple rules:
What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice), and
If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).
Pomplamoose's VideoSongs can be found on YouTube along with other traditional music videos, but there's something so amazing and endearing about watching musicians create an organic sound without the heavy hand of a producer or record label. At first glance, Pamplemoose is just a couple of musicians from San Francisco making unique VideoSongs for a generation of YouTubers; but their music is actually quite brilliant.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
CA
posted 11/09/08 @ 8:51 PM EST
Not bad music...find her voice kinda annoying though. ALMOST makes my ears bleed.
Richard Rogers
posted 3/17/10 @ 12:06 AM EST
Love Pomplamoose. Nataly has an amazing voice, and Jack especially is a fantastic musician on guitar, keyboards and drums. And they crack me up.
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