Andy Shauf - "Waiting for the Sun to Leave" CD EP Review (P is for Panda)

In every Andy Shauf review, reviewers always seem to want to bring up Elliott Smith but I just don’t hear the comparison. I saw Elliott Smith perform just once – when he opened for DC hometown heroes Tsumani – and I thought it was just “sad old b*stard music”. After repeated listens, I still don’t come away from Andy’s music with the weighty sense of melancholia that I do after listening to Elliott Smith so I would suggest that better points of comparison are Jeff Buckley or Nick Drake.

When I originally reviewed Shauf’s Darker Days, I didn’t realize that the disc had been available in some form for the past four years. Andy’s latest EP, “Waiting for the Sun to Leave”, is an 8-track, 25 minute basement recording of songs that Andy has been playing live for the last few years. Each of the songs prominently features Andy’s soulful vocals and he accompanies himself on acoustic guitar. There are light backing vocals and additional instrumentation on some of tracks but the connection point for most listeners is likely to be Andy’s mini-vignettes/narrative lyrics.

Similar to Darker Days, the lyrics for “Waiting for the Sun to Leave” are reflective and introspective. The songs capture snapshots of people, moments in time and changing relationships. As the eight tracks are all stylistically similar, Andy’s latest video for the song “Open” should provide a good sense for the sound of this album.



Here is a live video that I filmed at Andy’s recent stop in Brooklyn, right before the new EP came out. Andy is one of the few artists that I’ve seen who can capture the same sense of “living room intimacy” in both the studio and a live setting.



Links:
Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf: Live Video from Roots Cafe, Brooklyn, NY 9-17-10

Andy Shauf just finished a month-long US tour with Lauris Vidal and I caught the tour at the free pass-the-hat show at Roots Cafe in Brooklyn. Given the subtlety intimacy of Andy's songs, I was pleasantly surprised to witness how well the songs came across in a live setting. Roots Cafe is fairly small in size so Andy's songs and direct conversations with the audience made the show feel more like a house party with a group of friends than a 'traditional' concert.

Here are the last two songs from Andy's set:



Andy's new EP, "Waiting for the Sun to Leave", is out this Tuesday, Sept. 28th and the disc contains studio recording of songs that have been a part of Andy's live set for the last few years. "It’s 8 songs that are sort of old. Newer than Darker Days, but older than… brand new." (from Andy's blog)

Links:
Andy Shauf

Andy Shauf - "Darker Days" CD Review (P Is For Panda Records)

DOWNLOAD: Andy Shauf - Three Cuts from Darker Days are available as a Free Download on iSound.com

Andy Shauf's full-length debut Darker Days came out last week on P is for Panda Records. The disc is a collection of the best of Andy's bedroom demos but, unlike most demo tapes, the songs are surprisingly mature. Andy wrote, produced and played all the instruments on this disc; on only two of the eleven cuts does he bring on friends to help out on backing vocals.

Andy has a silky-smooth voice but he doesn't use his voice alone to cary the songs. The backing instrumentation plays a major role in most songs and it ranges from acoustic guitar to electric grunge chords, handclaps and a banjo. While Deb Hansen adds some beautiful backing vocals to "Crushes", one of the real gems on this CD is "Gone" where Andy provides his own backing vocals and sings in glorious Beach Boys-like harmony with himself.

The themes of a lot of the songs are about love and relationships but the disc doesn't come off as a bland folk/emo disc. While there are a few slow spots, Andy keeps the disc moving by changing up the tempos, the instruments and his vocals. Some of the strongest cuts ("The Greatest Moments", "Your Heart" and "Crushes") are streaming on Andy's MySpace page.


Here is the first of Andy's video blogs which features an acoustic performance of "Your Heart". This is the lead-off track from Darker Days and it is a great segue into the rest of the disc.



Andy is currently touring in Canada and here are his upcoming tour dates:
June 2, 2009 -- 7:00PM, Estevan Comprehensive School Cafeteria, Estevan, Saskatchewan
June 12, 2009 -- 8:00PM, Haar Theatre (Grant MacEwan Arts Campus), Edmonton, Alberta
July 8, 2009 -- 7:30PM, TCU Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
August 7-9, 2009 -- Regina Folk Festival, Regina, Saskatchewan