YellowFever | Death by Audio | 7.31.2008

There are no shortage of duos these days but I gotta say nobody else sounds quite like Austin's YellowFever. Their sound couldn't be more spare -- usually just drums, the simplest guitar (often just single notes, not chords), and Jennifer Moore's understated, kinda haunting voice. It's that space inbetween the instrumentation that makes them so special. It's a little bit like Young Marble Giants if Beth Orton was the singer instead of Alison Statton.

YellowFever are also multi-taskers. Drummer Adam Jones played bass via an analog synth, and on one song played guitar by hitting it with his stick, sliding up to the note. It was something else to watch. The two also switched positions on one song, with Jennifer strumming her guitar while managing to hit the snare  every third quarter note.

If anything was missing (the lineup used to be a trio) it was the lovely harmonies on the record. Luckily, at this show, Vivian Girls' Cassie and Katy were there at the front of the crowd, singing along with most of the songs, and hitting the harmony parts perfectly... which you could hear despite, you know, just being in the audience. It was that kind of show. You can even hear them (more singing along than harmony) on this video of "Alice" that I shot:

New York, you've got one more chance to catch YellowFever, as they play Cake Shop tonight. Jennifer said they'd be back this Fall too but if you're not going to see Vivian Girls/Crystal Stilts/caUSE co-MOTION at Silent Barn or Metronomy and "secret guest" at Union Hall, I would highly highly recommend checking out YellowFever. Here are a couple MP3s:

MP3: YellowFever - Hellfire

MP3: YellowFever - Cats and Rats