The girls of Dvorak and the Dvotchkas — pianist and singer Leslie Allison, accordion player and vocalist Darri Farr, and cellist Lily Benson — tend to giggle. A lot.
It’s a trait that, when listening to the band’s music, one would not immediately expect. After all, the Haverford-based band (which also includes two male members not present at the interview: saxophonist Will Xiong and bassist and drummer Andrew Dieck) has created a sound that’s as comfortable setting the backdrop for a film adaptation of a Dostoevsky novel as it is being played at Philadelphia venues. But it’s a sound that could very well be expected from a band that, when asked its influences, name drops 19th century German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, and has a moniker rooted in Eastern Europe: The “Dvorak” is from Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak, and the “Devotchkas” is the Russian word meaning “girl.”
And while the Eastern European influences are hard to dismiss and hard to miss among the songs’ softly-woven accordian and piano, the band described their sound with an equally fitting choice: “library music.” For the band, the coinage comes from the fact that many of their songs were written in the library of Allison’s house. But beyond that, the coinage fits the fact that Dvorak and the Dvotchkas are making intelligent, and beautifully well-thought, music. It’s a quality highlighted by the band’s penchant for imperfections and roughened edges on recordings. On the mp3s available on the band’s Myspace.com page, aural interlopers like balls bouncing and doors slamming make regular appearances. And the band reveals that on a lengthy demo tape recorded last summer, “you can hear like, the sound of Leslie’s mom doing dishes and the dog barking,” Benson says.
It was because of the influence of Allison’s piano teacher, Eliza Hardy who is known as a member of Buried Beds, that she first began to write songs. And this connection with Hardy has proven to be beneficial for the band. “Eliza’s been really helpful with getting us shows in Philadelphia because she knows a lot of people,” Allison says.
And while for now, the number of shows has not been too many thanks to the members’ scattered college locations, it’s clear that Dvorak and the Dvotchkas are poised to make some noise — however melodic and quiet a rustle it may be — in Philadelphia.
On “Buried Alive: Ode to Root Vegetables” the band sings, “If we plant our heads in the ground, will we grow?” It’s rhetorical question that may just get answered.
(Current Standing ~ 5 out of 5)
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January 23rd, 2007 at 7:25 am
Their live shows a re a lot crazier than you’d expect.
February 1st, 2007 at 7:20 am
Great band — this is where miusic is going!!!