[photo by John Harrison – courtesy of Neat Beet]
The simple fact that Mr Twin Sister still exists as a band is in itself quite remarkable. The vast majority of groups that go through the buzz cycle do not come out the back end intact. In 2010 when the band was simply “Twin Sister”, we were among the earliest media outlets to sing the band’s praises — and rightfully so. “All Around and Away We Go” was their first major breakthrough song and it was a clever earworm and interesting dance-rock mix, akin to influences as wide at Tom Tom Club and Sade. But there was always something more than just a pop band to Twin Sister — something a little offbeat and perhaps dark — and when they signed to Domino Records, the relationship only produced one record before an amicable parting. This would be where most bands call it quits. But Twin Sister consists of a bunch of friends from Suffolk County of all places, and they perserved through this period (which also included a nasty tour bus crash) and have come out stronger. With a new-ish band name and an outstanding new self-titled self-released album, Mr Twin Sister 2014 is a band poised to take the path for which they were originally intended. The coming out party took place this past week at Baby’s All Right where the band played two very sold out shows — indicating that the fanbase has remained and that the album is generating excitement. We caught the second of the two nights on Saturday and from the outset of their set, it was clear that Mr Twin Sister is truly back. Lead singer Andrea Estella is in good voice and exhibited confidence and a little playfulness, but the multifaceted (two keys, guitars, sax, effects) band also impressed. And there were guests, in particular a string section played on the final two tracks of the main set, and we are streaming below the strong version of “Blush” with strings. If the strength of the album and of these Baby’s sets are an indication of things to come for Mr Twin Sister, vindication will soon be theirs. And it will be hard earned and well deserved. There are no local dates currently scheduled for Mr. Twin Sister, but they begin a brief tour next week opening for Julian Casablancas in Philadelphia, Washington DC and dates further south.
This set was expertly mixed by the band’s touring FOH Jonathan Low and recorded by house FOH Jeff Swart from the venue’s multitrack system. I have matrixed the house mix with the two room mics and the result is superb. Enjoy!
Stream “Blush”:
Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]
Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.
Mr Twin Sister
2014-10-04
Babys All Right
Brooklyn, NY USA
Digital Soundboard Multitrack Recording
Multitrack Soundboard (engineered and recorded by Jeff Swart) > Jeff mix Wavs + Room mic wavs > Soundforge (level adjustments, setfades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and Tagging via Foobar)
Produced by nyctaper
Setlist:
[Total Time 1:11:24]
01 Part of Two
02 Bad Street
03 Rude Boy
04 Set Me Free
05 The Blue
06 Fantasy
07 Sensitive
08 Poor Relations
09 Out of the Dark
10 Crime Scene
11 [banter – strings intro]
12 Blush
13 [banter – thanks]
14 In The House of Yes
15 [encore break]
16 All Around and Away We Go
17 [outro]
If you download this recording, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Mr Twin Sister, visit their website, and purchase Mr Twin Sister from Bandcamp [HERE].
There are a bunch of unreleased songs here, right? Or at least I wasn’t familiar with them.
At least four new songs, yes.