Decibel worshippers rejoice. Brooklyn's Sleigh Bells will play at the Clazel in Bowling Green on Monday October 1st November 7th, and they promise to blow out eardrums. “We don't play the kind of music you put on at dinner,” says singer Alexis Krauss. “It's the kind you scream along with in your car, and it's played best at high volume.”
Onstage, Krauss styles herself a rocker— she wore a black leather jacket during a Saturday Night Live performance—but on the phone had more to say about Beyonce and Motown. The conflict between noise and melody, between rock and pop, drives her band. “We're fascinated by music that is effective and evokes so much, but is so simple," she says. "Sleigh Bells is really skeletal because of that.” She may be referring to her band's music—short, major-key pop songs with minimal lyrics and big shout-along choruses. Or she might mean instrumentality: the only other member of Sleigh Bells is guitarist Derek Miller. Their backup players? A laptop and a wall of Marshall amps.
Their music sounds as jubilant as it is loud with Krauss's bright, clear voice recalling The Bangles. Their pounding drums evoke Big Black or Nine Inch Nails, albeit less menacing. Derek Miller's guitar lines owe a debt of gratitude to the power-chord glee of Def Leppard and the Ramones, especially on their 2012 release, Reign of Terror. Fitting, since Miller is an alumni of hardcore punks Poison the Well, but where his old band raged his new band rejoices.
Their fashion sense celebrates that youthful joy as well. Miller performs in a Varsity letter jacket, and the cover of their 2010 debut, Treats, was a group of cheerleaders. To an extent Sleigh Bells is a celebration of its members' childhoods. In their music video for “End of the Line” Sleigh Bells ride through a suburb on BMX bikes, Miller in his letter jacket and Krauss sporting bangles reminiscent of Cindi Lauper. Later in the video Krauss walks through mist in a nightgown gesturing toward Heather O'Rourke in Poltergeist. “We're definitely children of the 80's; maybe we watched too much Breakfast Club,” Krauss says.
The result polarizes listeners. Their audience on SNL flooded twitter with praise and disdain in equal measure. Sleigh Bells leaves no middle ground between love and hate, which is fine for Krauss: “We'd much rather make people feel something powerful, positive or negative, than be a band people accept.” She sees people arrive at her shows with their arms folded and then lose their minds three songs later. Sleigh bells bludgeons the pretension out of its listeners with brute force.
That polarization even extends to the bands who tour with Sleigh Bells. They've shared the stage with dub producer Diplo and avant-garde metal band Liturgy—and that was on the same tour. On this tour they will be supported by Araabmuzik. “We like touring with artists that are going to make people think and feel something different. We want to give them a sonic experiences that crosses a whole range of genres. We identify more with the pop-electronic element of it, especially with starting to write for the third album.”
And it's easy to see why Sleigh Bells might be anxious to escape Reign of Terror; you could say the album was born under a bad sign. Shortly before the writing cycle for Reign, Miller's father died and his mother was diagnosed with cancer. The purple heart on the album cover is a World War II medal awarded to Miller's grandfather.
“It was a very cathartic record, but we've madeit, sealed the envelope, and it's time to move on,”Krauss says. Before then, however, Sleigh Bells will finish the 2012 tour cycle, which means melting faces in Bowling Green.
Sleigh Bells plays 8pm Monday, October 1 at the Clazel Theater,
127 N. Main St., Bowling Green. Tickets are $23. For more info, check www.clazel.net.
**UPDATE**
"We just received word that the SLEIGH BELLS show scheduled for October 1st at The Cla-Zel in Bowling Green is being pushed back to Weds November 7th. All tickets purchased for the Oct 1 show will be honored at the Nov 7th show. Due to a recently-sustained injury, Sleigh Bells have had to reschedule select dates of their Fall 2012 tour. So we'll see you out at Sleigh Bells at The Cla-Zel in Bowling Green Weds Nov 7th!" – via Innovation Concerts