Brooklyn Duo

Noir jazz meets midnight blues in the music of Twin Danger an intriguing new group formed by Vanessa Bley and Stuart Matthewman, whose self titled, co-produced and co-written debut album is set for June 2015 release by Decca/Universal Music Classics. Twin Danger updates a classic sound in a contemporary style with such captivating Bley/Matthewman originals as Pointless Satisfaction, Just Because, Sailor, and Coldest Kind of Heart. The album sessions also yielded one surprising cover song, a distinctively different interpretation of the hard rock track No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age. The core of Twin Danger is Bley and Matthewman, however on-stage for their sultry live performances the band expands with a tight-knit outfit of five musicians.

Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny. That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador, ‘Everyone’s Crushed,’ out May 26. On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, ‘Structure,’Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.

Most rock & roll bands are a tightly wound unit that developed their music through years of playing in garages and clubs around their hometown. Steely Dan never subscribed to that aesthetic. As the vehicle for the songwriting of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Steely Dan defied all rock & roll conventions…