Five Right Now: Sister.

Brooklyn based Sister. spin sinewy webs of musical wonder as interlocking voices, tangling guitar lines and fireside intimacy smoulders into something far grander. Conceived as a songwriting project for Hannah Pruzinsky and Ceci Sturman, then fleshed out to include guitarist, James Chrisman, the trio defy the lo-fi spirit that imbues their songs as cloaking washes of tenderness radiate from their carefully placed arrangements.

Ahead of the release of their second EP Something / Nothing, we caught up with the group to find out the five tracks they can’t get enough of just now. 

Maple Glider – Good Thing

All: Hannah and I have been big #1 Dads fans since their About Face album in 2014, so it was very cool to find out that Tom Lansek produced this Maple Glider album, To Enjoy Is The Only Thing. Truly the whole album is so beautiful and dynamic (s/o Baby Tiger, Performer), but there’s something very haunting and addicting about Good Thing — especially the percussive drop at two minutes. Also the lyrics ‘setting fire to things that bring us life, before we’ve got to watch them burn’….oof.

Squirrel Flower – Night

 

All: Conditions was one of those songs that first hooked the three of us to Squirrel Flower, an inspiration point we’d come back to a lot when working on Something / Nothing.  But, god, her new album, Planet (i), wrecked something new in each of us. Night has all the elements we crave in a song – the instrumentation is particularly gripping and she plays with repetition in a way that is astounding. 

Wednesday – One More Last One

 

Hannah Pruzinsky: I first heard an earlier rendition of this song on a compilation album while driving up north from NC.  Xandy Chelmis from the band wrote the song, and I remember it just sent me into one of those intense meditative spaces that was only underlined by the passing Pennsylvania farmland and quirky backwood billboards. I really like Wednesday in general – their experimentation, sticky lyrics that don’t seem to leave me – and was stoked to find they released this version of the song.

Bachelor (Jay Som & Palehound) – Went Out Without You

 

Ceci Sturman: I really enjoy the whole Bachelor album, so it was hard to pick a song to write about, but in this band we are always trying to blend our vocals together in different/new ways, and I am super drawn to how they did that in Went Out Without You. It’s very vulnerable and, bonus points, sad! Also, I just found out they’re legitimately named after The Bachelor. : ’ ) 

 Clairo – Blouse 

James Chrisman: I listened to this like four times in a row when I first heard it, and it’s probably my favourite arrangement of the year. The combo of chatty lines that don’t sound like traditional song lyrics with music that has a lot of grandeur— ‘I guess humor could help me after all’ next to those strings!—is always so cool and mysterious and moving – as is the whole album, Sling. There’s also not really enough information given to understand the song’s scenario completely, which I think is part of what keeps me coming back.

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