Live Concert Photography: La Sera and Springtime Carnivore at Mercury Lounge 10/22/16
Now, if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past few years, you’ve probably come across a handful of posts on La Sera, the recording project of Vivian Girls‘ and All Saints Day‘s Katy Goodman. Initially begun as a solo side project, Goodman’s La Sera achieved growing national profile with he release of her first three, critically applauded albums — her self-titled debut as La Sera, her sophomore effort, Sees the Light and her third effort, Hour of the Dawn. Each subsequent album found Goodman experimenting and expanding upon her sound with Hour of the Down revealing an 80s guitar pop influence, clearly drawing from The Smiths, The Pretenders, and others.
Music For Listening To Music To, Goodman’s fourth full-length La Sera album was released earlier this year, and the album is comprised of material that revealed an artist, who has gone through a series of profound personal and artistic transitions, which have deeply influenced the material’s lyrical themes and concerns — including the biggest personal and creative transition yet: Goodman’s husband Todd Wisenbaker, who’s best known as a member of Music For Listening To Music To‘s producer Ryan Adams‘ backing band and Hour of the Dawn’s producer, joining his wife full-time as a cowriter, guitarist and collaborator. And from songs such as “High Notes” and “I Need an Angel,” the material manages to nod at the likes of The Smiths and Sun Records-era country — in particular think of Johnny Cash’s legendary 50s and 60s output.
Continuing on the buzz that Goodman and Wisenbaker released a digital release only EP, Queens at the end of September which manages to be both a continuation of sorts and a follow up to Music For Listening To Music To that includes a muscular and strutting homage/cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love” and an alternate version of “I Need an Angel” titled “I Really Need an Angel.” Now, as you may know, the duo of Goodman and Wisenbaker are in the home stretch of a lengthy Fall tour to support both of this year’s efforts and it included two NYC area dates — October 22, 2016 at the Mercury Lounge and an early October 23, 2016 at Baby’s All Right. I caught the duo headline Mercury Lounge on Saturday with opening act and current tour-mates Springtime Carnivore. Check out some photos from the show, and La Sera’s remaining tour dates below.
LA SERA TOUR DATES:
10/25 Boston, MA @ Brookline Teen Center
10/26 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk
10/28 Toronto, ON @ Silver Dollar
10/29 Detroit, MI @ El Club
10/30 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
11/01 Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
11/02 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
11/03 Reno, NV @ Holland Project
11/04 San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
11/05 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter Greta Morgan is a classically trained pianist who’s music career began in earnest in 2005, when she was a vocalist and pianist of Chicago, IL-based indie rock band The Hush Sound before leading her own band Gold Motel, which released their full-length debut in June of 2010; however, by 2014 Morgan’s solo side recording project Springtime Carnivore had released its self-titled debut, which caught some attention across the blogosphere. The project’s sophomore effort Midnight Room was written and deeply inspiredly by a world-toppling break up. As Morgan explains on her website and in press notes “I was on a really jagged sleep schedule,” says the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter, describing the months during which she worked on the follow-up to her critically adored 2014 debut. “It was the first time I’d ever lived by myself, and there was this bizarre feeling at night of the house being so quiet and being so totally alone. And Midnight Room came out of that.
“A lot of lyrics on the record are collaged or don’t necessarily make sense next to each other,” she says. “But I guess my whole headspace was like that for a few months. I felt like I couldn’t trust my memory completely — like i was space cadeting through the weird space between sleeping and dreaming and waking and reality.”
Interestingly, Morgan has also collaborated with La Sera’s Katy Goodman on a collection of punk and New Wave covers — most notably songs by Buzzcocks, Misfits and The Replacements — that they’ve titled Take It, It’s Yours, which was released earlier this year, as well. And part of Springtime Carnviore’s set includes a guest appearance by Goodman in which they do a couple of songs from their covers albums, along with Goodman taking up bass duties for a couple of songs.
For these photos and more from an incredibly fun and charming night, check out the Flickr set here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskKbcWkT