Peephole

Peephole
we spy an electro band on the rise
by Chandler Levack

A band made for strutting down Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn five-piece Peephole uncover the hip thrusting Saturday night fever left in Travolta’s wake in their zesty synth-rock. Raised as an original duo in Austin, frontman Kent Odessa’s move to New York redefined the band, with Craiglist recruits Andrew Baxter (drums), bassist Drew Peterson, keyboardist Brian Bionic and final addition guitarist Chesty Wellington. If you’re warm to an electro clash band that doesn’t wear neon deep V’s, listen to the bass pumping through “Rita Done Me Wrong”, a frenetic kiss-offf to the titular vixen, which cools and heats with singer Kent Odessa’s amicable stammer. Or “Children’s Show” which marries the sleek rhythmic guitar playing of Interpol with lyrics about working a cruise line. Set to record their debut full length this summer, we spoke to Kent Odessa about the borough’s music scene, dance music now and then and being the shortest electro frontman since Prince.

Where does Peephole align with the Brooklyn music scene?
There seems to be two camps in Brooklyn - the Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective scene, and the electro bands that reached ahead with !!! and LCD Soundsystem. Peephole obviously wants to make people dance, but coming from an electro agenda, there’s something rawer to our intentions.

What’s the difference between dance music in the 70s and dance music today?
The majority of dance music today is made by emotionally crippled people, wallflowers and other sorts of malcontents. But in a lot of ways it gives it more urgency. I forget which one of the Beach Boys was afraid of the ocean, but when something’s your biggest fear, it’s also something you can be passionate about. We’re interested in what Bowie and Eno achieved, blending funk and disco with something grittier. As far as Motown, the general sound of bands like the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and songs like “Bernadette” inspire us. We’re trying to create that same sense of drama.

What does it mean to want to go out and dance?
There’s different ways to lose yourself. In high school I would definitely go out booty dancing. Maybe it’s the Motown drama that comes through with Peephole’s dance music. Compared to someone Passion Pit where it seems to be like pure sort of bliss, the Peephole bliss is probably a lot darker. There’s a longing to dance in abandonment.

What kind of reaction do you get when you play live?
Playing in New York has definitely been for the most part, pretty riveting. The reaction that I always hope for is that we start playing, people will look at us as if we’re some sort of joke. Maybe it takes people time to get up the nerve to understand what’s going on musically, but it’s good music to really be anonymous while listening to.

Didn’t you used to wear fur coats onstage?
I quickly realized they were great for photo shoots but really tough to perform in, obviously because of the heat. I’ll occasionally wear one for the intro, but it’s gotta come off after that if I’m gonna do any dancing.

Given that you’re just over five feet, that’s gotta make an impression.
It’s been difficult being a short lead singer, but I’m glad to have the emotional support of people like Prince and Henry Rollins.

Henry Rollins is short?
I met him in high school. I couldn’t believe he was the same height as me! He made fun of my friends for not knowing who the person was on his Minor Threat t-shirt. My friend thought it was Ian MacKaye, but it was actually Alec MacKaye, his brother. They were both bald at the time, so it was really easy to confuse the two. - The Deli Magazine

Peephole is the moniker of singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Kent Odessa of Brooklyn. In the summer of 2008, Odessa began performing live with musicians he knew from around the city, and soon after released Peephole’s debut EP, Cold Dime – an impressive EP that demonstrates not only Odessa’s many talents, but his extraordinary range as an artist, drawing from lo-fi melancholy songs like “Name” to the raw, T. Rex style of “Guilty Boat” and “Black Topaz” – the latter two songs are among the best in the young man’s discography.

“Guilty Boat” – Peephole from Cold Dime (2009)

“Black Topaz” - Peephole from Cold Dime (2009)

Odessa then collaborated with producer Jeremy Jonas Cox, on the recording and release of his second 2009 EP, Strawberry Told Me. The stand out track on that EP is clearly “Who Will Love You Til The End?” . The funky pop sounds that dominant Strawberry has an unquestionable heavy influence from Prince.

“Who Will Love You Til The End?” - Peephole from Strawberry Told Me

After listening to all three of his free EPs, it’s apparent that there are so many layers to his music – various textures and influences from disco to pop and new wave to rock. Peephole’s latest EP, Crime Drama, is out now, and contains the two tracks found below. Let us know what you think. - IndieRockCafe.com

Anyone got a ticket to Brooklyn? I need to go. I can’t take it anymore. I have to find out how so much good music can come from one place. Here is yet another great group from the Big Apple.

I peeped Peephole through Bell’s MySpace. Glad I did. Their main man is called Kent Odessa. What a name. Its nearly as good as mine.

Aside from great nomenclature, their music is really where its at. The currently unsigned, Peephole, draw from the legends Prince, Bowie and Serge Gainsbourg. MGMT aren’t too far from their imaginations either, with some great driving and distorted bass lines a la Electric Feel. Peephole’s USPs are their experimentalism, with some interesting use of minimalism, as heard in their song Traitor. They also receive counseling from fruit.

You can download all these and more MP3s from their MySpace, but if you’re too lazy to go there, then just listen to these:

- HoleyTonal Music Blog

Apparently the unsigned Brooklyn based electro-pop band, known as Peephole, enjoy talking to pieces of fruit...so much so that they wrote a song about it.
"Strawberry Told Me" is a an all-around cooler than thou, Prince-influenced track with a hook that you wont be able to get out of your head. Singer and "senior fruit whisperer" Kent Odessa coos the semi-retarded but inspirational line "Strawberry told me/Cranberry showed me/You never should listen to begger's bologna(?)/Ah-hoooooo" (The the Ah-hoooooo is the best part, the whipped-cream, if you will). Berry, berry awesome! - The Walrus Music Blog

Ooooh yes. Yes yes yes. We’re just going to list their “influences” and you should get why they’re a huge yeeeees. “Orange Juice, Robert Mugabe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Lynne Read Banks, The Teardrop Explodes, Magazine, Chris Rock, Sante D’orazio, Joe Namath, and of course, Bowie, Prince, Lennon, and Gainsbourg.”
We may want to take this to the next level. - Subterranean Music Blog

Peephole is a Brooklyn based electro/pop band that I heard about from my friend Prince William, an awesome dj from Dallas. They're self-described as being influenced by three of my faves, Bowie, Prince, and Gainsbourg. Can’t go wrong with any of those. I’ve posted three tracks, Club Agoraphobia is a trancey/disco track about being claustrophobic in the club - which is ironic ’cause this song would do well in a club setting. Next up is the first track I listened to, Strawberry Told Me, but I’ve posted a very playable remix by Italy’s Lacquer. Sick hook on this one. Definitely check out some of Lacquer’s other work, it’s worth it. Finally it was a toss up about which song to post last but I fell in love with the piano track in Traitor so much I think you will too. For the rest of Peephole’s sound (all of their tracks you can download for FREE) and to drop them a note sending them some robot love, hit up their MySpace. - Robot Dance Music Blog

Twee band alert you guys! Sounding like The Shins if James Mercer was obsessed with soundtracking movies like "Foxy Brown", New York's Peephole create shimmery-as-all-get-out pop tunes that reek of goodness and jangle their way into your heart valves. The band, a Craigslist creation that married an astrophysicist, a disgruntled liquor store employee, a mailman, a puppet theater performer and an ex-stripper, have only really around for about a year, but they exhibit the sort of taut instrumentation you'd find from a group that's been together for a decade. If you don't like to smile while listening to perfect pop music, well, maybe Peephole isn't for you. The kids play The Annex on February 26. - Culture of Me (Blog)

Peephole opened last night with “Silence for Kindness,” Pavlov’s bass romping around the room while Pontiac and Schweitzer stood smirking at the controls, occasionally flipping a switch to lift the loop to new heights of turn of the century hysterics.

During “Nail in the Coffin,” Odessa hit his stride, his voice starting and stopping, stuttering and blurting in faux sexual terror. Dropping back and bending at the waist with each chord strum, he resembled something of a cross between Paul Simon and David Byrne.

Highlights of the night included “Rita Done Me Wrong” and “Guilty Boat.” The former is definitely one of the bands more well-nourished songs. With its torrid bass line and Odessa’s hot and heavy vocals, buoyed by the silver-lined flourishes of Pontiac’s epic synthesizer, the song moves through the room and picks off lock-kneed listeners like an aural H1N1. It is literally impossible not to move to this song.

Perhaps Peephole’s greatest strength is the tension between the hot and cold rumble of the rhythm section and Odessa’s nervous, plaintive vocals. When the two elements overlap, as they did last night during “Guilty Boat,” the music becomes nothing short of thrilling. The fuzz-rich bass, staccato drums, delicate synthesizer shards, and the urgent vocals telling the story of a miffed lover, all add up to soaring, unashamedly fun dance pop.

- Quiet Color music blog

The Peephole boy Kent Odessa is back (I still can’t come up with a way of saying that where it doesn’t sound dirty) with another free EP, which makes me think he likes (a) writing excellent songs and (b) ramen noodles, in roughly that exact order. Someone please send this guy some money – he deserves to at least upgrade to the dollar menu!

Seriously tho, the new Strawberry Told Me EP is a big step forward in songwriting prowess from the Cold Dime EP. Both are worth your time, but the new one has a more cohesive feel, like the songs were meant to be together as opposed to slapped together like a mix tape. Download it! - Future Rocket Soul

Friends, Romans, 'Lectro kids....Salutations!

'Tis been a week since we last talked, I hope you all survived your weekend with only a few scratches and bumps. Send some feedback on what you were doing; let's make this site a bit more socially interactive...
Alright, guys, this week you're gettin spoiled. I've received tons of good stuff and I am willing to exhibit all of it in the coming days. The centre piece of this week's posts is a Brooklyn based band called Peephole. These guys really caught my attention. There are a lot of so-called Indie Dance bands nowadays, since it's the thing to do, however not many stand out like these guys. I kind of want to say that they remind of Friendly Fires, but I would only go as far as putting them in them in the same category of "Really F*ckin Good Contemporary Bands that I Enjoy Listening to Every Day" or "RFGCBIELED" for short. Today I shall post their EP "Strawberry Told Me", and Wednesday I will follow up with the other EP "Cold Dime." These guys WILL blow up...

Oh right...I almost forgot, these guys are nice enough to let people download the music on their site - Sundtrak

Well, as promised I'm givin you Peephole's second EP "Cold Dime" which you can get on their site for free. I don't know what it is about this band, but they just sound different than all the other Indie acts out there...this EP is more somber than "Strawberry Told Me," however it is still very organic. Real music, y'know..
Anyways, sit back and soak in the music, you'll like it. I know it... - Sundtrak