Idgy Dean

Diddy is a hard act to follow. After he crashed The Chris Gethard Show recently, it seemingly rendered the rest of the show filler material. How do you top a guy that enters through his own personal door, argues with Zach Galifiankis, and leaves? But the show’s musical guest, Idgy Dean, held her own with her one-woman, bare-footed set which was even enough to rock The Human Fish himself.

Today, Idgy Dean (which is the stage name of the human beat-loop machine Lindsay Sanwald) is releasing her new video for “Pantheon Punk,” and, after 38 consecutive months of winter, we, the pale-faced writers in Noisey’s New York offices are drooling over it. It is giving us serious weather envy. The video is essentially five straight minutes of summer worship, capturing everything that's great about the season—sunkissed shoulders, dripping ice cream cones, night time mini-golf. It looks like one long advertisement for the sun and we want in. It’s also the perfect accompaniment to her blend of life-loving surf/garage rock.

Basically what we are saying is that we want to be Idgy Dean’s friends and have her take our winter-atrophied bodies surfing. Please. We promise that we are slightly more coordinated than we look. We will just need an economy sized tube of SPF 200 and some inflatable swimmies and we’re good to go.

Check out “Pantheon Punk” below, the perfect video to enjoy on Earth Day (or the full moon if yer goth!). The song is from Idgy Dean's deceptively dark album Ominus Harminus which you can pick up here.

Oh, and in case you missed it, here she is on Gethard: - Noisey

Idgy Dean (real name: Lindsay Sanwald) is salve for our Coachella FOMO — so rad, and so New York. Her video, Bang Bang Sun, is a body-paint covered romp through the streets of Greenpoint, which is exactly the sort of charade her music embodies. She's indie and trippy and seriously talented, the kind of triple threat we're into.

Idgy: Next time you decide to frolic in cornfields in your underpants, please invite us to join. - REFINERY 29

Brooklyn’s Idgy Dean is an impressive one woman band with a knack for particularly addictive riffs. Lindsay Sanwald (aka Idgy Dean) plays all instruments, records and mixes her own music including her latest single, “Indian Squirrel Dance”. It’s a heart-pounding, bluesy rock track that oozes with an edgy fierceness matched by its primal new music video directed by Rachel Brennecke. Setting Sanwald against earth, wind, fire and water, the clip perfectly captures the tribal essence of the drums, the half-chanted, half-sung lyrics and, of course, those swirling guitar riffs. Filled with free spirit, shadows, light and a whole lot of dancing, the visuals creatively manipulate the basics into a mesmerizing work of art, just like Sanwald’s music. “Indian Squirrel Dance” is the first single off of Idgy Dean’s debut album, Ominous Harminus, due out in 2015. - The Wild Honey Pie

Lindsay Sanwald is Idgy Dean. She’s billed as a one-woman psychedelic rock band, but prior to going solo, she held her own as the only chick in a bunch of all dude rock bands. Lindsay’s blonde and petite and it’s not hard at all to imagine her getting scrappy and just being one of the guys. She is someone you’d wanna get dirty with at some outdoor music festival—someone you would totally expect to be naked, painted, and unfazed by the chaos around her. She’s never had formal musical training, and swears the biggest crowd she ever played to was with her high school metal band. But that won’t be the case for long. Idgy Dean’s official SxSW showcase happens March 17th, at THE MAIN II, in Austin, TX.

Even though we both live in Bushwick, she requested last minute that we meet at Reynard in Williamsburg, because she was craving her favorite burger. That’s my kind of girl. We chatted over drinks—and I suggest you grab one for this interview, because we went deep. Read on for Lindsay’s take on divorce before 30, being bisexual, and a Hungarian-Ukrainian chicken dish that can solve all of life’s problems. - Me In My Place

GOLDEN BOY PRESS Interview #160
IDGY DEAN, a one woman band comes to talk to us about her newest ventures in music. With her most recent release of her music video for the song, “The Indian Squirrel Dance”, she discusses how it was basically the turning point in her life where she found real self discovery in music. Setting an example for success and being ones true self, is quite apparent in IDGY DEAN, it’s inspiring and her sound is mesmerizing. With talk of future projects such as, “Ominous Harminus”, planned for next year, we can’t wait to hear more from this great artist, and hopefully the use of more motivational Star Wars quotes.
Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Lindsay Sanwald. I write all the music and play all the instruments in a one-woman psychedelic rock band called Idgy Dean. I’ve been based in Brooklyn for the last several years, but I’m originally from New Jersey, went to college in Yonkers, and spent significant time living in San Francisco, Tuscany, and Argentina.
Why music? What motivated you to start expressing yourself through sound?
It’s honestly like breathing for me. It unconsciously and involuntarily just comes in and out. I swear it must have something to do with a past life, because I’ve never studied or been formally trained. For me, it’s the most efficient, accurate and abstract form of expression—-little big bangs of something from nothing.
Could you name a few people that have inspired you since the beginning of your music career and still do to this day?
My Dad, my big brother, Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Bjork, Radiohead, The Pixies, New Order, Maria Negroni, David Byrne, Ziggy Gurnick, Jorge Luis Borges, Walt Whitman, Alan Watts, Joseph Cambell, Santigold, M.I.A., Marina Abramovic, Animal Collective, Grimes, Tame Impala, Poets, Dancers, Farmers, Chefs, Yogis.
What do you strive for in life? How do you try to apply that passion to your work?
To live the maximum existence—-to say yes to almost everything, to balance unabashed hedonism with faithful discipline, to have courage, to believe in magic and supernatural powers, to be kind and champion goodness, to be loyal and loving, and above all, to have INTEGRITY. Idgy Dean is the highest pursuit of my highest self—-it’s my raw core cultivated. The more adventurous, present, and honest I am, the better it seems to work.
What can listeners expect from your new single that released November 11th, “The Indian Squirrel Dance”?
"The Indian Squirrel Dance" has been many years in the making. I wrote it when I was 19-years-old, in my first year of college (the title came from an eccentric little dance one of my housemates would do while I played the riff in my dorm room). At the time, I was itching to end a long-term relationship and leave the country. I was just starting to discover my real voice, my real self. The song grew up with me, and I was inspired to re-record it after adapting a live version for a show I performed at my alma mater. I tracked the entire single by myself on GarageBand, and the demo-ness of it became so precious and honest and on-point for me, that I decided it was the best possible version to release.
How do the visuals in the music video correspond with the track? Would you say it tells a story, or is just pure representation of the music?
When I finished recording the single, I would listen to it while watching those “Go Forth” Levi’s commercials. The pastoral Americana vibe just seemed to click. Originally, I intended to shoot the video in my New Jersey hometown with director Sam Baumel, but Hurricane Sandy came on through that same weekend, and washed our video out to sea. A long time later, I met Rachel Brennecke, a fashion photographer better known as Bon Jane. I loved her work, her portrayal of American landscapes and bad-ass women, so our collaboration felt imminent. We had lots of meetings, but nothing was getting off the ground until she finally demanded I just figure out a way to come to her house up in Kingston, near Woodstock, New York (this felt like a good omen, since the cover of the single is a picture of my Dad at age 19—-who passed away last year—-on his way to Woodstock in 1969 on the motorcycle he bought with money earned from his first tour). A few days before our shoot, I met Scott Herriott, who shoots the SNL digital shorts, and invited him and my close friend Yasminca Wilson along for the ride. All we had to do was get there. There was no concept or plan. We weren’t even sure what song we wanted to shoot a video for. All Rachel knew was that she wanted to shoot some slow motion footage on the back of a pick-up truck. After that, it was like, “Oh, let’s go in this cornfield”…”Hey, let’s shoot some stuff in this dirt field”…”You got pretty dirty, let’s wash off in the river”….”It’s cold and dark, let’s build a fire.” We unconsciously shot all the elements, and it all came together so beautifully. It really felt like we were channeling the magic of the super moon that just so happened to be in the sky that night. So if there’s any story, it’s simply one of natural spontaneity, which I feel is the truest representation of me and my music.
How have you grown since your EP, “Heart & Lung”? Do you believe your growth has majorly impacted the content of your new single?
Looking back, I think my aim with “Heart & Lung” was to put out some solid polished pop songs, but I wasn’t nearly as confident in myself back then. It was the very first thing I allowed other hands to touch, which was a big learning curve for me, since up until then, all of my material had been self-recorded in basements and bedrooms. “The Indian Squirrel Dance” feels much more confident and genuine, because it’s me behind the wheel again, in an effort to preserve the creative quirks of a song—-made late at night, alone and sprawling, without a care for what time it is, or how many hours it’s been, or how much money it’s going to cost, or if you’re breaking any sonic rules.
Could you tell us about your project for next year, entitled, “Ominous Harminus”? What are you looking forward to the most about the overall project as well as collaborating with some amazing artists?
With the new record, I want the best of both worlds—-bedroom and studio—-to capture the inspired dirt, and have awesome engineers like Eli Crews, along with Tom Tierney and Alex Mead-Fox at Spacemen Sound, make sure the foundation and finished product are strong and held to the highest standard. I’m mostly looking forward to showcasing songs that aren’t trying to be anything except what they are—-lots of long abstract movements, unconventional recording methods, cherished flaws. I want OMINOUS HARMINUS to be a love-child of dirty garage rock and super produced psychedelic dance music. I’m so excited, too, to be collaborating with the A.O. Movement Collective’s ETLE Universe, a multimedia dance epic that will feature a lot of this new music in avant-garde performance pieces.
Are there any words of advice you’d like to give to people just starting in the music industry today?
Have courage and confidence, seek mentors, and understand that your music is a spiritual practice which inevitably takes a lifetime to develop.
What surrounding gives you the feeling of peace?
The usual suspects—-water, mountains, fields, woods. Being alone in my car on the road with many, many hours to go. At the bar of a busy restaurant enjoying a perfect meal. Spooning with my cat, Whoopi Goldberg II.
Since the music world is typically fast paced, what’s one method of relaxation you try to incorporate into your life?
Yoga-Pranayama-Meditation… every damn day. And frequent trips to the Russian Turkish Bathhouse in the East Village.
Where do you see yourself a year from now? What goals have you set for yourself?
I really, really want to tour every state and abroad. Would love to support a band or artist I really love. My three immediate goals—-release OMINOUS HARMINUS in its truest form, make it my passport to the world, perform on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
What makes you happy?
Love, Music, Yoga, Family, Friends, Food
Any closing comments?
May the force be with you.
POI - Golden Boy Press

Directed by Bon Jane, a woman who claims her concepts were once stolen by the Black Keys, Idgy Dean's "The Indian Squirrel Dance" creates a playful scenario for the mid-twenties Brooklynite. Dean spends most of the video switching between beating her drum skins like they slept with her boyfriends and floating on air, singing tenderly to the viewer. With a carnal, pounding rhythm, and a chewy guitar cadence, "The Indian Squirrel Dance" is actually the kind of guitar-based pop song that could overthrow the inundation of EDM chart toppers that are ever pervasive in the contemporary popular music spectrum. “The Indian Squirrel Dance” is available on iTunes and Spotify and serves as a transition between Heart & Lung and Idgy's (aka Lindsay Sanwald) first full-length work currently in production with Eli Crews (Yoko Ono, tUnE-yArDs, Kathleen Hanna) entitled Ominous Harminus due in 2015. - ION Magazine

There is a lot left to the imagination when you hear a song entitled “The Indian Squirrel Dance” — you don’t even have to listen to conjure up the jungle drumming, fringe flying, and Earth romping that Idgy Dean unapologetically displays in her new video. The single will appear on her first full length due out early next year. One thing is clear about this artist, whether she has an audience or not she’s going to do whatever the hell she wants.
With the looping abilities of KT Tunstall (Lindsey Sanwald is an impressive one-woman act) and the edginess of Ume, Idgy Dean encompasses all that she claims to be in her respective, and presumably self-appointed genre of Pachamama garage rock (Pachamama being an Incan mythological fertility/harvest Goddess). There is certainly an organic tribal undertone to the track; the drums are constant, ceremonial and cymbal-less, and the vocals err on the edge of inaudibility, invoking the idea of murmured incantations. But the glue that binds all the mythological luster together is an overarching riff that will make you want to go out and buy an amp and guitar just to play that damn lick swirling around your brain like a dust storm.
But the real splash is made by the video itself, which features the artist in a myriad of natural locales, all of which appear to be from whence she is indigenous. Under the direction of Rachel Brennecke, aka BON JANE, the video captures what could seemingly be an animal in her many habitats. Idgy is captured as a bayou woman, a hunter-gatherer-esque native, an elusive, yet enticing phantasm in a corn maze, and yet all are in the persona of the artist herself. The video plays on the idea of dancing like nobody’s watching, but more importantly features Idgy Dean as a musical gypsy on the prowl. With her bohemian prowess, she will lure spectators in with her primal energy, and that is the essence of the artistry itself.
Idgy Dean will be releasing her first full length album, Ominous Harminus early next year. In the meantime, check out the video here: - AUDIOFEMME

Brooklyn-based one-woman psychedelic rock band Idgy Dean has unveiled the tribal, free-spirited video for her heart-pumping track “The Indian Squirrel Dance”. Her exceptional talent oozes as she takes it upon herself to write, perform, record, and mix all of her complex, creative music.

Directed by Rachel Brennecke, Idgy Dean travels upstate to Kingston, New York to march through desert-like nature during a Super Full Moon. Pounding tom-tom drums and scraping blues guitar riffs ignite like a flame. Wearing nothing but a leopard print, high-waisted bathing suit bottom and a dark-colored bra, she beats on her drums with youthful fury. She lures us through corn fields, waves her free-flowing hair in the wind, drips in a soaked American flag tank top—all while looping impressive tribal rock rhythms.

“The Indian Squirrel Dance” will be on Idgy Dean’s first full-length work entitled Ominous Harminus due in 2015. If you’re in the New York area, she will be performing at Brooklyn Bazaar this Friday, November 14 with Javelin; more info here.

For now, check out the new video for “The Indian Squirrel Dance” below, and download it on iTunes here. - Unrecorded

We became acquainted with one girl band Idgy Dean (aka Lindsay Sanwald) a few years ago, when she played our NYC B.E.A.F. (Best of Emerging Artists Fest) at now defunct venue Public Assembly. We now realize Lindsay doesn't actually belong here in NYC. Her new single "The Indian Squirrel Dance," from the full length "Ominous Harminous, scheduled for a January release, is an edgy, tribal track drenched in desert rock aesthetics and featuring weird religious chanting - not exactly your typical NYC music features. But it's the song's video that erases any doubts regarding the fact that Idgy Dean should live a nomadic life, far from the city's anguishing buildings, like some kind of sensual, musical animal, that reveals itself to curious fans at will, semi-naked, and then disappears mysteriously after a song or two. She sure looks comfortable in that environment, and her music perfectly works in it. She'd just have to figure out where to plug her guitar amp... Don't miss her at Brooklyn Bazaar when she opens for Javelin. - The Deli Magazine

Idgy Dean (aka Lindsay Sanwald) is a diverse creator of sound who has been dubbed as a “Creative storm brewing in the center of Brooklyn.” From her almost transcendent and ever promising music one could hardly tell she has been a one-woman band since the release of her first LP OK Cadavers!. But one woman with so much kilowatt power can not make music alone for long until others must seek to collaborate. Currently she is working with Eli Crews (Yoko Ono, tUnE-yArDs, Kathleen Hanna) on her newest LP and her first full-length piece since the debut of OK Cadavers!, entitled Ominous Harminus.

Released Veterans day is the video for Idgy Dean’s brand new single “The Indian Squirrel Dance”, bridging the gap between her previous work and the upcoming work she’s doing with Crews on Ominous Harminus.

The video and the live performance is like a dream that makes you want to dance. The acoustic pop vocals almost seem to be in another language at times, evoking a sense of another world and another time. The guitar riffs are sensual, upbeat, smooth like the images in the film. It is magnetic, the video is a perfect resemblance of the song with scenes of a beautiful woman undressing under a full moon and the symbolic images of nature and water creating a feeling of freedom and humanity.

If you would like to see more music by Idgy Dean check out her Vimeo and Youtube pages and don’t forget to cop her newest LP on Itunes. - Pancakes and Whiskey

Idgy Dean, (aka Lindsay Sanwald) is a creative storm brewing in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She is currently working with Eli Crews on her upcoming album, Ominous Harminus, and has unleashed her ferocious new video for "The Indian Squirrel Dance" upon us. At first glance, you'll think Evan Rachel Wood started a hippy music project, but that's so not the case. By the end, you'll be hoping to see more. - BUZZNET

The true standout of the crowd, however, is Idgy Dean. The fact that this musician isn’t all that well known is rather inconceivable; she’s a one-woman dream pop band who records all her songs alone and then has a wild looping party on stage. Striking an expertly layered balance of fierceness and fun, Idgy Dean is a CMJ force to be reckoned with. - Blouin Art Info International

Often described simply as a “one-woman psych rock band,” Idgy Dean is a Brooklyn based solo artist mastering in weaving together intricate layers of sound to create intensely rhythmic and stupefyingly catchy songs, built live from the ground up. Starting with a drum beat or guitar riff set on loop and adding her own backing vocals and harmonies, Lindsay Sanwald expertly pulls together all the elements you’d find in a full band performance all-the-while dancing around barefoot on stage, creating an energy that’s palpable throughout the room.

An Idgy Dean performance is a captivating experience and the recorded music is nothing to scoff at either. Her first album, OK Cadavers!, was released in 2009 and she’s continued to tease with a handful of EP and single releases since, including 2011′s wonderful Heart & Lung. Now with the promise of a new full-length, Ominous Harminus, we’ve got something to look forward to in 2015.

The concept for the album came from a tragic subway experience, one that inspired an idea of “Apocalypse Optimism—the Renaissance after the Black Death, the green after the volcano, Catastrophe, Mother of Cosmos.” Sanwald explained, “I got giddy with etymology and intellectualizing the work, but the only real way to channel and communicate it’s primordial guts was to drum, chant, yawp, dance—violently, ecstatically—to sound it out, so to speak.”

Sanwald is promoting a Pledge Music campaign to fund the record, and has promised to donate 20% of all proceeds after the goal is reached to Willie Mae Rock Camp For Girls. Since the project is now at 111% funding, you can feel lovely knowing that you’re supporting both an inspiring rising artist as well as “a non-profit music and mentoring program that empowers girls and women through music education, volunteerism, and activities that foster self-respect, leadership skills, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration.” - Posture Magazine

There’s something to be said for a solo artist who can bring songs to life that sound as though they’re being performed by a full band, and that’s just what Brooklyn-based one-woman psychedelic pop band Idgy Dean manages to do. Starting with a simple strum of guitar or a bold drum beat, the multi-instrumentalist loops these different elements, adding each ingredient layer by layer as though baking a cake and frosting it all with subtle, rhythmic vocals. The results are insanely catchy, and watching her recreate the songs live is a revelation. —L.R. - Brooklyn Based

Saturday night Idgy Dean shared stage with Unicycle Loves You for their album release at Radio Bushwick. Idgy Dean is a one woman act who labels her music as psychedelic rock; a spot on description. She sang emotional airy lyrics while recording playbacks, and constantly adding layers to the loop creating a unique ambience. By the time the Brooklyn-based artist was into her second song the crowd had more than doubled in size, with many dancing to the beat. Idgy Dean crossed paths with Unicycle Loves You while on tour a few years back, when they performed together on the Chicago public access kid’s TV dance show, Chic-A-Go-Go.

In addition of the ethereal guitar chords and looped chants, she bangs on standing drums building dominant tribal rhythms. Her passion and energy became alive with such a powerful performance.

Idgy is in the process of making a new album and expects a fall/winter release. A new music video may also becoming out next month so keep an eye out. If you would like to support Idgy Dean and her upcoming album, check her PledgeMusic campaign here.

Idgy Dean will be playing at NXNE arts festival in Toronto, Friday June 20; here is the event.
You can check the festival’s full line up here. - Diffuse Brooklyn

"I had no idea what to expect when Idgy Dean took the stage equipped with her guitar and drums, but I was blown away by her performance. She pounded out beats on the drums (with ferocity and precision) and then looped them over each other. Then she would play some punky guitar and loop in several different variations. Then she would sing (often in tongues I couldn't understand) and loop the vocals over each other. There were so many layers, yet they all worked incredibly well with each other.

Adding to the set was her unbridled enthusiasm and energy. She bounced around the stage in her bare feet, clicking in loops for her instruments and playing them all wildly. She was a tiny, furious ball of music-making mayhem, and it was a terrific way to start the night." - CHARGED.FM

“Listen to just 'Show Me All The Sounds You Know,' and you might mistakenly think Idgy Dean's only weapons are her positive energy and sultry voice. But stick around for harder-hitting songs like 'Bang Bang Sun' and the new 'Onion's Milk' (whose video, directed by Gravity Sleeps, we are premiering below) and you'll soon discover some of the depths to this roaring personality. Like a cross between tune-yards and Marnie Stern, Dean's vocals soar over a backdrop that can include anything from her tympani drum and electric guitars, to double-tracked vocals that surround and pulse through your skin with a physical energy too dynamic to ignore. Idgy Dean will perform at The Deli's B.E.A.F. 2012 (Best of Emerging Artists Fest) at the 2 stages Public Assembly show on May 25 with 13 other local bands, including In One Wind, Xenia Rubinos, Illumintr, Wazu and OhNoMoon. - Mike Levine - The Deli Magazine

"Some of you may have already heard of Idgy Dean, one of the most promising young solo artists to hit the music scene in New York City. However, you probably didn’t know that Igdy Dean is actually the stage name of Sarah Lawrence alumna Lindsay Sanwald, who graduated in 2007. Upon hearing that the new music video for her song ‘Onion’s Milk’, directed by Samuel Baumel, is about to debut, I decided to ask Lindsay a few questions about her time at Sarah Lawrence and her blossoming career as a musical artist. Her responses are surprising and inspiring…

Can you briefly recall one of your fondest memories of attending Sarah Lawrence? Did you have a favorite professor, class, or routine on-campus?

The first week of my sophomore year coincided with the 2004 Republican National Convention. It was the week of interviewing professors, and I had scheduled meetings with the big guns—Ilja Wachs and Judy Serafini-Sauli. I had also planned to go into the city that Tuesday to demonstrate against George W’s pep rally. I ended up getting arrested that night along with over a thousand others (no joke), including several other SLC students. I remember my first instance of panic having less to do with being in prison, and more to do with the fact that I was going to miss my interviews with Ilja and Judy the next day. The following morning, when I was granted the famous “phone call,” I didn’t call my mom, I didn’t call a lawyer. Instead, I called my Don, Maria Negroni, to sort out my class registration (SLC needs to put this in a brochure, I think). Come Thursday I was still in jail, and now my concern had shifted to the fact that I was going to miss my performance on campus that night. I was a manager at WSLC, and we were hosting the annual orientation week concert, which my then band was headlining. After 44 hours of being detained, the NYPD finally released me with zero charges. I hadn’t slept in two nights, and I was covered in filth, but I was able to race back to Bronxville just in time for the show. I literally came straight from jail to a crowded party where everything was already set up. I just had to show up and play drums. It was the most epic entrance I think I will ever have. Best of all, I got into Ilja and Judy’s classes, which along with Maria’s First Year Studies—“Dark Museum: British Castles to Latin American Gothic Imagination” (talk about an SLC course title)—would be the most formative classes of my life.





What did you do straight after graduation? How did you get started working on music in a more professional capacity?

The summer after graduating I spent a couple of months working on a farm in Italy with W.W.O.O.F. (I highly recommend this for the recently commenced). Then I moved to San Francisco, but not for long. I got lucky with a Fulbright grant to go teach English and literature and write music for eight months in Argentina. I basically had a year in which I was able to live out my fantasy of teaching college students my favorite novels a la Ilja Wachs or Maria Negroni. I had been playing in rock bands and making solo multi-track recordings my whole life, but I was brought up to believe music could never be my career, so I was pursuing the academic life instead. The following summer was loaded with events that convinced me otherwise. I moved to Manhattan, I didn’t get in to the two Comp Lit PhD programs that I had applied to, and my best friend from childhood was suddenly very sick with terminal melanoma. There were the GRE books, and then there was the death bed. The week I saw David Byrne live in Prospect Park, followed by an epic road trip to Bonnaroo in Tennessee led me to the profound revelation that I had a very precious opportunity to truly pursue what in fact I had always wanted to. I resigned my grad school re-application efforts, and for the first time ever, my energy was funneled exclusively into being an entrepreneur of my music. I quickly baptized the name Idgy De - SLC Speaks

Idgy Dean’s life seems more fitting for a painter than a musician.

As an up-and-coming artist, Dean spent countless hours working alone in the cramped confines of her own home recording, layering and mixing sounds that she created.

Her website uses the term “accumulative sound,” which seems an apt description once you’ve listened to the rich density and inspired randomness of the rhythmic songs Dean has recorded.

Idgy Dean is the stage name of New Yorker Lindsay Sanwald, who will be looping sounds and performing over them when she appears at The Sentient Bean on the evening of Feb. 2.

Dean has not always been a solo performer. She was in a hardcore group as a teen and later was an indie rock drummer and instrumental acoustic composer.

She even received a coveted Fulbright Scholarship in 2008 to compose an album and teach literature in Argentina.

Dean’s first album, “OK Cadavers!”, came out in 2009. Now she’s coming to Savannah as part of her first national tour. Like some of the acts that we’ll see at the Savannah Stopover in early March, Dean could be poised to explode on the national scene.

The new single “Show Me All The Sounds You Know” is an anthem heavy on bass and drums.. The track “Bang Bang Sun” begins with a light, high percussion before a racing beat takes over. I could imagine the song on the Gogol Bordello station on Pandora.

Dean cites Bjork as one of her influences, but I couldn’t keep from hearing echoes of the eclectic Kate Bush, a performer at least one other reviewer has compared her to.

Dean performs at 8 p.m. Feb. 2 at The Sentient Bean, 13 East Park Ave. A donation is suggested, and I’m sure Dean will have some music for sale.

- Savannah Morning News

WFMU'S "Beastin' The Airwaves" / INTERVIEW (January 8th, 2012) - WFMU

HERITAGE RADIO NETWORK'S "The Morning After" / LIVE PERFORMANCE - Heritage Radio Network

"How would you react if your opening line-up spot on the the last day of a festival (ESCAPE2NY) got cancelled? Idgy Dean played a tent in a parking lot as if she were Havens opening Woodstock. She was nervous, but the songs she showcased had a lyric bent to them that was inherently rewarding and surprised me way beyond expectations, delivering a nearly miraculous recovery, save for the fact that this was a product of effort, not miracle. I discovered a new artist, and it's always nice when that happens." By Michael Vazquez (12/21/11) - The Huffington Post

Using her Kate Bush-y soprano for intricate vocal parts, and supporting it with all sort of musical influences - ranging from garage rock to dream-pop and even post-rock - Brooklynite Idgy Dean (real name Lindsay Sanwald) creates poppy DIY music that's original and hard to pinpoint. Her new EP "Heart & Lung" showcases a promising vulcanic creativity, which you'll be able to witness live on August 18, when she'll celebrate her record release at Pianos. - The Deli Magazine

DECEMBER 2009

She's 21. Check one - alternative. She recorded this in her basement. Check 2 - low fidelity. Layered perfectly, this album recalls early 80's Athens GA via Pylon and early '09 via Sin Fang Bous. Throwing Muses at their rawest moment was at this place once. If Madonna wants a punk lesson, here she is... Idgy Dean! - New Town Crier

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Fall has not been kind to my new music listening rotation, as my ears have recently been whisked away by the repeat button to a seasonal beach house. In an attempt to free myself from the confines of looping Lennox and Legrand, I picked up the nearest CD from a stack on the floor staring at me like the terrifying furnace from Home Alone. It just so happens the first disc I picked up was the long lost music of Kid Whitman, an artist I met during Bonnaroo this past summer who has since changed her musical name to Idgy Dean.

[MP3] Idgy Dean - Election


The brainchild of New Yorker Lindsay Sanwald, Idgy Dean crafts rough garage-pop without any sanded sounds of a studio. Considering the limitations experienced whilst recording in a bedroom, the influences of Animal Collective meeting traces of folk Lilith Fair make for an intriguing mix. Sure, some of her songs tend to lose focus and her range certainly needs expanding but that's what follow-ups are for. We'll see if Idgy Dean can find me floating around Bonnaroo to follow through. - I Guess I'm Floating

"It's everything I love about 80s Madonna with the stereo fuzz of The Shins and the punk swagger of X!" - Luke Simon

OK Cadavers! is right. The dead are listening and they're finding it hard not to dance. Idgy Dean's debut album comes at you like a nacreous jellyfish, writhing and glowing, defying the properties of gravity and blacklisting the inert. Again and again her songs lurch outwards and upwards, all dazzle and rapture, before plunging downwards and stinging right in the deepest part of your belly. Lindsay Sanwald's voice is whisked into her instrumentation like the perfect ratio of sugar to batter. Honey-coated bliss, it pours dreamily down your throat before veering off at the last moment, avoiding adorable-overkill. It's as though the ghosts have gathered in her vocal chords, layered and scheming to escape--and they do, in vibrant, hair-rising incantations. The gypsy vibrations of "Uno Dos Tres", the throaty storytelling of "Onion's Milk" (surrealistic lyrics penned by Neapolitan visual artist Mario Maffei), the iridescent pleas to a lover in "Election" submerge us full into a bottle of prosecco: trembling with ardor, fizzing with narrative, thrashing upwards to the top on an exquisitely formed globe. The heart in these songs is evident; hers has been gouged out, raked through the fields of Italy and Argentina, and plunked back into her chest, leaking. Whoever is responsible for her agony is a fool, but it might just have been worth it to hear this radiant, spirited collection. - Caitlyn Caleah

Idgy Dean is out for your attention, and she wastes no time stopping your heart while grabbing it within the first minute of Ominous Harminus, her new record out September 18. "Overture" kicks off with a recording pulled from a message left on the Brooklyn performer's voicemail by a detective calling from Florida. The word "detective" is enough to shoot nervous pangs down your spine, even if you're not the recipient of the intended bulletin, but his blunt and all-too-plain "it's in reference to your father" — that's a gut-punch in and of itself, and Idgy Dean takes this fraught tension and builds something dark and captivating with it.

The rest of Ominous Harminus follows suit, with Idgy Dean — a/k/a Lindsay Sanwald — favoring layers of lush instrumentation and hypnotic vocal meditations that beg you to get lost in their folds. Heady percussion, surf-tinged guitar lines, call-and-response chants, dizzying bass: Despite the frenetic nature of Ominous Harminus's swirling parts, the driving beats and otherworldly vocals ensnare the listener, from the wordless sprint of "Hopscotch" to the transcendent "The Indian Squirrel Dance" to the seething title track, which feels more like a spell than a song. "I want to lose myself" is a striking refrain, and the painful current eddying throughout Ominous Harminus. (The leadoff track is eerie, but the closer is just as alarming.) The mystery works for Idgy Dean, but here's hoping she doesn't get her wish — we want to hear more.

We've got Ominous Harminus streaming below, so give it a spin before its official release September 18. Idgy Dean will perform as the artist-in-residence at the A.O. Collective's ETLE Universe Project from September 25–October 10. For more information, click here. - The Village Voice