Mara Connor

A lot of our friends from the College Radio scene are hitting NYC this week for the annual CMJ Marathon and are kindly sending us some excellent reviews of what’s happening on the ground for this week’s Required Listening. CMJ is always a look into the future of music so hop into the DeLorean.

Review from the first night of CMJ, October 16th by Avery Trufelman (President WESU), Wesleyan University. (88.1FM WESU)

Mara Connor/Lyons Den
I started out in Brooklyn, with an act listed as Mara Connor, which was actually two sets: first her electric band, Lyon’s Den, backed her with a computer in lieu of a drummer. The, in the second half, Mara and an accompanist harmonized with vocals and guitar on a host of dreamy ballads until their concluding rendition of “Heart of Gold.” Though I preferred her work with Lyon’s Den, Mara Connor’s voice was soft and warming and carried the set for a solid hour. - mtvU

Last Monday night was a fun night at the Bootleg Theater. Albert & his Dreamboats is the January residency band. On this specific Monday night, it was jammed packed with musicians doing half-sets. I got to see Z Berg and Mara Connor again. I also got to see Sie Sie Benhoff for the first time. Z Berg -- I've gotten to see Z Berg off and on since The Like days. By off and on, I mean that it seems to be every two years or so. One reason, of course, why I went to the Bootleg Theater this past Monday was because of Z Berg. I got to see Mara Connor for the second time. Her vocals are filled with such dream-filled sounds... Over-all, as mentioned, super fun night. - Notes from Vivace

SPECIAL EVENT: Songwriters-in-the-Round: Vicki Peterson, Shelly Peiken, Bleu, Mike Viola, Eleni Mandell, Kelly Jones, Keaton Simons, Mara Connor, Linus of Hollywood, Arthur Winer, & MC Prototype in concert.

The Cal Poly Pomona Music Department and the Songwriter Showcase ensemble are pleased to announce an unusual and diverse group of acclaimed songwriters together in concert for an evening of Songwriters-in-the-Round Thursday, February 16th, 8:00 PM. Featuring songwriters Vicki Peterson (The Bangles), Shelly Peiken (“What a Girl Wants”), Mike Viola (Candy Butchers), Eleni Mandell (The Living Sisters), Mara Connor....

Mara Connor is a singer/songwriter from Los Angeles and a graduate of Vassar College. She is currently finishing her debut album in Nashville with Andrija Tokic (producer of Alabama Shakes), featuring
Langhorne Slim & Joseph Arthur. As a songwriter, Mara recently wrote the debut single for Alexandra Shipp (star of X-Men) and was chosen to participate in the annual Lester Sill Songwriters Workshop in LA as well
as the ASCAP Foundation New York Songwriters Workshop. - Cal Poly Pomona

I find myself sitting across from a beautiful women on set of a short film in Detroit, MI. She is getting her hair done and I am having fake tattoos applied to both of my forearms for our dramatic scene together; we are talking about life, goals and past/current world events. Though this story isn’t about her or I, it is about the topic that is brought up between the two of us when she asks me “what kind of music do you like?” Kind of a hard question to answer for me, because like many others its hard to put a genre on the mix of styles I enjoy listening to; anything with a meaning and story behind it that makes sense and doesn’t just try to sound good. Not to over complicate the conversation I blanket all of that with “Indie Music.” This was the moment when I was introduced to a wonderful musician, Mara Connor.

Immediately when I got home I looked up all of her music I could find. The first thing that popped up was her AMAZING cover of Neil Young’s Old Man. Obviously this song is well known and already has such significance to its story, but the voice and instruments of Mara Connor’s talent mixed with these lyrics is something you all should experience. I don’t know how many times I have listened to it! Listen here! Neil’s lyrics, Mara’s beautifully piercing voice, and the guitar riff made this song break through to an entirely new level for me. So now I’m in love with Mara Connor’s sound.

“I hope she has more music!” I thought. She did! She has an original song Fleur-de-lis. This song IS NOT a “breakup” song! I’m reminded of that saying “would you rather have experienced love, and lost it, or never experienced love at all?” I see this song on the side of the former. My favorite lyric is “love’s lost aren’t always the best ones, always star-crossed slept out in the rain.” Yes the experience of love and lost is there but the best part about that love was the opposition between each heart. The battle for the inevitable ending love is what makes love worth it, if love was just easy why would you fight? It’d be boring and bland. I really enjoy that Mara actually understands what she is writing and singing about, and good musicians naturally show that.

I’m half French so I love that Mara references love to the Flower of the Lily, which really blended well into the exploration of love throughout the song. This symbol not only symbolizes French explorers, but it is also a representation of perfection, light and life. To me the messege translates the perfection that comes with the messy exploration of love and loss.

A sense of truth and purity really shows in Mara’s talent, and she is exactly the type of musician that needs to keep making music. With her beautiful covers and her lone original song she’s already turning heads. Keep an eye and ear out for more of Mara Connor! - Set List Indie

Photos: Christopher Owens Romances Memorial Chapel With Rock Opera


If doubts existed about the ability of a rock opera to translate from the recording studio to the resonating acoustics of Wesleyan’s own Memorial Chapel, let them be dispelled. Christopher Owens, formerly of the indie-beach-punk duo Girls, brought along a posse of eight other musicians to perform the entirety of his recent solo album, Lysandre, to a full and surprisingly attentive crowd.

Mara Connor opened the show with an enjoyable acoustic set, bringing Henry Hall ’14 to add electric guitar and some rock flair for a few songs. After Connor ended with a cover of one of Owens’ own tunes, the golden-haired Adonis himself came onstage to sing about, well, girls.

Lysandre, of course, is really only a rock opera in form, not length. Owens and company plowed through the album in little over a half hour. Although the 11 album tracks differentiate themselves well enough along the California pop-rock spectrum, the simple but versatile “Lysandre’s Theme” reprises throughout in the keyboard, sax, flute, and guitar parts. Album highlights “New York City” and “Here We Go Again” were the most energetic and successful performances, while the awkward am-I-a-bad-songwriter tune “Love Is In The Ear of the Listener” was the only down moment in the set.

Also notable was the complete lack of stage banter, with Owens transitioning seamlessly from track to track without mention of song title or even a “How are you doing tonight, Wesleyan?” shout-out. After the traditional leaving-the-stage-so-you-think-we’re-done-but-we’re-not shtick, Owens performed a handful of well-picked cover songs with his full band behind him: Cat Stevens’ “Wild World,” Paul Simon’s “The Boxer,” and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right” all came out pitch-perfect, and they fit well with the evening’s vibe.

Owens ended the sub-hour-long performance by distributing about a dozen white roses to the majority of boys and girls in the first row. I was not bitter at all that he passed me over. - Wesleying

I decided at the last minute to head out to The Hi Hat to catch Mara Connor. She was the first artist up for the night so I figured, why not. I'm thrilled that I went. There is a wonderful simplicity to her music.

Lyrics of the set: You're a wildfire.

What I noticed: There were at least four individuals using their cell phones to video the night. So based on that, I'm sure you'll find footage of her set somewhere out there on the Internet. - Notes from Vivace

‘Love is simple.’ That’s what the singer-songwriter from New York tells us with her latest single release on a compilation from Ba Da Bing Records. Mara Connor’s ‘Love is Simple’ is a well arranged display of less is really more. The song starts off with just the singer’s voice and that’s all it takes to carry the listener’s ears to the end. She possesses a voice that sounds much older than the youthful singer herself and her warm voice has the ability to put one at ease. ‘Love is Simple’ is the singer-songwriter’s narration of how love can lend itself to be a rather ‘simple’ thing upon first introduction. She finds a way to depict an experience and emotion that we can all relate to without strain, showing her ability as writer is as mature as the voice doing the singing.

Originally from Los Angeles, Mara now lives in New York City and is beginning to make her presence known on the east coast. Earlier this year she opened for Christopher Owens, former member of the band Girls, and can be seen playing shows in and around New York. Give the song a listen and I think you’ll find yourself hitting replay without second guess.

-Matt - ListenOn

Mara approaches her music like she appears to take on everything she does, with wit, intelligence, foresight and depth. Her lyrics are great, her voice is incredible, and her songs know the power of subtlety. I saw her live, and oh man, does she have focus onstage. - Ba Da Bing Records

Day 1: Tuesday

Our first stop Tuesday was Pete's Candy Shop in Williamsburg, where we saw Lyons Den, led by the lovely and talented singer/songwriter/guitarist, Mara Connor, along with Zain Alam, Neo Sora and Sam Lyons. Mara sang several of her own compositions, along with covers of The Boss' "I'm on Fire" and the Neil Young classic "Heart of Gold." It was an intimate show, but the whole audience was enraptured by the group. Expect to hear more from them.

Here's a video for their song "Strangers".

Next up, we tried to catch The Mountain Goats at the Bowery Ballroom, but as we quickly learned, nothing really goes according to plan at CMJ. For example, we also planned to check out Teen Daze, who were playing two different sets on Tuesday, but we wound up missing both. Flying Lotus was also originally scheduled to play Tuesday, but that was rescheduled for a super-secret show Wednesday night. Finally and most disappointingly, Mystikal's set with opener Earl Sweatshirt was cancelled for some reason. Does this have anything to do with 'kal's budding porn career? We may never know. We were a couple minutes late for the Mountain Goats show, and badges were no longer accepted at the door, so we moved on to Piano's where we caught a set from the Louisville group Murals.

Day 2: Wednesday

Avery left Adam and me to our own devices Wednesday and we checked out the Terrorbird party at the Cake Shop where we met up with our favorite promoter, Karen Moran-Thomas. Also at Cake Shop, we saw a set by transsexual rapper and collaborator with Wes-alum Le1f, Mykki Blanco (pictured above). Mykki kicked serious ass.


We then headed back to Brooklyn to the Grand Victory where we checked out Sidewalk Dave, a group that has recently relocated to Brooklyn from New Haven. I had previously seen them twice back in the Have when they were primarily a folk group. In a conversation after the show, Sidewalk told me that his move to more of a rock sound was in part a reaction against the commercialization of folk by groups like Mumford & Son. I was greatly impressed by his move to rock & roll. As you can see from the photo above, it was a really cool show.

Stay tuned for more...

--Jesse "DJ JBrent" Brent - WESUFM

Just a few months after graduating in May, musician Mara Connor ’13, who performed countless times during her time at Vassar, will be returning to campus to grace the stage of the Mug as the first stop of her East Coast tour. Connor will be coming back to her alma mater to perform along with friend and fellow musician Katie Von Schleicher at 8 p.m. on Thursday, October 3.

For Connor, deciding to pursue music was a natural decision. “My parents are both in the arts and they’ve always told me to do what I love,” said Connor.

Songwriting has been a part of her life since she was a toddler; Connor first started writing songs at the age of three or four and never seemed to stop. “They just kind of came out of me all at once: lyrics, melody, and all,” Connor explained.

The decision to pursue music professionally became clear to Connor the summer after her senior year of high school, when she joined an indie rock band in Los Angeles.

“I joined my first indie rock band in Los Angeles the summer after high school and fell in love with performing,” she said.”I think the collaborative aspect of music-making that summer really inspired me, along with all the crazy fun we had playing shows around L.A. at venues, parties, in friends’ backyards and at each other’s houses late into the night. Around the time I left for Vassar songs started pouring out of me and I realized that was what I wanted to do.”

While at Vassar, Connor continued to perform music in a collaborative style. “During my time at Vassar I performed a lot on campus and was able to develop my sound in a nurturing, pressure-free environment,” she said.

Connor’s first performance at Vassar was during her freshman year. Her band, Shark Wrangler, performed a mix of covers of bands like the Pixies, The Arcade Fire and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, as well as some of Connor’s original pieces.

“We’d rehearse in the grimy Joss basement in between classes and play shows on the weekends. It was a lot fun,” explained Connor. Aside from Shark Attack, Connor was in another band, an all-female ensemble called The Jems. The Jems, however, disbanded after a short while.

“We played one show on Joss Beach dressed in black and wearing sunglasses and that was that,” said Connor. She also took part in After Hours, Vassar’s former singer-songwriter showcase.

“I found Vassar to be an incredible resource for me as a musician,” said Connor. Her guitar teacher and faculty sponsor at Vassar, Adjunct Instructor in Music Terry Champlin, has been a helpful force behind Connor’s music career, even after her graduation.

“He supported me as I was developing my songwriting skills and urged me to think about making music my career, so I did,” revealed Connor.

Champlin asked Connor to partake in a field work project in which she recorded one of her songs at a studio in Woodstock—where some of her personal musical heroes, such as The Band and James Taylor, recorded their songs as well.

“I also love the flexibility of Vassar’s curriculum and the programs it offers for travel,” said Connor. She did a semester in Dublin, where Connor had a gig performing solo shows twice a week at a popular pub. Upon returning, Connor next took a semester at Wesleyan University through the Twelve College Exchange Program where she studied a variety of musical forms, ranging from jazz vocals to gospel choir. During her semester at Wesleyan, Connor started an electronic and indie band with a few Wesleyan students.

Connor first started playing at a professional level before graduating in 2013. At the CMJ Music Festival in New York, Los Angeles and Dublin, she was able to open for Christopher Owens, the songwriter and front man of indie band “Girls,” in front of an audience of over 500. But Connor continued to perform at Vassar up until the day she graduated; her last show took place in the Aula just a few hours before Connor walked at commencement.

Since graduating, Connor, a Los Angeles native, has moved to New York City and is working for the Brooklyn-based record label Ba Da Bing Records as the Director of Music Licensing. Ba Da Bing also released Connor’s first single, “Love is Simple”, on their summer compilation.

Connor offered words of advice to any Vassar student considering a future career in music upon graduating.

“To anyone who feels the same way I do about music, I say just go for it. A few things I’ve learned recently: Follow your instincts and don’t second-guess yourself. Practice, record and perform as much as you can and don’t be afraid to seek advice from people you respect,” she said.

“Write first and think later. Take your time but also be proactive. Meet as many musicians and music lovers as you can and collaborate with artists you admire, even if you might come from different stylistic backgrounds. I’ve also learned a lot from just sitting down and listening to my favorite records and researching how other artists began their careers,” Connor added.

“M - The Miscellany News

The lovely musician Mara Connor wearing the Mara dress- how fitting! #musician #heartloom #summer #brooklyn #photooftheday #love #amazing - Heartloom

Atlas Sound In the Memorial Chapel: Tickets On Sale @ Usdan Fri-Thur

Atlas Sound, the solo project of Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox, will be performing on Thursday, November 1, in the Memorial Chapel. It’s Atlas Sound. In a chapel. It’s the first chapel show of the year and it’s Atlas Sound. Atlas Sound. At last! Sound! Presented by the Eclectic Society and Music House.

Can ya spell A-C-O-O-S-T-I-C-K-S?

Tickets will be sold at Usdan every day until the show starting Friday (tomorrow) for $5. Pro tip: Don’t wait until Thursday the 1st to buy a ticket.

This is not the right Atlas Sound. This is not the right Atlas Sound. This is the right Atlas Sound.

Openers will be Lyons Den, featuring Neo Sora ’13, Zain Alam ’13, recently commemorated Sam Lyons ’12, and front-lady’d by honorary Wesleyan student Mara Connor ’13.

Opening for the openers will be Mouthfeel, Dan Nass 13‘s ambient electronic project, which recently opened for Wiz Khalifa. No joke. It was rad, where were you?

Date: Thursday, November 1st
Time: 10 PM
Place: Memorial Chapel
Price: $5 - Wesleying

CMJ Music Marathon 2012 has announced its third round of showcase artists. CMJ, New York’s largest music festival takes place October 16-20. These additions continue the tradition of adventure and discovery for which the festival is known, and include the following:

Ghostface Killah, Asher Roth, Dum Dum Girls, Eleanor Friedberger, Q-Tip, Theophilus London, Doldrums, Chad Valley, Prong, Rafiq Bhatia, Travi$ Scott, Duologue, Flatbush Zombies, Chip Tha Ripper, Casey Veggies and Free Energy.

Many more additions will be made in the build up to the event, which takes place October 16-20 in New York City. Already confirmed artists include The Walkmen, The Mountain Goats, Kimbra, GZA, AraabMUZIK, Savages, Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire, OFF!, King Tuff, Killer Mike, Sky Ferreira, Maria Minerva, Com Truise, DIIV, Pig Destroyer, The Jezabels, Electric Guest, Poolside, Daughn Gibson, Robert DeLong, Cities Aviv, Ken Mode, Local H, Slug Guts and Prince Rama.

The third round of artists also includes:

Malachai (DJ Set) * Ursula 1000 (DJ Set) * The Good People * DJ Milo * Archie Pelago * Ariane Moffatt * Kap Bambino * Blue Hawaii * Mozart’s Sister * Plaster * OPOSSUM * Born Ruffians * Penguin Prison * Jay Stolar * Gary Knox & The Streethearts * Jessie Wagner & Envy * Auricle * Peter Chance & Chapter 3 * The Stand Still * Mara Connor * Robert Blake * Suitcase Junket * Umbrella Men * The Lawsuits * Russel Howard * Winter People * Mean Creek * Lady Lazarus * Bearstronaut * Dalton * Careful * Avi Wisnia * The Grizzled Mighty * Slow Country * Da Mouth * Chemical Monkeys * 831 * Sudden Weather Change * Jack Ladder * Pree * Chad Valley * Erika Spring * Michna * Jensen Sportag * Selebrites * Beacon * Rush Midnight * Adios Ghost * Radical Dads * Fenster * Allie Kobren * The Indecent * Sydney Wayser * Milk Dick * The Hairs * I’m Turning Into * Savoir Adore * La Big Vic * Dent May …and many more. - Vents Magazine