Snow Songs

Artist: Snow Songs


Title: For When It's Sunny Out


Basics: Phoenix foursome Snow Songs features the versatile Yolanda Bejarano as their lead singer, and it's damn near impossible to not to mention Bejarano when discussing the band. She is one of the strongest presences I have come across in my time with YAFI and she even sings in Spanish (!). It's rare to see a lead singer carry a band as much as Bejarano does, but when something like that happens, it's fantastic.


Snow Songs' seven-song album For When It's Sunny Out manages to show the band's soft side more often than not. However, it's when the band kicks it up a notch and pumps out the jams, as the kids say, that they are at their best.


Best Song: "Everything Ends," as the album's third track, creates a stunning momentum for the band. It finds Bejarano's vocals at their best while the band manages to find a very grunge-centric sound. The song is a scatterbrained, brilliant piece of work that pulls no punches and is unabashedly raucous. It's easy to hear the band having fun on the song, and that fun is effortless. "Everything Ends" is in a dead heat with "Magical Radical" for best song on the album, yet it manages to pull ahead by just a nose.



Worst Song: I don't know why the band chose to follow up "Everything Ends" with the toned down, mellow offering "London." Any and all momentum the album has goes straight out the window. "London" comes off as a tragic attempt at some country ballad, drowning Bejarano's vocals in a most unfortunate way. "Everything Ends" and "Magical Radical" let Bejarano's vocals stay out as late as they want, if you will, having as much fun as possible. "London" sets a lame 8:30 pm curfew.



Suggestions: "Loteria" and "Ultima Vez" are both, you guessed it, entirely in Spanish. This isn't so much a suggestion as more of a compliment in keeping the maximum songs in a foreign language at two. I personally have no problem with it. However, other less accepting people might not want to hear as much. I would also suggest bumping "London" down a few spots on the album - perhaps even in the final spot.


Grade: B

- Phoenix New Times

I have a total girl-crush on Yolanda Bejarano. I see no harm in disclosing this to the general public given that I don’t even know her. We’re not even Facebook “friends,” but having spent some time with Snow Songs’ album for when it’s sunny out, I don’t see how she can fall short of being one of the raddest chicks making music.

Combine Yoli’s talents with those of bassist Lindsay Cates, dummer John DeLaCruz, and Nick Hadik on keys and Snow Songs is a band to be heard. And these cats are all too music-clever to engender any sort of support from me for anything less than an album or worth. for when it’s sunny out is decidedly worthy of the investment… be it time, money, or devotion.


The members of Snow Songs are each extraordinary musicians independent of one another. Occasionally we see talented, knowledgeable performers overly eager to showboat their acumen. In Snow Songs, we find a sense of style that understands the grace of subtlety and, in turn, a highly-stylized simplicity that captivates.



for when it’s sunny out is rich in sweet melodies that give way to emotional influxes, meanderings and calculated stumbling. Floating above it all are the occasionally soft, often childlike, and always moving vocals of Yoli Bejarano. Her voice is vivid and constructs landscapes that fill your rib cage with endless, intricate space.



Snow Songs doesn't sound like a desert band and might be aptly titled for that reason alone. One might readily associate the group with European cities (in winter, of course) rather than the dry and distant West. The fluid incorporation of songs in both English and Spanish adds to the metropolitan feel one finds in their recordings.



Although I only speak one of the languages heard on the album, I know all the words when I listen. You will too.




- Yab Yum Music

The Wow Factor
Newish group calls to mind Beck hanging out with PJ Harvey
A A A Comments (0) By Steve Jansen Thursday, Sep 10 2009
If you’re one of those types who believes recorded music is far better than witnessing a live performance, go see Snow Songs and then tell us if you still feel the same way. We’re guessing you won’t.

The Phoenix-based rock group, fronted by longstanding local musician Yolanda Bejarano (formerly of Slugger, Mariachi Colonial, and other punk-focused projects), has been playing shows for about five months now. And though Bejarano’s hard-charged, punk-singing stylings of the past aren’t present in this group, the wow factor is still there, especially during live gigs, which reminds us, in terms of energy, tone, and color, of Odelay-era Beck hanging out with PJ Harvey. The high-octane soundscapes – brought out by bassist Lindsay Cates, guitarist Nick Hadik, and percussionist John De La Cruz – allow Bejarano’s dreamy narratives to really resonate in that internal place that feels good.

On Saturday, September 12, Snow Songs performs at Icehouse Tavern, on a bill that includes Cage Match, Said Gun, and Halema'uma'u. Since you’ll be ditching the couch that night and hitting up the hockey-rink bar, you can possibly expect something else besides awesome live music. Once during a Snow Songs’ show, as Bejarano explains, “A kangaroo bounced into The Lost Leaf and beat up [drummer John] De La Cruz. Then turned around and kissed Nick [Hadik, the guitarist].”

Doubt that would ever happen in front of the home stereo.


Sat., Sept. 12, 9 p.m., 2009 - New Times Phoenix