The Thanya, Emilie & Ali Band + Horses Vanish @ Le Divan Orange, June 16, 2010

As the relentless rain poured a river down on St. Laurent Boulevard last night, the soft sounds, laughter and chatter of The Thanya, Emilie & Ali Band began an evening of music at Le Divan Orange. These three Vanier College students formed in 2008 and they have since been experimenting with various instrumentations in their performance. The girls use an upright bass, a flute, piano, guitar and a violin to accompany their vocal harmonies. The girls switched between instruments throughout their show. The bands’ lead singer, Emilie Kahn, has also performed in Montreal’s Darling Ghost. Her vocals resemble a mash-up of Montreal’s Caroline Keating and the UK’s Sophie Madeleine. The girls began their set with their own rendition of The White Stripes’ “Seventh Nation Army”, which blended into “You Are My Sunshine.” Their own songs sway between harmonies and spoken word tales about their youthful experiences with boys and love. The girls played their ‘Shoe Song,’ which they say is “actually a metaphor for understanding others.” Most of their dialogue is followed by laughter between the girls and amongst the audience. ‘Shoe song ‘ reflects their youth, as they quote a popular Youtube video of 2006/2007 (?) from The Liam Show entitled, “Shoes.” They performed a song about missing one another while one vacationed in India. This song aims to capture the “weird tuning” of a violin one of the girls heard while there. The girls’ set became even more eclectic in their lyrical themes and instrumentation alike-they moved into a beat-box lullaby. These vibrant young girls are not going unnoticed by Montrealers- much of the audience seemed to be in attendance to see them.

The following band, Montreal’s Horses Vanish, brought with them a similar theme of orchestration. Horse Vanish is made up of two musicians who play the flute, piano, cello, mandolin and acoustic guitar. Instead of their beautiful songs conveying feelings of youthful sweetness as found in The Thanya, Emilie & Ali Band, Horses Vanish brings feelings of darkness and mystique in their chamberal music. The male and female vocals harmonized throughout, often trading off between each other. Consequently, they described many of their songs as those of dialogue and conversation. Their song about a fourteen year-old was my favourite. He sang, “I got you a Barbie, you act like you’re fourteen.” Her answer complimented his words with an echo of, “I’m fourteen.” They continued to converse in song with a cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.” Later, a song in French! There is something about the frequent strumming of the mandolin, the wavering vocals, and the tambourine in the recorded materials of Horses Vanish that resembles The Dutchess and The Duke. (Ps-The Dutchess and The Duke join The Dodos in opening for The New Pornographers tonight at Le National!) This attractive folk style that bares dark undertones certainly makes Horses Vanish a band I hope to hear more from.

The Thanya, Emilie & Ali Band on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thanyaemilieali
Darling Ghost on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/darlinghost
Caroline Keating on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/carolinekeating
Sophie Madeleine on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sophiemadeleine
The White Stripes on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thewhitestripes
Horses Vanish on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/horsesvanish
The Postal Service on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thepostalservice
The Dutchess And The Duke on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thedutchessandtheduke
The Dodos on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thedodos
The New Pornographers on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thenewpornographers