After The Jump’s New Year’s Eve show had so many great moments – Poingly in silver spandex making everybody crazy, watching people’s jaws drop in amazement as Pattern Is Movement began playing, David Longstretch (of Dirty Projectors) missing midnight but recovering so adorably a minute later, Eric from Foreign Islands kicking off karaoke with The Darkness single, ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love,’ – but for me, the best part of the night was when beautiful, little Sophie from Care Bears On Fire joined Senryu on stage to sing my favourite songs of theirs, ‘Leave The Light On.’ I think I might have even liked it better than the original, and I like that a whole hell of a lot.
Senryu’s live show is interactive and messy yet flawlessly calculated. It draws you in and spits you out with undulating waves of dance pop and slower indie melodies. It makes you fall in love and fall into step with nonconforming uses of recorded sound and off mic screaming that gets your blood pumping, as you find yourself uncontrollably screaming “I AM A BATTERING RAM!”. Lead singer Wil Wright once described their live show as a “magical car accident.” At the end of their set on Monday night, I found myself sweaty, covered in glitter and glowing with joy. I don’t think he was far off.
If you didn’t make it to Knitting Factory on NYE to see Senryu, you’re shit out of luck New York, at least for a while. Next up for the Tennessee lads is a show at Knoxville’s Pilot Light on Monday and then onto SXSW (with perhaps some more dates sprinkled in between).
For a better description of what makes Senryu tick, check out this rather fantastic article about the band’s return to Knoxville in The Daily Times.
MP3: ‘Leave The Light On‘
After The Jump’s New Year’s Eve show had so many great moments – Poingly in silver spandex making everybody crazy, watching people’s jaws drop in amazement as Pattern Is Movement began playing, David Longstretch (of Dirty Projectors) missing midnight but recovering so adorably a minute later, Eric from Foreign Islands kicking off karaoke with The Darkness single, ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love,’ – but for me, the best part of the night was when beautiful, little Sophie from Care Bears On Fire joined Senryu on stage to sing my favourite songs of theirs, ‘Leave The Light On.’ I think I might have even liked it better than the original, and I like that a whole hell of a lot.
Senryu’s live show is interactive and messy yet flawlessly calculated. It draws you in and spits you out with undulating waves of dance pop and slower indie melodies. It makes you fall in love and fall into step with nonconforming uses of recorded sound and off mic screaming that gets your blood pumping, as you find yourself uncontrollably screaming “I AM A BATTERING RAM!”. Lead singer Wil Wright once described their live show as a “magical car accident.” At the end of their set on Monday night, I found myself sweaty, covered in glitter and glowing with joy. I don’t think he was far off.
If you didn’t make it to Knitting Factory on NYE to see Senryu, you’re shit out of luck New York, at least for a while. Next up for the Tennessee lads is a show at Knoxville’s Pilot Light on Monday and then onto SXSW (with perhaps some more dates sprinkled in between).
For a better description of what makes Senryu tick, check out this rather fantastic article about the band’s return to Knoxville in The Daily Times.
MP3: ‘Leave The Light On‘
After The Jump’s New Year’s Eve show had so many great moments – Poingly in silver spandex making everybody crazy, watching people’s jaws drop in amazement as Pattern Is Movement began playing, David Longstretch (of Dirty Projectors) missing midnight but recovering so adorably a minute later, Eric from Foreign Islands kicking off karaoke with The Darkness single, ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love,’ – but for me, the best part of the night was when beautiful, little Sophie from Care Bears On Fire joined Senryu on stage to sing my favourite songs of theirs, ‘Leave The Light On.’ I think I might have even liked it better than the original, and I like that a whole hell of a lot.
Senryu’s live show is interactive and messy yet flawlessly calculated. It draws you in and spits you out with undulating waves of dance pop and slower indie melodies. It makes you fall in love and fall into step with nonconforming uses of recorded sound and off mic screaming that gets your blood pumping, as you find yourself uncontrollably screaming “I AM A BATTERING RAM!”. Lead singer Wil Wright once described their live show as a “magical car accident.” At the end of their set on Monday night, I found myself sweaty, covered in glitter and glowing with joy. I don’t think he was far off.
If you didn’t make it to Knitting Factory on NYE to see Senryu, you’re shit out of luck New York, at least for a while. Next up for the Tennessee lads is a show at Knoxville’s Pilot Light on Monday and then onto SXSW (with perhaps some more dates sprinkled in between).
For a better description of what makes Senryu tick, check out this rather fantastic article about the band’s return to Knoxville in The Daily Times.
MP3: ‘Leave The Light On‘
Yesterday, Wil Wright of Senryu sat down with UncensoredInterview.com to talk about music, Knoxville, porn and After The Jump’s New Year’s Eve Party. Check it out below!
Matt so often likes to ask the question of bands “Who the hell are you?” Well, this time it is my turn and my focus of interrogation, into that age old philosophical question, is on Knoxville band Senryu. I discovered Senryu when I discovered The Physics of Meaning, back around Halloween when I DJ’d a party they were playing. Senryu Wil and Steve were on tour with The Physics of Meaning, acting as back up and teaching the crowd the moves to ‘Thriller.’ After hangovers were vanquished a few days later, Wil sent me his MySpace page and it was all over…
Photo by Josh Godin
Jen: What EXACTLY does the band Senryu have to do with the short form Japanese poetry Senyru? And to follow up, please make one up on the spot.
Wil: well, much like the poetry, Steven and I are both short. though neither of us are Japanese. We like Senryu because they started off as a satire of themselves. I always loved the idea of the vehicle getting bored with itself. An english professor at UT once saw one of our fliers, I heard, and said “they must not take themselves very seriously” to his class. He may be right. I mean, we’re silly, but we take our silliness very seriously.
(Read the article)
