Kristeen Young (vocals, keyboards)
"Baby" Jeff White (drums)
Influences
Prince, Fugazi, P.I.L., Jerry Lee, M., Hendrix, Dorothy P.......,Vodka,....., pain, injustice, heartlessness.
..
Sounds Like
“Young is a mistress of melodrama, unleashing intense vocals that somehow
manage to simultaneously seduce and terrify.” -Time Out Chicago
“Her time in the rock trenches translates into a commanding, hypnotic stage
presence that can turn a grand theater into a small club, and turn a small
club into a rock cathedral.” -Time Out Chicago
“The music they make is a kaleidoscope of swirling melodies, crashing drums
and slow building tension that explodes in a swirling landscape of sound
packed with energy and theatricality.” -Daily Times
“Imagine a more modern Siouxie and the Banshees, or Missing Person’s Dale
Bozio if she sang better, and you’ve only scratched the surface of their
eccentric, fun but thought provoking music.” -Palm Beach Post
“Young’s wailing soprano is a gift, one that she wields with a powerful
hand.” -Myrtle Beach Online
“Sounding like nothing before, the record is a barrage of melody. Young
wails on the keyboard like a guitar while her sole band mate, drummer ‘Baby’
Jeff White invokes loud yet precise thrashing, like two trains colliding in
secret” -NY Press
“Young attacks a piano like a like a punk rocker assaulting a guitar.
Lyrically dense and sonically intense…” -Dallas Voice
"....In all the dissonance, brutally revealing lyrics and surreal vocals, Young has her finger on the trigger in full control." -the Baltimore Sun
"....she gives one hell of a performance." the Badger Herald
"She sings about the way we live when we are prevented from living the way we'd like to. The sound is as good as you'll ever hear in modern music. We scan the British pop charts in the hopeless quest for something different. Kristeen Young frees us from this." -Morrissey
.....the duo is a fiery, swirling funhouse born from the depths of the wild, wild west and sinister carnival sideshows." -CMJ
"....violent piano pounding, solid rock voice and catchy tunes." -PhillyBurbs.com
FORUMS CAN BE FOUND AT http://privatethingsyouveconcealed.lefora.com/headlines/
ALL 5 ALBUMS ARE AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD AT ITUNES, EMUSIC.COM or AMAZON.COM
Critically acclaimed album THE ORPHANS available at WWW.KRISTEENYOUNG.COM
or send a check or a money order for $15 to
KRISTEENYOUNG
c/o TVPI
61 Jane Street, Suite 1D
New York, New York 10014
USA
What’s black and white and can crush you like a bug? A piano. These monsters weigh anywhere from 300 lbs for a small upright, to four or even five times that for a concert grand. So why do artists let them sound so wimpy? KRISTEENYOUNG wants the piano to kick your ass. Their new album, Music for Strippers, Hookers, and the Odd On-Looker, feels like it was born in the boxing ring, not some sun-dappled Laurel Canyon living room.
“I wanted to create a new sound for piano on this album, and for it to be just as powerful and creative as any guitar-based record. I wanted it to sound like a wall of pianos, but like the wall in the film, Caligula: a wall that moves and decapitates everyone,” says Kristeen Young. The singer and composer has played since her childhood in St. Louis, and she knows what the piano is capable of. She sought to recapture the fiery, dangerous noise early rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino wrought from the instrument’s eighty-eight keys, albeit in a wholly modern way.
Young’s foil in KRISTEENYOUNG is drummer “Baby” Jef White, whose energy and fills bring to mind the great British drummers, but whose groove is undeniably American. Think John Bohnam meets Timbaland on Keith Moon Street. Together, the duo has forged a sound full of percussive impact and melodic grandeur.
You think the White Stripes make a big ruckus for a two-piece? Bah! “Stop Thinking” is anchored by low-end tone clusters that pummel like thunder. Yet Music for Strippers… has moments of startling simplicity, too, as on its closer, “Halfway Across the Atlantic Ocean.” “An album should be a spectrum of emotion,” says Young. “Far too often, people just deliver one thing. I try to run the gamut.”
That breadth is evident in Young’s singing, too; with her wide natural range, she can flip quickly into a gleaming upper register to tremendous affect. Yet she is ever mindful that her vocals, however dexterous, work in service of her lyrics. “I think a lot about how the words are going to sound, and where they sit in the voice. When I write a line, I almost immediately go and sing it, to see how it feels and what response it may evoke.”
Young’s fascination with the raw sound of words can result in emotional interjections that sting sharply, be it a rapid-fire blitz of fairy tale staples (“Son of Man”), or the slow downward pull of reiterating the word “gone” throughout “Halfway Across the Atlantic Ocean.” On “Protestant,” she evokes not only realms of sight and sound, but smell and touch as well. Young fashions her lyrics with surgical precision throughout Music For Strippers…, but this time out, sex and death share the spotlight with—gasp—love! Not hearts and flowers fare, mind you. Nobody expects to find lines like “Lashes from your tongue are a serenading song” (“You Must Love Me”) on a Valentine.
The bulk of Music For Strippers… was composed during the two year stretch KRISTEENYOUNG spent touring the world, first as the support act for Morrissey and later, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. As this traveling circus careened around the globe, cuts like “He’s Sickened By My Crude Emotion,” with its pointed, dissonant jabs and the proclamation “my keyboard shoots from the hip,” were conceived. Those many, many shows also inspired the album’s colorful title, a nod to those moments when the artist feels like “a performer” in only the coarsest sense.
On “That’s What It Takes, Dear,” Young is joined by singer Patrick Vaughn Stump of Fall Out Boy, their layered and multi-tracked vocals circling one another in a cat-and-mouse duet of contrapuntal grace. This represents the latest in a series of high-profile collaborations for KRISTEENYOUNG, who have also recorded with David Bowie, Brian Molko (of Placebo), and the aforementioned Morrissey. Music for Strippers… features contributions from Ted Leo, too. However, since there are no guitars on the album, Leo’s participation centered on playing percussion, brewing tea, and spreading good cheer.
Music for Strippers… was recorded with noted producer Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex, Morrissey), who also helmed the previous three KRISTEENYOUNG albums, including 2006 breakthrough The Orphans. “Tony is an excellent vocal coach, because he gives such specific feedback,” reveals Young. And he shares a drive to experiment. “With a lot of people, if you suggest doing something different, their first response is to complain: ‘Oh, that’s going to be hard,’ but not Tony. He’s very open trying new things.”
Other KRISTEENYOUNG releases include the debut Meet Miss Young and Her All Boy Band (1997), Enemy (1999), Breasticles (2003), and their concept album about the Ten Commandments, X (2004). Originally hailing from St. Louis—where Young was raised as an adopted, bi-racial child by strict Christian parents—the band is now based in New York City. In addition to making music, Young also designs her own eye-popping stage wear; which never seems to fail to conjure the past and the future simultaneously.
“I grew up listening to fm radio, and fm radio means guitars,guitars,guitars, and essentially, still does,” Young concludes. “I always wondered why I couldn’t get my piano to sound that mind-blowing.” On Music for Strippers…, she does. Like the humble upright and the mighty concert grand, KRISTEENYOUNG are heavy, and they will decapitate you.
Hello Kristeen, what a great moment before the Morrissey concert @ Columbiahalle in Berlin last night, when "You Must Love Me" was played from Mozzer's Pre-Show-Tape very loud & clear. But we missed YOU in person. Hope to see you very soon live in Germany again after all these years since 2006 with your brilliant new record. ♥ x ♥
kristeen, they played "you must love me" at the morrissey show last night. this made me really happy! i hope there will come a time when i can see you here in germany again! still waiting for you and jeff... x
Kristeen thanks for another great show,I only wish you could have sang all night.You & Jeff are the Best.Jess,Dennis & myself will never forget the great time we had.Love the Zep cover-My favorite band when i was a kid!.I hope to see another show real soon,hopefully in your element New York city.Big Love from Chris.
Hey Kristeen, guess who took off work tomorrow to hear his favorite piano banger? Yeah thats right the Kentucky kids are on their way. Oh and did I say the new music is extraordinary, but you knew that already didn't ya. BigLove Dennis
guess what! you've inspired me to retake piano lessons...yes, at first they will start me off with the old-folgy stuff and the kiddie tunes but when I get the hang of things again, i'll be wiping my backside with those little old folgy songs and playing some better things....Mwuahaha!!!
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