The Vatican Cellars are novel, in fact they are a novel, but then as a lit grad you knew that, right? Novel, because they thought a set of ballads and country songs should be dark but never gothic, should be joyous and yet intricate; in short the indulgence would be yours, never theirs.
So when Mr S. Hughes Esq., (guitarist with
Piney Gir), and The Birthday Girl (
The Schla La Las) decided to combine the former's love of folk and the latter's love of high heels and harmonium, something truly unique was born.
Picking from the cream of the crop of Oxford's thriving music scene they soon had a drummer called Russell who could understand 9/18 time AND shuffle and a double bassist called Tom who channels pure chaos into walking lines of dastardly brilliance.
Et voila, The Vatican Cellars.
Some call it heartbreak in a glass.
Some call it "night-folk".
But why don't we all just agree on "excellent" for now.
Releases:
The Vatican Cellars EP (Sept. 2007)
"...this is a gorgeous demo. Its acoustic, part-folky backing (all filigree guitar lines and chunky double bass, with lonely melodica on ‘Lost At The End Of The Line’) supports the sweetest melodies. There’s a wistful 60s Albion-ness about it; you could easily hear Doherty or Albarn or even Ray Davies singing ‘My Black Pearl’ in that evocative-of-olde-England way. A demo pregnant with promise. " SoundsXP (Oct. 2007)
"...achingly adorable, the Vatican Cellars feature the combined talents of Piney Gir’s guitarist Mr Hughes and (admittedly previously unknown to us) shoe fetishist and multi instrumentalist the Birthday Girl. Three cuts feature here that offer up finitely drawn morsels of tear stained hurting lo-fi folk bruisers that weep and wallow their forlorn selves into your sympathetic psyche while simultaneously mesmerising you in swirls of winter swept cascades of mellowing beauty." Losingtoday.com (Oct. 2007)
