(updated: 5/13/10)

EAT, SLEEP, DRINK MUSIC "Armed with a new band name and an updated, more muscular sound, [frontwoman Courtenay] Green appears to be ready for her close-up.”

MIDWEST RECORD "[A] genre-splicing date from a proudly left-of-center writer/vocalist that wants to sassily rip your heart from its capillaries and play with it... Heady contemporary stuff to keep an ear on.”

MUSIC TAP: "A collection of excellent power pop/rock cuts, every one a well-honed and perfect tune... Violet is a solid, if not perfect, extended single with some very accessible tracks."

INDEPENDENT CLAUSES: "A rowdy blast of synthy, poppy fun. It's easy to listen to, and almost rolls down the windows on your car for you."

IANDI LIT: "Pop-rock minstrels come from the faraway land of California to get our feets tapping and lift our spirits... A little retro, a little odd, a little fierce, a little just right."

THIS WINKI'S: "Joyous pop fertilizer... Next thing you know, SEE GREEN might be on VH1."

COLLECTED SOUNDS: "[A] fun pop record, good for summertime listening, in the car with the window rolled down and the music cranked up."

Courtenay Green isn't a "color inside the lines" kind of girl. In fact, she's not really into borders of any kind.

The L.A.-by-way-of-New-York songwriter and singer is perhaps best defined by the parts of her that can't be swept under the carpet. Ostensibly, she's a sunny L.A. girl, blonde hair spilling down over a form-fitting retro dress, all sparkling eyes and winning smile. She might make a pretty picture sauntering down Sunset Boulevard, but Green’s still got a figurative cigarette butt stuck under those 5-inch heels from the Lower East Side, her former stomping grounds, where she can still pop up in a venue like Pianos for a cozy little sold-out concert with friends and fans. She’s packing a Princeton degree and isn’t afraid to hit you over the head with a 50-cent word when necessary. She hardly ever uses the word "like" frivolously. In other words, there is even more to Courtenay Green than meets the eye.

The same could be said for the music of Green's aptly named seven-piece band, SEE GREEN. On the surface, it boasts the qualities one would demand from an artist with such a cosmopolitan background. It's the collision of L.A. and New York, pop shaking hands with rock. Glittery, shimmering hooks rubbing elbows with dapper, metropolitan riffs. Keyboard bloops colliding with guitar bleeps colliding with scattershot dance beats and cascading melody lines. But Green knows something that fellow quirk-popsters like THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS, TEGAN AND SARA, and DAVID BYRNE know – underneath the ornamentation, there must lie a simple, honest, immaculately constructed song.

"A song can be gussied up until the cows come home with samples and processors and drum machines, but at the end of the day, you should be able to sing it with just an acoustic guitar and have it stand alone," Green says. "I never like to lose sight of that basic principle, but at the same time, I'm always looking for ways to make the layers of a song more interesting. So I guess that's what I'm shooting for – something old, something new, something borrowed and something ... Green."

That sentiment is on full technicolor display on Violet, the debut EP from SEE GREEN. The album bristles with the musical aesthetic that's driven Green throughout her burgeoning career – namely, that of mid- to late-’60s pop – but funnels it through her myriad other influences, from folk to electronica to, if you want to take her word for it, death metal, polkas and Indonesian gamelan orchestras. It sounds bizarre until you hear a track like "Gold Mine," which flawlessly melds classically oriented harpsichord and bass lines with decidedly modern guitars and synthesizers, or "Devil In The Details," a contender for the catchiest midtemp disco romp of the year, topped with Green's trademark emotive vocal delivery, albeit with tongue often planted firmly in cheek. "Instead of coming across as direct descendants of one artist or genre or time period, my songs tend to become sort of like FrankenSongs, full of little components gathered from all across the musical spectrum," Green says.

Green's musical evolution began when she took up the piano. By junior high, her arsenal included trumpet, guitar, drums and every other instrument she could get her hands on. A few musical obsessions later (including a Buddy Holly epoch and what is now referred to as her regrettable show tunes phase), Green was on her way to becoming the commanding, adventurous songwriter she is today. Now backed by an able-bodied assortment of likeminded adventurers, she's with characteristic confidence, quirkiness and, most importantly, sincerity.

"I want people to know that I'm putting 100% of myself into every song I create. Each rhythm, bass line, guitar part, synth riff or whatever else is the result of hours and hours of meticulous arranging, writing, re-writing and tweaking, which I think gives each track a deeply personal and authentic quality," she says. "I'm concerned with staying true to myself as an artist, writing straight from the heart, the soul, and possibly the spleen or kidney, and I hope that comes across in the music." It does, more and more, with each FrankenSong she writes.

 

C2010 Black Lodge Publicity