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You Oughta Know | Wet
Last year, the Massachusetts-via Brooklyn three piece had an indie hit with “Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl,” a staggering and beautiful song of heartbreak. The song got Wet a lot of media attention, including Refinery29, the Fader and Billboard Magazine. The indie darlings were courted by labels, including major labels who got into a bidding war over them. Wet ultimately decided to go with Columbia Records.
Wet mixes 90s R&B with sultry pop, mixing beats with guitars and singer, Kelly Zutrau, who is also the primary songwriter, has found a way of being both haunting and breathtaking. She is clearly the focus, backed by muted guitars, padded drums and sparse beats. Marty Sulkow and Joe Valle met Zutrau when they all attended college in New York (Valle and Sulkow went to NYU, Zutrau went to Cooper Union) and began playing together immediately. Valle moved to Los Angeles and Zutrau moved to Providence but they both returned to New York, moving into Sulkow’s Bed Stuy apartment and Wet was formed.
The band has since relocated to Massachusetts where they have been working on their upcoming release. if Wet’s EP is any guide to what their debut might sound like, it is a mix of TLC with Cat Power, or Joanna Newsom collaborating with Destiny’s Child. They have been a band to watch for a while but with the premiere of their new single “Deadwater,” and a debut release coming out this fall, they are definitely one to say you were aware of before they were everywhere.
You Oughta Know | The Material
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Now Playing: To Weather The Storm
Why They Matter: I love female fronted bands. I love girls who kick ass and take names, and Colleen D’Agostino is that girl. She seems very shy and feminine, but whoever did her wrong is not being given any sympathy. Listen to “No One Has To Know” from their tomorrow EP and you will hear the classically trained singers venom when she sings “Keep it a secret, save your pride, I hope she eats you alive.” The singer moved to San Diego to pursue a music degree at San Diego State University. In her third year, she began playing with guitarist Jon Moreaux and drummer Noah Vowles.The band was then filled by bassist Kevin Falk. Soon after, Falk was replaced by Brian Miller, and guitarist Roi Elam joined shortly after. The Material was placed in the top 3 of the Dew Circuit Breakout of 2007, losing to Seattle band, The Myriad. Noah Vowles played his last show with The Material in February. As of March 16th, 2010 the new drummer for the band is Kevin Pintado. The Material are going into the studio to begin recording for their first full length album in May which is set to be titled “Who We Are.” Expect great things from this band because I certainly do.
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You Oughta Know | We Are The In Crowd
Hometown: Poughkeepsie, NY
Now Playing: Agreed To Disagree
Label: Hopeless Records
Why they matter: Looking for some honest pop-punk with dual gender vocals? The “in crowd” is your cup of tea then. The band was originally a studio project between vocalist Tay Jardine, guitarist/vocalist Jordan Eckes and Mike Ferri on bass, there was an obvious chemistry that they felt could be better translated through a full-band sound. Their songs are brutally honest and straightforward, but Tay Jardine’s sweet delivery will make it a bit easier to take. Jordan Eckes does not slack in his own vocals, complimenting her sweetness with a little bit of hardness. The band is young and self aware; the ink on their record deal is barely dry, but they are hardworking and will be on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour for its entirety. The EP is a perfect soundtrack for summer to be played with the windows down and the stereo up.
You Oughta Know | Cathedrals
Brodie Jenkins and Johnny Hwin were introduced by a mutual friend via the San Francisco arts community. Jenkins came from folk, Hwin grew up on classical music and later toured with an indie-electro group. The clear distinctions of their backgrounds are apparent in their craft. They've been noticed by Paste Magazine, CMJ, Sofar Sounds, Spotify and a host of others. Their music is ethereal, with Hwin's clear electric sensibilities and Jenkin's soulful crooning. What they've created is sultry, lost, found, new and also brings out something of the past. Cathedrals power is just how open their range is, how unlimited their potential is. There are great things to come.
Sierra Kusterbeck on lyrics, vultures and taking chances.
On stage, frontwoman of VersaEmerge, Sierra Kusterbeck’s stage presence and energy make fans forget that she is such a small girl. Standing outside the Beat Kitchen, the singer stands in silver leggings, black boots and a black dress, muttering about how she should grab a jacket. It is crazy to think that Kusterbeck had no intention of being in a band and had dreams of being a Broadway star before ever considering becoming a rockstar. “[Playing music] is honestly the feeling I’ve been searching for my whole life,” she grins, toying with the feather clipped in her hair. “Honestly, if kids are going crazy, all I wanna do is touch you. I wanna feel your energy.” She remembers going to concerts where the band didn’t seem to be one with the crowd, but not VersaEmerge. “Whether I’m kneeing you in the forehead, I want to be in it. I want to be a part of it.”
Talking to Kusterbeck, it’s hard to think that she is only nineteen because she has the grace and wisdom of someone older, but her age can be found in her severe ADD, random outbursts and made up words. She explains that she grew up listening to all sorts of music and always wanted to perform, but didn’t know what exactly she wanted to sing. “I grew up going to Hardcore shows,” the frontwoman explains, mentioning that she saw VersaEmerge at a local venue in her home state of Florida, and that when she found out that their vocalist left, she needed to audition.
Kusterbeck admits she lied about her age at the audition, “I told them I was seventeen, they assumed I was turning eighteen, but I was really sixteen turning seventeen.” Prior to her audition, she was asked to compare her voice to a well-known vocalist by guitarist, Blake Harnage. She gave two distinct singers – Hayley Williams of Paramore and Anthony Green of Circa Survive. Being a female fronted band, VersaEmerge is often compared to Paramore, to which Kusterbeck says, “I wasn’t influenced by Paramore or Hayley, but I was hugely inspired by Hayley Williams. She was the first girl that really made me believe that I could do this.”
The singer explains she feel that girls are intimidated by the male dominated rock scene and cannot handle it, admitting that she has her moments as well. “There’s days where we’ll be out for months, but I’ll have two days of PMSing where I break down and I cry.” She smiles slightly, admitting that she calls her mom when times get tough. A problem that she still faces, even as a member of the headlining band is that venues don’t realize she is in the band, but that is beginning to change.
VersaEmerge was recently chronicled in MTV show, “World of Jenks” with special attention being brought to Sierra’s struggle being a young female in the male dominated rock scene. The singer laughs, explaining that the exposure has changed the bandmates lives. “We go to the most random places, and they’re like, ‘are you guys in a band? Are you from that show, ‘World of Jenks’’?” A lot of fans have embraced Versa after discovering the band through the show, and Kusterbeck is the first to acknowledge how much it has helped them. She describes the event as “weird” and “overwhelming,” admitting that she did feel some discomfort, but that everyone involved was awesome, and that it was a great experience. Considering that multiple dates of VersaEmerge’s first headlining tour, “the Vultures United” have sold out, I would agree that the experience was beneficial to the band.
The vulture is a strong symbol to VersaEmerge. The bird is on their album cover of their first full length CD, Fixed At Zero, in the chorus of the album’s title track and it is what the band calls their fans. The first line in the chorus of “Fixed At Zero” is “there's a vulture on my shoulder/and he's telling me to give in.” Kusterbeck explains that the vulture represents all of the bad things in your head, imperfections and insecurities that linger inside of everyone.
“I feel like our fans are vultures, they make us take chances and they’re the ones who are motivating us,” she clarifies. “I think you should love your imperfections, even your bad habits. You learn to take chances.” The vocalist mentions that it was a lyric that she had written at a low point in her life where she felt “fixed at zero.” The album’s title and title track came from the bad place that she was in, “Fixed At Zero means to be stuck at this one spot, at zero, and you feel as if you can’t move forward.” The album is about self discovery, she explicates, “its about being lost and finding out who you are and what makes you you.”
The feeling of dissatisfaction seems to be constant with Kusterbeck when talking about growing up and attending Christian elementary school in St. Petersburg, Florida. “Everyday, I would go to school and I’d be in chapel, praying, accepting Jesus into my heart because I was scared I was gonna go to hell.” The experience has left her agnostic and disgusted, “I think that it is wrong for people to put [that] into children’s minds. Kids are very vulnerable, you can basically tell them anything.” The experience found its way into the first song Kusterbeck ever wrote for VersaEmerge, “the Authors.”
While she doesn’t believe in religion, she does believe in fate, explaining that becoming VersaEmerge’s new singer and writing with Blake was pure fate. She explains that before meeting him, she had been uncomfortable when she tried writing with other people, but he’s different. “I don’t think I could do that with anyone else. It was the biggest click.” Kusterbeck grows frustrated, not finding the word to explain their connection, but it is easy to see that the two working together have made VersaEmerge what they are.
The brunette smiles, gushing how Britney Spears tweeted recently that she loved the two’s cover of her song, “Toxic.” She goes on about how incredible it was that Britney Spears knew who they were. It won’t be long until the world will know who VersaEmerge is, and Sierra will probably knee them in the forehead.