Camp Revival

School of Seven Bells are the embodiment of what I’ve always imagined sirens sound like. Much like sirens, they lure the hapless listener inexorably forward with their beautiful, ethereal voices. Only, instead of being lead to an untimely end, SVIIB leaves us with Alpinisms; a collection of 11 haunting, yet groove-worthy songs released in 2008. Their infusion of harmonic chanting with beat-driven rocktronica (err.. rock/electronica… dig it) is assuredly a note-worthy feat. Clearly, SVIIB cannot be easily categorized.

School of Seven Bells has quite an interesting history. They formed when Benjamin Curtis of the Secret Machines and the identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza of On! Air! Library! met on tour and decided to quit their respective bands and make beautiful music – a solid choice. The band is named after a mythical South American school for pickpockets. Their process is very lyrically driven as Benjamin comments in an interview with NPR “the sound is usually inspired by the words, rather than vice versa,” Curtis adds. “We always do the vocals first in this band. That’s a really big deal for us.”

I happened to see them live with Bat for Lashes about a week back. SVIIB sound great live and it was quite amusing to watch Benjamin entirely engrossed in rocking the guitar in-between the relatively calm twins. I am considering seeing them again in a couple of weeks, they were that good. They are currently touring Europe, but will begin an American tour in late May. Indeed, they will be playing Sasquatch! Festival. Sigghhh. Missing Sasquatch! is one of the major disadvantages to London life. You can see SVIIB’s complete tour schedule on their lovely myspace as well as a cool tour blog on their website.