Ursa Minor

Location:
Brooklyn, US
Type:
Artist / Band / Musician
Genre:
Indie / Pop / Rock
Site(s):
Label:
Smells Like Records
Type:
Indie
New York Times-
"Tough and lose, totally incubated. one of the most flexibly rugged rock rhythm sections in New York"
Time Out New York-
"The group [Ursa Minor]'s album Silent Moving Picture is one we keep coming back to, finding something new each time."
All Music Guide-
"Bold and original"
Envisioned, fronted and founded by New York chanteuse Michelle Casillas, Ursa Minor has become a mainstay in NYC's indie rock scene. The band delivers a timeless mix of vocal driven pop/rock with a primal rhythmic undercurrent; sharp and urban, broad and free. "Ursa Minor blurs the line between folk, jazz, and experimental music.with haunting, spare, even cinematic songs"-All Music Guide. Splendid Magazine calls their songs "warm works of natural beauty…appealingly tousled" and the Village Voice describes Ursa Minor's sound as "ethereal yet concise wrought with enunciated keens and alto murmurs, moody drum snaps and strong melodies."
Ursa Minor's debut LP "Silent Moving Picture" was released by Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley, on Smells like Records; a label known both for championing new artists (like Cat Power and Blonde Redhead), and for releasing comprehensive series of works by Lee Hazelwood, and Sonic Youth.
Since Ursa Minor's debut, Michelle has swapped her Fender Rhodes for electric guitar and her songs have a new snap in them. Her singing is startling and sexy; effortlessly rhythmic, with soulful vulnerability and a bold attitude. "Casillas [wields] a sensuously fragile inflexion and phrasing…lilting from yearning highs to crooning lows almost instantaneously." -Movment Magazine. "She hits her notes effortlessly, sometimes giving them a full oboe-like resonance and at other times skittering over them like a hipster flute." –Splendid Magazine. Bassist Rob Jost (Imogen Heap, Wayne Horvitz, Bjork) and drummer Robert DiPietro (Norah Jones, Jesse Harris, Josh Rouse) equally create the sound, contribute songs of great depth and strength, and sing harmony, while the infamous Tony Scherr (Bill Frisell, Sexmob, Feist, Lounge Lizards) brings a sonic lightning with his electric guitars. Watch for the new album, Showface.
"The stormy vocals set alongside the haunting instrumental backdrop make for wonderful…any time of day music" -Movment Magazine.
"Ursa Minor put a purplish Fender Rhodes bruise on storm cloud through picture window singer-songwriting ritual" -Village Voice.
"It's the kind of voice you would follow anywhere"
–Splendid Magazine
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