4th Album Almost Finished
05.24.11Sleeping in the Aviary is in the studio as I type, finishing up the final mixes for the new album. We're looking for a release around Aug/Sept of 2011. Stay tuned...
"Oh, This Old Thing?" Reviews
07.31.10Three Imaginary Girls - Live Show Revue from Abbey Lounge in Boston
I biked over to the Abbey Lounge for a show I'd been waiting weeks for: Madison, Wisconsin's Sleeping in the Aviary. I loved their record, Oh, This Old Thing?. Sometimes you see a band live and they just don't live up to the expectations you have from hearing their recorded works; not so with Sleeping in the Aviary. They exceeded my expectations, delivering a fiercely energetic set that included most of the songs off the alb...
Three Imaginary Girls - Live Show Revue from Abbey Lounge in Boston
I biked over to the Abbey Lounge for a show I'd been waiting weeks for: Madison, Wisconsin's Sleeping in the Aviary. I loved their record, Oh, This Old Thing?. Sometimes you see a band live and they just don't live up to the expectations you have from hearing their recorded works; not so with Sleeping in the Aviary. They exceeded my expectations, delivering a fiercely energetic set that included most of the songs off the album plus a few others. They hardly took a breath between songs, much like on the album, and singer Elliott Kozel danced around in socks while bassist Phil Mahlstadt hopped up and down. Drummer Michael Sienkowski impressively kept the raucous beats while singing backup, and on one song lead. The whole thing was wicked awesome, as we say here in the Northeast. Incidentally, I asked Elliott how Maureen feels now (a reference to the song "Maureen" in which he repeatedly sings "Maureen doesn't like me anymore!"), and he says that she and Phil have patched things up. Awwww...
— Betsy Boston
--------------------------------
Slugmag.com - April 2007
Sleeping In The Aviary = The Vines + The Strokes + Weezer + a pinch of Ima Robot
The guys in Sleeping In The Aviary are sloppy, but, it’s a good kind of sloppy. Oh This Old Thing? is 13 tracks in 23 minutes. I almost wish this was a live album to see if the band could really race through all these songs that fast. The highlight of this sloppy noise is definitely Elliot Kozel’s spastic, carefree vocals. His voice is reminiscent of the reckless abandon of Frank Black or Serj Tankian. At times it seems that Kozel might just snap before the end of the song arrives. The music is as dirty as garage power-punk can get. The band has mastered several different feelings inside of these 13 tracks-meandering slow songs (“Sign My Cast”), quick 48-second bursts of noise (“Face Lift Floats”) and bouncy pop sings (“Lanugo”). There is enough variation on the album to keep you entertained and in the quick time that it begins and ends, you wish that the time hadn’t gone by so fast.
— Jon Robertson
-------------------------------
Oh, This Old Thing – Sleeping In The Aviary
Hailing from the City of Madison in the great state of Wisconsin, Sleeping in the Aviary whips up stomping, stuttering indie rhythms and attitudinal garage pop over the course of 23 minutes and 13 songs. There’s not much here that you haven’t already heard done by plenty of other bands on the dive circuit but rarely have you heard it done with so much promise or unapologetic authority. There are clues to the band’s depth and intelligence amid all the raw power – “Sign My Cast” owes as much to Nick Cave as it does the mellowed-down Violent Femmes; “Lanugo” could be an outtake from the second Strokes album – thought violent, affably arrogant punk reigns supreme, especially in the Replacements-esque “Only Son” and “No Socks.” This band has more to offer than perhaps even it realizes and should it stay in the game long enough to make one more record and another after that we may all be in for a wild, fun and occasionally heartfelt ride.
— Jedd Beaudoin, Wichita City Paper, March 22, 2007
-------------------------
Three Imaginary Girls, Album Review March 2007
In fewer than 25 minutes, Sleeping in the Aviary's Oh, This Old Thing? establishes the band as a viable contender for the Next Big Indie Thing. The Madison, Wisconsin trio's Science of Sound debut is flat out exciting — like riding the Gravitron at the carnival (minus the subsequent urge to vomit). The sound is at times reminiscent of bands like The Libertines and The Vines, filled with driving rock 'n' roll but also offering moments of delightful pop melodies ("Gloworm") or Art Brut-style calamity ("Maureen").
The one-two punch of openers "Face Lift Floats" and "Pop Song" is brilliant. The former perfectly launches the album's raucous lo-fi pop-punk pulse, and then with hardly a breath the latter kicks in, complete with hand claps, do-dos, yeahs, etc. "Another Girl" follows, still maintaining the velocity while toning down the pop, only to be re-initiated with "Gloworm," which winds down to nicely segue into the first ballad, "Sign My Cast" — a magnificently strong song where singer/guitarist/main songwriter Elliott Kozel's gut-wrenching delivery of the lyrics, "Is it safe to touch your broken arm" make you sorta almost start to choke up a little. But then comes "Maureen," one of two songs penned by bassist, in which the only lyrics, "Maureen doesn't like me anymore!" are repeated eight times in a fast-moving high-pitched wail.
"Drug Suitcase" is great fun, with a chorus of "Oh, your body's nice but your mind is a joke" that gets stuck in your head (I mean, who can't relate?). By this point, Elliott has fully sold you on his mastery of the punk vocalist technique. Next comes "No Socks," the second track penned by Phil, the raucous "Only Son," and the poppy "Lanugo," which would serve well as a lead single thanks to its terrific versatility — as much as it is pop (with bops and ba-da-da-das), it also continues the lo-fi rock vibe. "Love Song" follows in another instance of perfect song pairing; the equal-parts pop-punk/lo-fi-rock/emo ballad is one of the album's strongest numbers due to its sheer genre-bending ingenuity. "Getting Thin" brings it all to a climactic near-finish, culminating in a crashing, screaming frenzy that reverts back to quiet-ish for a moment before loudening up again with the lyrics "I'm a doctor trust me trust me trust me!"
The untitled final track, appearing after a brief pause, is a stripped down version of "Pop Song" with only vocals and piano, with an echo as if the recording was done in a cavernous space. It's a lovely rendition that serves well as the album's tranquil signoff, like stretches after a vigorous workout.
Effects and feedback turn up here and there, giving the vocals an occasional Strokes-like muffle or jarring the guitars. Not to be outdone, drummer Michael [last name unknown] provides a solid and inspired beat throughout the stellar album, freshly placing beats and drumrolls where you don't expect them. This is one of those bands whose recorded sound is so thrilling, one can only imagine what kind of high-octane live show they're capable of pulling off. Lucky for us they're on tour throughout most of the U.S. this spring. [Um, guys, could you come to Boston please?]
— Betsy Boston, Three Imaginary Girls
--------------------------
Punk News:
The Thermals released The Body, The Blood, The Machine last year to devastating critical acclaim. Few had complaints regarding the band's edgy, ambitiously concocted, throwback pop-punk, but unfortunately for me I found myself in that group. To at least this reviewer the band sounded tired, drained of the spastic, unrelenting energy from 2004's perfectly titled Fuckin A. Amidst all the mouth-foaming of its reception and personal anticipation for the album It was hard to admit that I just...wasn't into it. Luckily, Sleeping In The Aviary's Oh, This Old Thing? serves as a fair substitute for my expectations.
Oh, This Old Thing? is 13 tracks of snotty, fuck-all lo-fi power-pop. "Face Lift Floats" is brief but punctual as the opener, giving what seems like a preview of the next 22 minutes to come, while "Pop Song" bounces along with effortless handclaps and "Another Girl" self-loathes atop power chords. The band spreads a similar nature over the course of these three but branches out a little more upon the trifecta's completion. "Gloworm" sounds like a drugged up Stephen Pedersen (Criteria) is fronting the band, while the lazy "Sign My Cast" is one of a few more gentle numbers. Of course, the 33-second "Maureen" starts the second 'half' in a blast of a fashion, light screams peppering the end of Elliott Kozel's lines. "Drug Suitcase" slams away silly, distorted solos and a short but sweet Jerry Lee Lewis piano 'riff' to close. "Only Son" even throws a bit of Jello Biafra-style yelps and slurs in the vocals for good measure. And then out of nowhere, tucked at the end is an untitled piano ballad; it's actually pretty pretty.
Sleeping In The Aviary's debut might be a little top-heavy but it certainly deserves points not only for style but variety, managing to capture the listener's interest for the majority of its quick duration. Familiar, sure, but it also nearly fills a void that was left sorely open for me in 2006.
– Brian, PunkNews.org
-----------------------------
The Isthmus:
It’s easy to get down when your band plays the same rooms in the same small city to the same crowd. Some acts break up or move on when the walls begin to close in. Others hunker down in the basement or a more sophisticated purpose-built studio and start recording.
Sleeping In The Aviary, the Blueheels, Droids Attack and the hip-hop duo Horton the Irrelevant & August the Creep all embraced the latter strategy last year. Their high-quality new CDs underscore how important getting your ideas down on hard disc is to musical growth.
On Oh, This Old Thing?, Sleeping In The Aviary prove that pop pulchritude and punk frenzy are always a winning combination. Whether singer Elliott Kozel is setting the hook of the too-brief “Gloworm” with his best impression of a vaudevillian warble or the whole Aviary crew are tumbling headlong through the full-scale guitar-bass-drums freakout that is “Drug Suitcase,” the result is always irresistible.
Lots of acts have done the shabby-but-sweet, punky-but-accessible thing over the years. In fact, I can’t drop the laser on this album without recalling how, in the late ’70s, both the Swell Maps and the Only Ones wandered away from punk and New Wave to clear out a space for bands that like a full measure of melody with their madness. (More recent cognates would be Nirvana, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Strokes and clinically out-there screamer/crooner Craig Nicholls of the Vines.)
But just because Sleeping In The Aviary aren’t unique doesn’t mean they’re not outrageously gifted. They are. I can see “Gloworm,” the snotty anti-love song “Another Girl” (as in: “I’m always thinking of another girl”) and the bouncy Kinks-style dance-hall vamp “Lanugo” all being embraced by the star-making U.K. indie audience.
If you like your production artfully scratchy and your pop tunes creatively messed up, Sleeping In The Aviary should cream your burn. It’ll be interesting to see if their upcoming tours of the U.S. get the kind of press attention they deserve.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus
---------------------------
The Isthmus- MadTracks, “Another Girl”:
If you can't get behind Sleeping In The Aviary's chaotic cause by the time the youthful trio reaches the sharp, ecstatic "Wooo!" that neatly bisects "Another Girl," you're probably an irredeemable stiff. Or maybe just an envious hater. Because this is the kind of crazed, effervescent bass-drum-guitar confection that banishes the cares of a crappy day to the small, dark room where they belong.
At just under two minutes, this track from Oh, This Old Thing? is almost too short. It gets to happy land quickly, though, and layers on just enough bird-flipping insouciance to keep you guessing about whether chief mouth Elliott Kozel is "Always thinking about another girl" because he's uncertain about love or because he's certifiably ADD.
Toothsome pop that blends equal amounts sugar of and snot? Hey, it's the best kind. More of this brand of Valentine's candy, please.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus, MadTracks
------------------------------
The Shepherd Express
Madison’s Sleeping in the Aviary calls up the sound of London, circa 1978, specifically, a high-speed collision of Wire and the Buzzcocks, with echoes of the early Kinks. Their songs are short, serrated, sonic jabs, all catchy choruses and arresting hooks, powerful guitar crescendos and Anglophile accents. Oh, This Old Thing? flows dynamically with enough down-shifts from the furious punk tempo to give the ear a rest. Oh, This Old Thing? is the debut album from a band we hope to hear more from in the future.
– David Luhrssen
"Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel" Reviews
07.31.10Despite its title—2008’s Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel—the second album fromSleeping In The Aviary opens up the band’s tender side amid its lo-fi scars and unruly freak-outs. As always, the band deliberately leaves a lot of loose ends, as random bits of chatter and noise make their way onto the tracks—though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Earlier this year, Sleeping In The Aviary released a 7-inch with Madison garage-rock duo The Hussy featuring the blasting “Automatic,” a frantic ret...
(more)Despite its title—2008’s Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel—the second album fromSleeping In The Aviary opens up the band’s tender side amid its lo-fi scars and unruly freak-outs. As always, the band deliberately leaves a lot of loose ends, as random bits of chatter and noise make their way onto the tracks—though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Earlier this year, Sleeping In The Aviary released a 7-inch with Madison garage-rock duo The Hussy featuring the blasting “Automatic,” a frantic return to the Buzzcocks- and Thermals-style pop-punk of the band’s 2007 album Oh, This Old Thing?
- The Onion A.V. Club, Decider, Milwaukee
---------------------------------------
The second album by Sleeping in the Aviary is a balancing act: The band has perfected the art of teetering between the frenzy of an unpolished living-room performance and the coherence of an intricately composed folk-pop song played by a group of skilled musicians. The disc revolves around the quivering vocals of Elliott Kozel, whose voice and sense of melody recall Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes at some points and an old West Band blues musician at others. In fact, the whole band sounds like they could be from another time, with instruments like the accordion, saw, and ukulele adding to the organic, porch-swinging feel.
Their sound isn't completely derivative of old-timey folk, though. Kozel shines as a folk songwriter on slower songs such as "Maybe You're the Same," but just when it seems as though the band could be pigeonholed as another folk revival project, they ramp up the intensity and add the reverberation of a heavy electric guitar chord and the feedback of a bass guitar. "Gas Mask Blues" is the most extreme example of this genre-bending, which builds from an acoustic guitar and a shaker to a full-band, driving, screaming freak-out.
- Andrea Swensson, City Pages (St. Paul/Minneapolis)
---------------------------------------
What dewy tenderfeet get from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, the weathered gimp who writes this column gets from Vernon's fellow Wisconsinite Elliott Kozel. Kozel leads actual band members, second fiddle though their bass-drums-accordion/saw may play, and sings like a 14-year-old freaked out by the frog in his throat rather than an angel choking his monkey. Informed by two untimely deaths as well as a Kanye-like combo of ailing mother and fractured romance, Kozel is feeling his mortality more concretely than the average young guy struck by the fact that 25 years equals a quarter of a century. Over a bereft, sardonic, punky power strum, he spins out songs that evoke the nearness of death and the fragility of romance all the more suggestively for not being quite literal about either, which is rarely how it works with tenderfoot image-slingers these days. First he's running around with his girl in the ground, then he's helping his mom with her shot. Both ways he feels terribly alone but knows he isn't.
- MSN Inside Music: Consumer Guide
---------------------------------------
Sleeping in the Aviary found a follower in me with a sound on their 2006 debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, that reminded me of the fun, careless nature of Thermals-esque, lo-fi power-pop. Granted, the record hasn't gotten much replay out of me since I reviewed it, but my memories remain fond. While the "lo-fi" aesthetic is still here, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel is another whole beast.
Rather than try and improve upon that aforementioned formula, SITA has just about completely abandoned it, opting for a heavily acoustic-based, playful indie folk affair that sounds like Jeff Mangum listening to a shitload of Bob Dylan before recording In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Of course, Vomit barely even brushes the greatness of Neutral Milk Hotel's classic, but the feel is quite similar. I mean, look at the instruments used: piano; ukulele; tea kettle; accordion; saw; and "noise."
A dude named Elliott in the liner notes seems to be the main songwriter here (the Mangum of the whole thing, you could say). His voice more accurately hits notes than Mangum's, though, and never cracks in pleasingly cringeworthy fashions. Rather, it's delivered with a slight strain but still clean and free -- sort of like Conor Oberst in his more lively offerings, and when it lets loose in coarse yelping (which isn't terribly often) it makes for a fine dynamic.
It's hard to highlight standouts, but as far as that carefree nature goes, "Girl in the Ground" has it in spades. This is something SITA hasn't lost at all since This Old Thing, and that's the pure sense of absolute joy in songwriting and performing. Vomit sounds like a bunch of loosely assembled tracks recorded on the first or second take, and a band having a shitload of fun doing it. It's hard not to get some enjoyment out of hearing their enjoyment.
Sleeping in the Aviary has released another superbly solid full-length, and consequently deserve way more notice than they seem to receive. Get on it, people.
- PunkNews.org
---------------------------------------
Sleeping in the Aviary are seemingly of no danger of running out of song fodder. They made their debut last year with the lively, ramshackle Oh, This Old Thing? Frontman Elliott Kozel released a solo album of bedroom recordings as She Is So Beautiful / She Is So Blonde, and drummer Michael Sienkowski put out a winsome collection of pop songs under the name Whatfor. SITA played some shows during this time, too, and amidst all of this, they managed to put together their attempt to evade the sophomore slump. Ladies and gentlemen, behold Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel.
The album solidifies SITA’s position as a band to watch – and there’s no need to qualify that statement with “young band” or “Midwestern band”. Kozel is a versatile songwriter who has an unmistakable knack for pop melodies and an equally unmistakable aversion to pop overproduction. He likes to keep things loose and lo-fi, which suits the material well, and he has an adventurous and sometimes abrasive streak that keeps SITA’s path unpredictable.
They begin with an accordion-backed folk-rocker, “Write On,” that explodes into a full rock gallop on the second verse as a frustrated Kozel tries to write an ex-lover out of his heart. His similes don’t always connect on the opener – “Like an empty spot in a parking lot, I get jealous thoughts wherever you are” – but his lyrics throughout the album are mostly strong. The overriding time of day that his songs convey is about 4am; the forecast is still a little hazy and a little rambunctious, but there are also clouds of regret and moments of clarity moving through.
“I got friends: some of their lives seem over!” he shouts on “Things Look Good.” Seconds later, he amends that thought: “I got friends: some of their lives are over.” “I’m Old” breaks out some twang to accurately tell a tale of feeling old in your twenties (“Tried to meet some girls but I just drank all their wine / Went out to see a doctor and he just told me I was fine”).
Thoughts of mortality prove pesky. Sometimes relationships die but the people live. Sometimes people die but the relationship lives. Two of the best songs are ruminations on death and its effects: the shambling rocker “Everybody’s Different, Everybody Dies” and the lively sing-along “Girl in the Ground.” The highlights of their debut tended to be short blasts – the propulsion of the aptly titled “Pop Song” or the manic falsetto punk of “Only Son” (each under ninety seconds). Expensive Vomit is more cohesive and fully formed – but still plenty of loose fun. It’s also a key release in an impressive year for tiny Madison label Science of Sound, which also put out the fine second album from Pale Young Gentlemen.
- Adam McKibbin, The Red Alert
---------------------------------------
"Their debut full-length...was a controlled chaos of warbled vocals, fast riffing, and sentiments of abjection. This year's Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel comes up with a similar thesis - but this time around, it's been filtered down to a level somewhere between post-psychotic folk music and a pre-apocalyptic drug addiction. For my money, this is a pure coclear joy."
- PRICK Magazine
---------------------------------------
SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY
What’s the Deal: You might recognize these guys from Austinist’s recent post on the best overlooked albums of 2008. You might also recognize these guys if you were at their Trophy’s a month or so back with The Murdocks and Watch Out For Rockets. If you don’t, then you missed a truly inspiring show. The band overcame some dodgy sound issues and impressed the crowd with their enthusiasm, and by the end of it, the singer had danced and thrashed and rocked so hard that his pants fell down around his knees. Their invigorating brand of art-folk is equally poppy and chaotic. Their most recent album, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, is catchier and more acoustic than their previous, Oh, This Old Thing?, which features some pretty inciting tunes leaning a little more toward a garagey punk sound.
“Pop Song” from Oh, This Old Thing? has a vintage pop sound with its simplistic, infectious nature, but it’s beaming with all the energy of a punk anthem. There are some definite That Thing You Do! moments in between the distortion and loud vocals. Then, when you discover the newer “Write On”, you’ll likely be blow away by the no-cheese, rambunctious folk-pop that you’ll be humming for the next few days.
- Austinist
---------------------------------------
Austinist's Dark Horses: The Best Overlooked Albums of 2008
Sleeping in the Aviary - Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel (Science of Sound)
They're a chaotic art-folk band that manages to pack the right amount of punk and the right amount of pop in their bag of tricks to keep things forever interesting and engaging. The group - Phil, Elliott, Michael and Celeste - are excellent at making the transition between pop acoustic songs and rowdy electric ones feel natural. Although, they don't get as much into the high-octane stuff on this one as with their previous, Oh, This Old Thing.
But honestly, if for no other reason, the very first song of the album is so strong, that it guarantees this album a spot on this year's best overlooked albums. It's called "Write On," and it's catchy, rambunctious and totally inspiring. It's full of furiously strummed acoustic guitar, an electric buzz and a chorus begging to be sung along to as you bounce around with the poppy rhythm. Mix this one with others like the echoing, somber piano tune, "You're a Party," and the Western acoustic number "Gas Mask Blues" and you've got a strong recording full of emotion, harmony and high energy. They flood their live show with even more intensity than the recordings, making that the best way to discover their music. They're also not too bad at creating lyrics that stick, like "If you have my daughter I don't know what I will do, cause I'm gonna want to hit her when she looks like you" from "Gas Mask Blues."
- William Mills, Austinist.com
---------------------------------------
Interview w/ Elliott on Free Houston Press
---------------------------------------
Interview with Elliott on The Capital Times
---------------------------------------
Album Review on Three Imaginary Girls
---------------------------------------
Despite lyrically heavy content -- and the fact that this album was written the very same week frontman Elliott Kozel experienced the deaths of two close friends -- Expensive is nonetheless full of blithely charming up-tempo songs. At nearly 45 minutes long, the band's second album provides a pleasantly tailored listen throughout. While songs like "Write On" are incredibly infectious, other tunes, like "You're A Party," crescendo with polished nonchalance and delicacy. Then "Things Look Good" has a Dylan-esque vibe to it with a friendly harmonica, nostalgic gritty vocals and catchy guitar chords. Alternately somber, poignant, lively or even a bit waltzy, Expensive Vomit in A Cheap Hotel will leave you neither nauseous nor drowsy.
- CMJ New Music Report 10/20/08
---------------------------------------
Sleeping in the Aviary, "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel" (Science of Sound)
My guess is that the titular vomit is "expensive" because these guys gorged on the sophisticated delicacies of pop songcraft while partying in the "cheap hotel" of indie noise-punk. Don't let these guys, or their album's title, fool you. On their sophomore album, Madison-based Sleeping in the Aviary has moved beyond the headlong punk abandon of their debut, crafting an impressive set of refined pop-rock songs -- replete with "la, la, la's" and "oooh-wee's!" -- even if they're still dressing them with indie noise trappings.
Kicking in with the catchy strum and catchier melody of the opener, "Write On," the band sets the tone for an album of off-kilter sing-alongs in which timeless but original melodies and chord progressions are filtered through a bleary wash of folky guitar, haunting organ and accordion, and songwriter Elliott Kozel's nasally straining whine (all necessitating the comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel). The band proceeds to effuse this sonic wash over forms as diverse as the cluttered, seasick folk of Blonde on Blonde-era Dylan ("Things Look Good"), and the pulsing molten blues of the White Stripes ("Gas Mask Blues").
Invariably creeping through these variable soundscapes are Kozel's festering obsessions with death and decay, radium-soaked lips and people "sick to their skin." This imagery, inspired by several tragedies Kozel endured while writing the album, gives these songs a fitting, unique edge. Indeed, it takes a unique type of twenty-something to sincerely title one of his catchiest tunes "I'm Old," and to make the song entitled "You're a Party" the most depressing one on the album. Depression aside, this band has succeeded in crafting a melodic, listenable album that still retains a unique sonic and lyrical personality. Here's to hoping Elliott Kozel can resolve his issues as well as he resolves his melodies.
- John Kuroski, Elmore Magazine
---------------------------------------
"Expensive Vomit begins like Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes leading an unplugged Arcade Fire, but it swiftly blasts into an unbridled rock rave-up worthy of the Pixies back when Black Francis was delivering demon-exercising howls."
- The Charlotte Observer
---------------------------------------
With a killer band name and an album title that not only catches your attention but is certain to elicit a chuckles every time it's spoken aloud, all Sleeping in the Aviary needed to land a spot on my current list of bands to keep an eye on was a really good follow-up to their underrated debut "Oh, This Old Thing?" Well, I'm happy to report that the Madison, Wis.-based collective has outdone themselves on "Expensive Vomit," a fantastic record that is in the running for inclusion on my year-end list of favorites.
Frontman Elliott Kozel is a witty, talented songwriter who mixes things up with the blues stomp of "Gas Mask Blues" (a tune the White Stripes wish they had written), the Replacements-leaning "Write On" and Bright Eyes-ish "Ladybug Death Song." Additional keepers include "Things Look Good," "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" and the sprawling (if slightly overwrought) disc closer "Windshield." I can't wait to hear what these guys come up with next.
-Jeffrey Sisk, The Daily News (McKeesport, PA)
---------------------------------------
Let it not be said that Sleeping in the Aviary doesn't know how to party.
Brutal truth: As much as you like listening to folk bands, most of those guys aren't the sort of band you'd want playing your birthday party. Earnest and meaningful and Bob Dylan-worshipping just doesn't really translate into a good-time band. They can't all be party acts, though, so fair enough.
Sleeping in the Aviary's twisted spin on folk would be the exception. The band drops its crazy, lo-fi pop mania from its debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, and settles into a folk groove for its sophomore record. Settling in isn't the same thing as settling down. The band's still as in love with mischief, big pop hooks and defying the laws of good sense, tradition and self-importance that are usually the tripod on which folk bands sit.
The raw and immediate approach that garnered the band comparisons to The Thermals is still around. It's toned down a tad, though, as SITA tackles a broader base of influences, drawing on everything from late-'90s indie pop to that sort of singer/songwriter folk that's been around forever without changing one bit. Just take it as a whiskey and speed party at the folk festival and leave it there.
Watching SITA vandalize folk pop is a good time. "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" tangles with the same morbid issues of mortality as a young Conor Oberst, but the act's rambunctious lo-fi production hints more at Sebadoh's role in its upbringing. Roots guitar forms the basis for "Things Look Good" and "Gas Mask Blues," but instead of twang guitar, Sleeping in the Aviary turns to shrill, in-the-red guitars that are violent and edgy in a punk sense. Anyone who remembers the band's mile-wide pop streak from Oh, This Old Thing? won't be disappointed, though pure-pop songs like "I'm Old," "Write On" and "Ladybug Death Song" hone the band's craft, as it writes longer, more intricate and all-around more mature tunes.
Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel isn't folk, per se, but it's mostly made up of bits and pieces of the genre. Sleeping in the Aviary just knows how to bang them up, bend them out of shape and make a lot of weird noise in the process. And it has a lot of fun in the process.
-Mark Morrison, Aversion
---------------------------------------
Sleeping In The Aviary wears its heart on its sleeve, combining wry, yet heartfelt lyrics with an acoustic punk aesthetic. The Madison quartet has much to lament on its sophomore effort, Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel (Science Of Sound). Recording on the heels of a friend's drug overdose, a co-worker's brain aneurysm, and the hospitalization of vocalist Elliott Kozel's mother, the band faces mortality on the clanging, busker tune "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies." Listing the circumstances under which people will meet their demise borders on morbid, but in Kozel's hands, the song becomes a meditation.
- Illinois Entertainer
---------------------------------------
Searching for a lo-fi Violent Femmes? Look no further than Sleeping in the Aviary, and their 2008 release, the charmingly titled Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel. Hailing from Madison, WI, Sleeping in the Aviary certainly possesses the same snotty charm as the aforementioned Femmes (circa their early era), especially in the vocal stylings of singer/guitarist Elliott Kozel, which can be heard clearly on the album opening "Write On." Elsewhere, you'll also find a Pixies-esque ditty ("Gas Mask Blues") and a haunting album closing ditty ("Windshield"). The trio keeps it bare-bones sounding throughout, as Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel sounds like it could have been recorded in your living room, with just a few mikes strewn around. And that is exactly the charm of Sleeping in the Aviary.
- Greg Prato, All Music Guide
---------------------------------------
"...engaging, dank and irreverent energy..." - Alternative Press
---------------------------------------
The album title is fairly indicative. These are songs of caustic wit and even more corrosive loathing. The venom seems to be delivered at both the subjects of the songs and (perhaps) other band members as well. I'm not sure about that last part, but this album is tension city. Which makes for compelling listening. Sleeping in the Aviary plays a raggedy sort of rock of roll, one that dips its toe into folk and the blues before galloping back into the world of cranging guitars. Sonic tension, if you will. And like I said, it works quite well. Indeed, just about everything works here. The songs are tight, the band is just loose enough to give some room to breathe and the sound is a couple steps above demo-quality--exactly what these folks need. The easiest touchpoints would be the Brian Jonestown Massacre or the Flaming Lips (circa 1993 or so), though these folks are more anarchic and antisocial. This one sounds good from the start, and then it grows on you. Loverly, kids.
- Aiding & Abetting
---------------------------------------
AUGUSTA, GA - A little like early emo bands, especially Bright Eyes, Sleeping in the Aviary unleash a driven emotional indie rock sound right from the start of "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel." But, more than Bright Eyes, Sleeping in the Aviary carry the flag of early- and mid-80s college rock bands such as the Violent Femmes, the Dead Milkmen and They Might Be Giants. Maybe with a little early Against Me thrown in for good acoustic measure. Catchy, danceable, quirky and noisy; the Madison, Wis., trio of Elliot Kozel, Phil Mahlstadt and Michael Sienkowski began their sing-along, intense, stripped-down style of rock in 2003 before releasing their debut, Oh, This Old Thing? in 2007. Following up with Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, the newly formed quartet since adding Celeste Huele, continue to release out music often thought of as comparable to early New York Punk-era Talking Heads. That early Big Apple vibe gives the band a similar energy as the Velvet Underground too. Frantic, moody and slightly weird; Sleeping in the Aviary’s second full-length album pushes the amalgam of screaming vocals and clangy guitar rock into fuzzy, spacey territory. Fans of the early American proto-punk sounds of such Detroit bands as the Stooges and the MC5 or Ohio-based rockers like Rocket from the Tombs will find an energetic little brother with Sleeping in the Aviary.
The opening track, “Write On,” kicks off the album with a catchy, fun tune that causes toes to tap along to a very college rock sound. While “Gas Mask Blues” brings out the big guns with a clash of soft singing and wild Sonic Youth-esque noise.
The way the tracks often build from a slow contemplative melodious musing to a screaming fit redolent of any pre-90s indie band, "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel" packs a punch while asking the listener to pack their lunch for one wild ride through what could quite possibly be the mind of a schizophrenic. Touchy, creative, sappy, eclectic, and fiercely energetic all at the same time; Sleeping in the Aviary bring together an array of sound most bands can only dream of accomplishing. Maybe that’s why “You’re A Party” reminds one of the Beatles, one of the few other bands in history to approach the ledge of musical creativity and step off it with confidence.
- Dino Lull, Metro Spirit
4th Album Almost Finished
05.24.11Sleeping in the Aviary is in the studio as I type, finishing up the final mixes for the new album. We're looking for a release around Aug/Sept of 2011. Stay tuned...
"Oh, This Old Thing?" Reviews
07.31.10Three Imaginary Girls - Live Show Revue from Abbey Lounge in Boston
I biked over to the Abbey Lounge for a show I'd been waiting weeks for: Madison, Wisconsin's Sleeping in the Aviary. I loved their record, Oh, This Old Thing?. Sometimes you see a band live and they just don't live up to the expectations you have from hearing their recorded works; not so with Sleeping in the Aviary. They exceeded my expectations, delivering a fiercely energetic set that included most of the songs off the album plus a few others. They hardly took a breath between songs, much like on the album, and singer Elliott Kozel danced around in socks while bassist Phil Mahlstadt hopped up and down. Drummer Michael Sienkowski impressively kept the raucous beats while singing backup, and on one song lead. The whole thing was wicked awesome, as we say here in the Northeast. Incidentally, I asked Elliott how Maureen feels now (a reference to the song "Maureen" in which he repeatedly sings "Maureen doesn't like me anymore!"), and he says that she and Phil have patched things up. Awwww...
— Betsy Boston
--------------------------------
Slugmag.com - April 2007
Sleeping In The Aviary = The Vines + The Strokes + Weezer + a pinch of Ima Robot
The guys in Sleeping In The Aviary are sloppy, but, it’s a good kind of sloppy. Oh This Old Thing? is 13 tracks in 23 minutes. I almost wish this was a live album to see if the band could really race through all these songs that fast. The highlight of this sloppy noise is definitely Elliot Kozel’s spastic, carefree vocals. His voice is reminiscent of the reckless abandon of Frank Black or Serj Tankian. At times it seems that Kozel might just snap before the end of the song arrives. The music is as dirty as garage power-punk can get. The band has mastered several different feelings inside of these 13 tracks-meandering slow songs (“Sign My Cast”), quick 48-second bursts of noise (“Face Lift Floats”) and bouncy pop sings (“Lanugo”). There is enough variation on the album to keep you entertained and in the quick time that it begins and ends, you wish that the time hadn’t gone by so fast.
— Jon Robertson
-------------------------------
Oh, This Old Thing – Sleeping In The Aviary
Hailing from the City of Madison in the great state of Wisconsin, Sleeping in the Aviary whips up stomping, stuttering indie rhythms and attitudinal garage pop over the course of 23 minutes and 13 songs. There’s not much here that you haven’t already heard done by plenty of other bands on the dive circuit but rarely have you heard it done with so much promise or unapologetic authority. There are clues to the band’s depth and intelligence amid all the raw power – “Sign My Cast” owes as much to Nick Cave as it does the mellowed-down Violent Femmes; “Lanugo” could be an outtake from the second Strokes album – thought violent, affably arrogant punk reigns supreme, especially in the Replacements-esque “Only Son” and “No Socks.” This band has more to offer than perhaps even it realizes and should it stay in the game long enough to make one more record and another after that we may all be in for a wild, fun and occasionally heartfelt ride.
— Jedd Beaudoin, Wichita City Paper, March 22, 2007
-------------------------
Three Imaginary Girls, Album Review March 2007
In fewer than 25 minutes, Sleeping in the Aviary's Oh, This Old Thing? establishes the band as a viable contender for the Next Big Indie Thing. The Madison, Wisconsin trio's Science of Sound debut is flat out exciting — like riding the Gravitron at the carnival (minus the subsequent urge to vomit). The sound is at times reminiscent of bands like The Libertines and The Vines, filled with driving rock 'n' roll but also offering moments of delightful pop melodies ("Gloworm") or Art Brut-style calamity ("Maureen").
The one-two punch of openers "Face Lift Floats" and "Pop Song" is brilliant. The former perfectly launches the album's raucous lo-fi pop-punk pulse, and then with hardly a breath the latter kicks in, complete with hand claps, do-dos, yeahs, etc. "Another Girl" follows, still maintaining the velocity while toning down the pop, only to be re-initiated with "Gloworm," which winds down to nicely segue into the first ballad, "Sign My Cast" — a magnificently strong song where singer/guitarist/main songwriter Elliott Kozel's gut-wrenching delivery of the lyrics, "Is it safe to touch your broken arm" make you sorta almost start to choke up a little. But then comes "Maureen," one of two songs penned by bassist, in which the only lyrics, "Maureen doesn't like me anymore!" are repeated eight times in a fast-moving high-pitched wail.
"Drug Suitcase" is great fun, with a chorus of "Oh, your body's nice but your mind is a joke" that gets stuck in your head (I mean, who can't relate?). By this point, Elliott has fully sold you on his mastery of the punk vocalist technique. Next comes "No Socks," the second track penned by Phil, the raucous "Only Son," and the poppy "Lanugo," which would serve well as a lead single thanks to its terrific versatility — as much as it is pop (with bops and ba-da-da-das), it also continues the lo-fi rock vibe. "Love Song" follows in another instance of perfect song pairing; the equal-parts pop-punk/lo-fi-rock/emo ballad is one of the album's strongest numbers due to its sheer genre-bending ingenuity. "Getting Thin" brings it all to a climactic near-finish, culminating in a crashing, screaming frenzy that reverts back to quiet-ish for a moment before loudening up again with the lyrics "I'm a doctor trust me trust me trust me!"
The untitled final track, appearing after a brief pause, is a stripped down version of "Pop Song" with only vocals and piano, with an echo as if the recording was done in a cavernous space. It's a lovely rendition that serves well as the album's tranquil signoff, like stretches after a vigorous workout.
Effects and feedback turn up here and there, giving the vocals an occasional Strokes-like muffle or jarring the guitars. Not to be outdone, drummer Michael [last name unknown] provides a solid and inspired beat throughout the stellar album, freshly placing beats and drumrolls where you don't expect them. This is one of those bands whose recorded sound is so thrilling, one can only imagine what kind of high-octane live show they're capable of pulling off. Lucky for us they're on tour throughout most of the U.S. this spring. [Um, guys, could you come to Boston please?]
— Betsy Boston, Three Imaginary Girls
--------------------------
Punk News:
The Thermals released The Body, The Blood, The Machine last year to devastating critical acclaim. Few had complaints regarding the band's edgy, ambitiously concocted, throwback pop-punk, but unfortunately for me I found myself in that group. To at least this reviewer the band sounded tired, drained of the spastic, unrelenting energy from 2004's perfectly titled Fuckin A. Amidst all the mouth-foaming of its reception and personal anticipation for the album It was hard to admit that I just...wasn't into it. Luckily, Sleeping In The Aviary's Oh, This Old Thing? serves as a fair substitute for my expectations.
Oh, This Old Thing? is 13 tracks of snotty, fuck-all lo-fi power-pop. "Face Lift Floats" is brief but punctual as the opener, giving what seems like a preview of the next 22 minutes to come, while "Pop Song" bounces along with effortless handclaps and "Another Girl" self-loathes atop power chords. The band spreads a similar nature over the course of these three but branches out a little more upon the trifecta's completion. "Gloworm" sounds like a drugged up Stephen Pedersen (Criteria) is fronting the band, while the lazy "Sign My Cast" is one of a few more gentle numbers. Of course, the 33-second "Maureen" starts the second 'half' in a blast of a fashion, light screams peppering the end of Elliott Kozel's lines. "Drug Suitcase" slams away silly, distorted solos and a short but sweet Jerry Lee Lewis piano 'riff' to close. "Only Son" even throws a bit of Jello Biafra-style yelps and slurs in the vocals for good measure. And then out of nowhere, tucked at the end is an untitled piano ballad; it's actually pretty pretty.
Sleeping In The Aviary's debut might be a little top-heavy but it certainly deserves points not only for style but variety, managing to capture the listener's interest for the majority of its quick duration. Familiar, sure, but it also nearly fills a void that was left sorely open for me in 2006.
– Brian, PunkNews.org
-----------------------------
The Isthmus:
It’s easy to get down when your band plays the same rooms in the same small city to the same crowd. Some acts break up or move on when the walls begin to close in. Others hunker down in the basement or a more sophisticated purpose-built studio and start recording.
Sleeping In The Aviary, the Blueheels, Droids Attack and the hip-hop duo Horton the Irrelevant & August the Creep all embraced the latter strategy last year. Their high-quality new CDs underscore how important getting your ideas down on hard disc is to musical growth.
On Oh, This Old Thing?, Sleeping In The Aviary prove that pop pulchritude and punk frenzy are always a winning combination. Whether singer Elliott Kozel is setting the hook of the too-brief “Gloworm” with his best impression of a vaudevillian warble or the whole Aviary crew are tumbling headlong through the full-scale guitar-bass-drums freakout that is “Drug Suitcase,” the result is always irresistible.
Lots of acts have done the shabby-but-sweet, punky-but-accessible thing over the years. In fact, I can’t drop the laser on this album without recalling how, in the late ’70s, both the Swell Maps and the Only Ones wandered away from punk and New Wave to clear out a space for bands that like a full measure of melody with their madness. (More recent cognates would be Nirvana, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Strokes and clinically out-there screamer/crooner Craig Nicholls of the Vines.)
But just because Sleeping In The Aviary aren’t unique doesn’t mean they’re not outrageously gifted. They are. I can see “Gloworm,” the snotty anti-love song “Another Girl” (as in: “I’m always thinking of another girl”) and the bouncy Kinks-style dance-hall vamp “Lanugo” all being embraced by the star-making U.K. indie audience.
If you like your production artfully scratchy and your pop tunes creatively messed up, Sleeping In The Aviary should cream your burn. It’ll be interesting to see if their upcoming tours of the U.S. get the kind of press attention they deserve.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus
---------------------------
The Isthmus- MadTracks, “Another Girl”:
If you can't get behind Sleeping In The Aviary's chaotic cause by the time the youthful trio reaches the sharp, ecstatic "Wooo!" that neatly bisects "Another Girl," you're probably an irredeemable stiff. Or maybe just an envious hater. Because this is the kind of crazed, effervescent bass-drum-guitar confection that banishes the cares of a crappy day to the small, dark room where they belong.
At just under two minutes, this track from Oh, This Old Thing? is almost too short. It gets to happy land quickly, though, and layers on just enough bird-flipping insouciance to keep you guessing about whether chief mouth Elliott Kozel is "Always thinking about another girl" because he's uncertain about love or because he's certifiably ADD.
Toothsome pop that blends equal amounts sugar of and snot? Hey, it's the best kind. More of this brand of Valentine's candy, please.
– Tom Laskin, The Isthmus, MadTracks
------------------------------
The Shepherd Express
Madison’s Sleeping in the Aviary calls up the sound of London, circa 1978, specifically, a high-speed collision of Wire and the Buzzcocks, with echoes of the early Kinks. Their songs are short, serrated, sonic jabs, all catchy choruses and arresting hooks, powerful guitar crescendos and Anglophile accents. Oh, This Old Thing? flows dynamically with enough down-shifts from the furious punk tempo to give the ear a rest. Oh, This Old Thing? is the debut album from a band we hope to hear more from in the future.
– David Luhrssen
"Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel" Reviews
07.31.10Despite its title—2008’s Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel—the second album fromSleeping In The Aviary opens up the band’s tender side amid its lo-fi scars and unruly freak-outs. As always, the band deliberately leaves a lot of loose ends, as random bits of chatter and noise make their way onto the tracks—though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Earlier this year, Sleeping In The Aviary released a 7-inch with Madison garage-rock duo The Hussy featuring the blasting “Automatic,” a frantic return to the Buzzcocks- and Thermals-style pop-punk of the band’s 2007 album Oh, This Old Thing?
- The Onion A.V. Club, Decider, Milwaukee
---------------------------------------
The second album by Sleeping in the Aviary is a balancing act: The band has perfected the art of teetering between the frenzy of an unpolished living-room performance and the coherence of an intricately composed folk-pop song played by a group of skilled musicians. The disc revolves around the quivering vocals of Elliott Kozel, whose voice and sense of melody recall Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes at some points and an old West Band blues musician at others. In fact, the whole band sounds like they could be from another time, with instruments like the accordion, saw, and ukulele adding to the organic, porch-swinging feel.
Their sound isn't completely derivative of old-timey folk, though. Kozel shines as a folk songwriter on slower songs such as "Maybe You're the Same," but just when it seems as though the band could be pigeonholed as another folk revival project, they ramp up the intensity and add the reverberation of a heavy electric guitar chord and the feedback of a bass guitar. "Gas Mask Blues" is the most extreme example of this genre-bending, which builds from an acoustic guitar and a shaker to a full-band, driving, screaming freak-out.
- Andrea Swensson, City Pages (St. Paul/Minneapolis)
---------------------------------------
What dewy tenderfeet get from Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, the weathered gimp who writes this column gets from Vernon's fellow Wisconsinite Elliott Kozel. Kozel leads actual band members, second fiddle though their bass-drums-accordion/saw may play, and sings like a 14-year-old freaked out by the frog in his throat rather than an angel choking his monkey. Informed by two untimely deaths as well as a Kanye-like combo of ailing mother and fractured romance, Kozel is feeling his mortality more concretely than the average young guy struck by the fact that 25 years equals a quarter of a century. Over a bereft, sardonic, punky power strum, he spins out songs that evoke the nearness of death and the fragility of romance all the more suggestively for not being quite literal about either, which is rarely how it works with tenderfoot image-slingers these days. First he's running around with his girl in the ground, then he's helping his mom with her shot. Both ways he feels terribly alone but knows he isn't.
- MSN Inside Music: Consumer Guide
---------------------------------------
Sleeping in the Aviary found a follower in me with a sound on their 2006 debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, that reminded me of the fun, careless nature of Thermals-esque, lo-fi power-pop. Granted, the record hasn't gotten much replay out of me since I reviewed it, but my memories remain fond. While the "lo-fi" aesthetic is still here, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel is another whole beast.
Rather than try and improve upon that aforementioned formula, SITA has just about completely abandoned it, opting for a heavily acoustic-based, playful indie folk affair that sounds like Jeff Mangum listening to a shitload of Bob Dylan before recording In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Of course, Vomit barely even brushes the greatness of Neutral Milk Hotel's classic, but the feel is quite similar. I mean, look at the instruments used: piano; ukulele; tea kettle; accordion; saw; and "noise."
A dude named Elliott in the liner notes seems to be the main songwriter here (the Mangum of the whole thing, you could say). His voice more accurately hits notes than Mangum's, though, and never cracks in pleasingly cringeworthy fashions. Rather, it's delivered with a slight strain but still clean and free -- sort of like Conor Oberst in his more lively offerings, and when it lets loose in coarse yelping (which isn't terribly often) it makes for a fine dynamic.
It's hard to highlight standouts, but as far as that carefree nature goes, "Girl in the Ground" has it in spades. This is something SITA hasn't lost at all since This Old Thing, and that's the pure sense of absolute joy in songwriting and performing. Vomit sounds like a bunch of loosely assembled tracks recorded on the first or second take, and a band having a shitload of fun doing it. It's hard not to get some enjoyment out of hearing their enjoyment.
Sleeping in the Aviary has released another superbly solid full-length, and consequently deserve way more notice than they seem to receive. Get on it, people.
- PunkNews.org
---------------------------------------
Sleeping in the Aviary are seemingly of no danger of running out of song fodder. They made their debut last year with the lively, ramshackle Oh, This Old Thing? Frontman Elliott Kozel released a solo album of bedroom recordings as She Is So Beautiful / She Is So Blonde, and drummer Michael Sienkowski put out a winsome collection of pop songs under the name Whatfor. SITA played some shows during this time, too, and amidst all of this, they managed to put together their attempt to evade the sophomore slump. Ladies and gentlemen, behold Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel.
The album solidifies SITA’s position as a band to watch – and there’s no need to qualify that statement with “young band” or “Midwestern band”. Kozel is a versatile songwriter who has an unmistakable knack for pop melodies and an equally unmistakable aversion to pop overproduction. He likes to keep things loose and lo-fi, which suits the material well, and he has an adventurous and sometimes abrasive streak that keeps SITA’s path unpredictable.
They begin with an accordion-backed folk-rocker, “Write On,” that explodes into a full rock gallop on the second verse as a frustrated Kozel tries to write an ex-lover out of his heart. His similes don’t always connect on the opener – “Like an empty spot in a parking lot, I get jealous thoughts wherever you are” – but his lyrics throughout the album are mostly strong. The overriding time of day that his songs convey is about 4am; the forecast is still a little hazy and a little rambunctious, but there are also clouds of regret and moments of clarity moving through.
“I got friends: some of their lives seem over!” he shouts on “Things Look Good.” Seconds later, he amends that thought: “I got friends: some of their lives are over.” “I’m Old” breaks out some twang to accurately tell a tale of feeling old in your twenties (“Tried to meet some girls but I just drank all their wine / Went out to see a doctor and he just told me I was fine”).
Thoughts of mortality prove pesky. Sometimes relationships die but the people live. Sometimes people die but the relationship lives. Two of the best songs are ruminations on death and its effects: the shambling rocker “Everybody’s Different, Everybody Dies” and the lively sing-along “Girl in the Ground.” The highlights of their debut tended to be short blasts – the propulsion of the aptly titled “Pop Song” or the manic falsetto punk of “Only Son” (each under ninety seconds). Expensive Vomit is more cohesive and fully formed – but still plenty of loose fun. It’s also a key release in an impressive year for tiny Madison label Science of Sound, which also put out the fine second album from Pale Young Gentlemen.
- Adam McKibbin, The Red Alert
---------------------------------------
"Their debut full-length...was a controlled chaos of warbled vocals, fast riffing, and sentiments of abjection. This year's Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel comes up with a similar thesis - but this time around, it's been filtered down to a level somewhere between post-psychotic folk music and a pre-apocalyptic drug addiction. For my money, this is a pure coclear joy."
- PRICK Magazine
---------------------------------------
SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY
What’s the Deal: You might recognize these guys from Austinist’s recent post on the best overlooked albums of 2008. You might also recognize these guys if you were at their Trophy’s a month or so back with The Murdocks and Watch Out For Rockets. If you don’t, then you missed a truly inspiring show. The band overcame some dodgy sound issues and impressed the crowd with their enthusiasm, and by the end of it, the singer had danced and thrashed and rocked so hard that his pants fell down around his knees. Their invigorating brand of art-folk is equally poppy and chaotic. Their most recent album, Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, is catchier and more acoustic than their previous, Oh, This Old Thing?, which features some pretty inciting tunes leaning a little more toward a garagey punk sound.
“Pop Song” from Oh, This Old Thing? has a vintage pop sound with its simplistic, infectious nature, but it’s beaming with all the energy of a punk anthem. There are some definite That Thing You Do! moments in between the distortion and loud vocals. Then, when you discover the newer “Write On”, you’ll likely be blow away by the no-cheese, rambunctious folk-pop that you’ll be humming for the next few days.
- Austinist
---------------------------------------
Austinist's Dark Horses: The Best Overlooked Albums of 2008
Sleeping in the Aviary - Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel (Science of Sound)
They're a chaotic art-folk band that manages to pack the right amount of punk and the right amount of pop in their bag of tricks to keep things forever interesting and engaging. The group - Phil, Elliott, Michael and Celeste - are excellent at making the transition between pop acoustic songs and rowdy electric ones feel natural. Although, they don't get as much into the high-octane stuff on this one as with their previous, Oh, This Old Thing.
But honestly, if for no other reason, the very first song of the album is so strong, that it guarantees this album a spot on this year's best overlooked albums. It's called "Write On," and it's catchy, rambunctious and totally inspiring. It's full of furiously strummed acoustic guitar, an electric buzz and a chorus begging to be sung along to as you bounce around with the poppy rhythm. Mix this one with others like the echoing, somber piano tune, "You're a Party," and the Western acoustic number "Gas Mask Blues" and you've got a strong recording full of emotion, harmony and high energy. They flood their live show with even more intensity than the recordings, making that the best way to discover their music. They're also not too bad at creating lyrics that stick, like "If you have my daughter I don't know what I will do, cause I'm gonna want to hit her when she looks like you" from "Gas Mask Blues."
- William Mills, Austinist.com
---------------------------------------
Interview w/ Elliott on Free Houston Press
---------------------------------------
Interview with Elliott on The Capital Times
---------------------------------------
Album Review on Three Imaginary Girls
---------------------------------------
Despite lyrically heavy content -- and the fact that this album was written the very same week frontman Elliott Kozel experienced the deaths of two close friends -- Expensive is nonetheless full of blithely charming up-tempo songs. At nearly 45 minutes long, the band's second album provides a pleasantly tailored listen throughout. While songs like "Write On" are incredibly infectious, other tunes, like "You're A Party," crescendo with polished nonchalance and delicacy. Then "Things Look Good" has a Dylan-esque vibe to it with a friendly harmonica, nostalgic gritty vocals and catchy guitar chords. Alternately somber, poignant, lively or even a bit waltzy, Expensive Vomit in A Cheap Hotel will leave you neither nauseous nor drowsy.
- CMJ New Music Report 10/20/08
---------------------------------------
Sleeping in the Aviary, "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel" (Science of Sound)
My guess is that the titular vomit is "expensive" because these guys gorged on the sophisticated delicacies of pop songcraft while partying in the "cheap hotel" of indie noise-punk. Don't let these guys, or their album's title, fool you. On their sophomore album, Madison-based Sleeping in the Aviary has moved beyond the headlong punk abandon of their debut, crafting an impressive set of refined pop-rock songs -- replete with "la, la, la's" and "oooh-wee's!" -- even if they're still dressing them with indie noise trappings.
Kicking in with the catchy strum and catchier melody of the opener, "Write On," the band sets the tone for an album of off-kilter sing-alongs in which timeless but original melodies and chord progressions are filtered through a bleary wash of folky guitar, haunting organ and accordion, and songwriter Elliott Kozel's nasally straining whine (all necessitating the comparisons to Neutral Milk Hotel). The band proceeds to effuse this sonic wash over forms as diverse as the cluttered, seasick folk of Blonde on Blonde-era Dylan ("Things Look Good"), and the pulsing molten blues of the White Stripes ("Gas Mask Blues").
Invariably creeping through these variable soundscapes are Kozel's festering obsessions with death and decay, radium-soaked lips and people "sick to their skin." This imagery, inspired by several tragedies Kozel endured while writing the album, gives these songs a fitting, unique edge. Indeed, it takes a unique type of twenty-something to sincerely title one of his catchiest tunes "I'm Old," and to make the song entitled "You're a Party" the most depressing one on the album. Depression aside, this band has succeeded in crafting a melodic, listenable album that still retains a unique sonic and lyrical personality. Here's to hoping Elliott Kozel can resolve his issues as well as he resolves his melodies.
- John Kuroski, Elmore Magazine
---------------------------------------
"Expensive Vomit begins like Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes leading an unplugged Arcade Fire, but it swiftly blasts into an unbridled rock rave-up worthy of the Pixies back when Black Francis was delivering demon-exercising howls."
- The Charlotte Observer
---------------------------------------
With a killer band name and an album title that not only catches your attention but is certain to elicit a chuckles every time it's spoken aloud, all Sleeping in the Aviary needed to land a spot on my current list of bands to keep an eye on was a really good follow-up to their underrated debut "Oh, This Old Thing?" Well, I'm happy to report that the Madison, Wis.-based collective has outdone themselves on "Expensive Vomit," a fantastic record that is in the running for inclusion on my year-end list of favorites.
Frontman Elliott Kozel is a witty, talented songwriter who mixes things up with the blues stomp of "Gas Mask Blues" (a tune the White Stripes wish they had written), the Replacements-leaning "Write On" and Bright Eyes-ish "Ladybug Death Song." Additional keepers include "Things Look Good," "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" and the sprawling (if slightly overwrought) disc closer "Windshield." I can't wait to hear what these guys come up with next.
-Jeffrey Sisk, The Daily News (McKeesport, PA)
---------------------------------------
Let it not be said that Sleeping in the Aviary doesn't know how to party.
Brutal truth: As much as you like listening to folk bands, most of those guys aren't the sort of band you'd want playing your birthday party. Earnest and meaningful and Bob Dylan-worshipping just doesn't really translate into a good-time band. They can't all be party acts, though, so fair enough.
Sleeping in the Aviary's twisted spin on folk would be the exception. The band drops its crazy, lo-fi pop mania from its debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, and settles into a folk groove for its sophomore record. Settling in isn't the same thing as settling down. The band's still as in love with mischief, big pop hooks and defying the laws of good sense, tradition and self-importance that are usually the tripod on which folk bands sit.
The raw and immediate approach that garnered the band comparisons to The Thermals is still around. It's toned down a tad, though, as SITA tackles a broader base of influences, drawing on everything from late-'90s indie pop to that sort of singer/songwriter folk that's been around forever without changing one bit. Just take it as a whiskey and speed party at the folk festival and leave it there.
Watching SITA vandalize folk pop is a good time. "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies" tangles with the same morbid issues of mortality as a young Conor Oberst, but the act's rambunctious lo-fi production hints more at Sebadoh's role in its upbringing. Roots guitar forms the basis for "Things Look Good" and "Gas Mask Blues," but instead of twang guitar, Sleeping in the Aviary turns to shrill, in-the-red guitars that are violent and edgy in a punk sense. Anyone who remembers the band's mile-wide pop streak from Oh, This Old Thing? won't be disappointed, though pure-pop songs like "I'm Old," "Write On" and "Ladybug Death Song" hone the band's craft, as it writes longer, more intricate and all-around more mature tunes.
Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel isn't folk, per se, but it's mostly made up of bits and pieces of the genre. Sleeping in the Aviary just knows how to bang them up, bend them out of shape and make a lot of weird noise in the process. And it has a lot of fun in the process.
-Mark Morrison, Aversion
---------------------------------------
Sleeping In The Aviary wears its heart on its sleeve, combining wry, yet heartfelt lyrics with an acoustic punk aesthetic. The Madison quartet has much to lament on its sophomore effort, Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel (Science Of Sound). Recording on the heels of a friend's drug overdose, a co-worker's brain aneurysm, and the hospitalization of vocalist Elliott Kozel's mother, the band faces mortality on the clanging, busker tune "Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies." Listing the circumstances under which people will meet their demise borders on morbid, but in Kozel's hands, the song becomes a meditation.
- Illinois Entertainer
---------------------------------------
Searching for a lo-fi Violent Femmes? Look no further than Sleeping in the Aviary, and their 2008 release, the charmingly titled Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel. Hailing from Madison, WI, Sleeping in the Aviary certainly possesses the same snotty charm as the aforementioned Femmes (circa their early era), especially in the vocal stylings of singer/guitarist Elliott Kozel, which can be heard clearly on the album opening "Write On." Elsewhere, you'll also find a Pixies-esque ditty ("Gas Mask Blues") and a haunting album closing ditty ("Windshield"). The trio keeps it bare-bones sounding throughout, as Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel sounds like it could have been recorded in your living room, with just a few mikes strewn around. And that is exactly the charm of Sleeping in the Aviary.
- Greg Prato, All Music Guide
---------------------------------------
"...engaging, dank and irreverent energy..." - Alternative Press
---------------------------------------
The album title is fairly indicative. These are songs of caustic wit and even more corrosive loathing. The venom seems to be delivered at both the subjects of the songs and (perhaps) other band members as well. I'm not sure about that last part, but this album is tension city. Which makes for compelling listening. Sleeping in the Aviary plays a raggedy sort of rock of roll, one that dips its toe into folk and the blues before galloping back into the world of cranging guitars. Sonic tension, if you will. And like I said, it works quite well. Indeed, just about everything works here. The songs are tight, the band is just loose enough to give some room to breathe and the sound is a couple steps above demo-quality--exactly what these folks need. The easiest touchpoints would be the Brian Jonestown Massacre or the Flaming Lips (circa 1993 or so), though these folks are more anarchic and antisocial. This one sounds good from the start, and then it grows on you. Loverly, kids.
- Aiding & Abetting
---------------------------------------
AUGUSTA, GA - A little like early emo bands, especially Bright Eyes, Sleeping in the Aviary unleash a driven emotional indie rock sound right from the start of "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel." But, more than Bright Eyes, Sleeping in the Aviary carry the flag of early- and mid-80s college rock bands such as the Violent Femmes, the Dead Milkmen and They Might Be Giants. Maybe with a little early Against Me thrown in for good acoustic measure. Catchy, danceable, quirky and noisy; the Madison, Wis., trio of Elliot Kozel, Phil Mahlstadt and Michael Sienkowski began their sing-along, intense, stripped-down style of rock in 2003 before releasing their debut, Oh, This Old Thing? in 2007. Following up with Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel, the newly formed quartet since adding Celeste Huele, continue to release out music often thought of as comparable to early New York Punk-era Talking Heads. That early Big Apple vibe gives the band a similar energy as the Velvet Underground too. Frantic, moody and slightly weird; Sleeping in the Aviary’s second full-length album pushes the amalgam of screaming vocals and clangy guitar rock into fuzzy, spacey territory. Fans of the early American proto-punk sounds of such Detroit bands as the Stooges and the MC5 or Ohio-based rockers like Rocket from the Tombs will find an energetic little brother with Sleeping in the Aviary.
The opening track, “Write On,” kicks off the album with a catchy, fun tune that causes toes to tap along to a very college rock sound. While “Gas Mask Blues” brings out the big guns with a clash of soft singing and wild Sonic Youth-esque noise.
The way the tracks often build from a slow contemplative melodious musing to a screaming fit redolent of any pre-90s indie band, "Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel" packs a punch while asking the listener to pack their lunch for one wild ride through what could quite possibly be the mind of a schizophrenic. Touchy, creative, sappy, eclectic, and fiercely energetic all at the same time; Sleeping in the Aviary bring together an array of sound most bands can only dream of accomplishing. Maybe that’s why “You’re A Party” reminds one of the Beatles, one of the few other bands in history to approach the ledge of musical creativity and step off it with confidence.
- Dino Lull, Metro Spirit
Sleeping in the Aviary - Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship (Official Music Video)
Song: "Last Kiss on a Sinking Ship" Album: Great Vacation! Artist: Sleeping in the Aviary Label: Science of Sound Director: Christopher James Heubach Starring Pat Sykes and Robert C. Hammel Also featuring (in alphabetical order) Dan Butter Jenny Crowe Robert C. Hammel Caitlin Hargarten Celeste Heule Elliott Kozel Philip Mahlstadt Karla M. Sasse Jason P. Schumacher Michael Sienkowski Kyle Sobczak Sam Thompson Julian Watkins Hair and Makeup by Bethany Brihn Puppeteering by Jason P. Schumacher Special Thanks to Sister's Camelot, Andrew Jensen and Sam Sullivan
Sleeping in the Aviary - Write On - Forward Music Festival
Sleeping in the Aviary gets everyone wet at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI as part of the Forward Music Festival. Check out Rock of the Arts web site at http://www.rockofthearts.com Please comment and rate!
Sleeping in the Aviary Everybody's Different Everybody Dies Live at the Backstage Lounge Gainsville FLA
SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY - DOUBLE WIDE DALLAS TEXAS
http://www.myspace.com/sleepingintheaviary http://www.sleepingintheaviary.com/
Sleeping in the Aviary @ Trash Bar NYC
(sound recorded with the camera, sorry! just sing along) I'm Old try to skip stones but all they do is sink tried to live along but all i did was think tried to wake up early but all i did was sleep went out to see a movie but found out i am too cheap chorus: i'm old but i'm young enough to die sorrowful and meaningless i'll sleep with her tonight tried to meat some girls but i just drank all their wine went to see a doctor he just told me i was fine my parents are both patients and my pets they are all dead no one seems to like me so i pretend i am well read chorus try to skip stones but all they do is sink tried to live alone but all i did was drink and if i was a salesman then i don't know what i'd sell and if i believed in heaven then i'd probably go to hell chorus
SLEEPING IN THE AVIARY - DOUBLE WIDE DALLAS TEXAS
http://www.myspace.com/sleepingintheaviary http://www.sleepingintheaviary.com/
sleeping in the aviary - "the good thing about it"
sleeping in the aviary - "the good thing about it"; recorded Oct. 23 - Hamden, CT
Sleeping in the Aviary - Maria's Ghost
Recorded Tuesday November 11th in downtown Greenville, South Carolina
Sleeping in the Aviary - "Windshield"
Sleeping in the Aviary playing their song Windshield at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee WI on Aug. 8, 2009.
There are no upcoming shows at the moment
If you're having any problems with your order, or any other website-related issues, please contact Sleeping in the Aviary's webmaster at support@musicfloss.com.
Location: Minneapolis, MN, United States
Label: Science of Sound
"I think it would be boring to make the same record over and over again," says Elliott Kozel, singer/guitarist of Sleeping in the Aviary. "I want to surprise people with each album that I make."
For listeners who have been following Sleeping in the Aviary, new album Great Vacation will do just that. With each release, the Minneapolis band has changed up their sound, from pop-punk, to indie-folk and now, for their third full-length album, to storytelling over pop-infused land mines.
The lineup of Kozel, Phil Mahlstadt (bass) and Michael Sienkowski (drums) churned out their debut album, Oh, This Old Thing? in 2007. The disc's intense bursts of lo-fi pop-punk drew comparisons to The Thermals, Buzzcocks, Violent Femmes and Nirvana. Then another side of the band's musical personality was captured on SITA's sophomore album from 2008. Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel was a move towards indie-folk heralded by the addition of fourth member, Celeste Heule, on accordion and musical saw. Kozel switched from electric to acoustic guitar for many of the songs, and also found himself screaming just a little less, exposing more of a tender side. This album cued comparisons to artists such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Bright Eyes, Baptist Generals and even Bob Dylan.
For 2010, Great Vacation once again found the band in fresh musical territory, and also with a newly-added fifth member; Kyle Sobczak on guitar. Layers of backup vocals (including multiple tracks of gargling, which Kozel describes as "the new reverb") and additional instruments such as harp, trumpet, banjo and mouth harp accompany stories of scuba diving, sinking on a ship, space-like love, an S&M session gone awry (or did it?) and the occurrence of irony the day before one dies. The ten songs on the album were tracked and mixed by the band themselves in their Minneapolis attic.
Though the band moved to Minnesota in 2009, Sleeping in the Aviary's roots are in Madison, Wis. There, local indie label Science of Sound fell in love with their theatric and chaotic live shows, and offered to record them in their studio. This was the start of a relationship which has found the band and label working together for all of SITA's albums thus far, and also for some of their side projects.
Lineup: Elliott Kozel (vocals, guitar), Phil Mahlstadt (bass), Michael Sienkowski (drums, backing vocals), Celeste Heule (accordion, musical saw), Kyle Sobczak (guitar)
--------------
Alternately somber, poignant, lively or even a bit waltzy, Expensive Vomit in A Cheap Hotel will leave you neither nauseous nor drowsy. - CMJ New Music Report 10/20/08
"...engaging, dank and irreverent energy..." - Alternative Press
"...Sleeping in the Aviary possesses the same snotty charm as the aforementioned Femmes (circa their early era), especially in the vocal stylings of singer/guitarist Elliott Kozel, which can be heard clearly on the album opening 'Write On.' Elsewhere, you'll also find a Pixies-esque ditty ('Gas Mask Blues') and a haunting album closing ditty ('Windshield')." - All Music Guide
"In a departure from the band's debut, Oh, This Old Thing?, Sleeping in the Aviary bounds down the road littered with folk rock heroes of the past. 'Gas Mask Blues' is a Siamese twin to Bob Dylan's 'Maggie's Farm,' while 'Write On' opens the affair with a burst of love sick rage." - Illinois Entertainer
"Their debut full-length...was a controlled chaos of warbled vocals, fast riffing, and sentiments of abjection. This year's Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel comes up with a similar thesis - but this time around, it's been filtered down to a level somewhere between post-psychotic folk music and a pre-apocalyptic drug addiction. For my money, this is a pure coclear joy." - PRICK Magazine
"Expensive Vomit begins like Gordon Gano of the Violent Femmes leading an unplugged Arcade Fire, but it swiftly blasts into an unbridled rock rave-up worthy of the Pixies back when Black Francis was delivering demon-exercising howls." - The Charlotte Observer
"The raw and immediate approach that garnered the band comparisons to The Thermals is still around. It's toned down a tad, though, as SITA tackles a broader base of influences, drawing on everything from late-'90s indie pop to that sort of singer/songwriter folk that's been around forever without changing one bit. Just take it as a whiskey and speed party at the folk festival and leave it there." - Aversion
"...a raggedy sort of rock of roll, one that dips its toe into folk and the blues before galloping back into the world of cranging guitars." - Aiding & Abetting
"Touchy, creave, sappy, eclectic, and fiercely energetic all at the same time; Sleeping in the Aviary bring together an array of sound most bands can only dream of accomplishing."- Metro Spirit
"Sleeping in the Aviary has moved beyond the headlong punk abandon of their debut, crafting an impressive set of refined pop songs -- replete with 'la, la, la's,' and 'oooh-wee's!' -- even if they're still dressing them with indie noise trappings." - Elmore Magazine
"A truly graduated effort, like a fine wine, this album is a beautiful example of a band able to mature with time." - Three Imaginary Girls ("Expensive Vomit...")
