mp3: Viva Voce - Birds on the Wing
mp3: Viva Voce - Alive with Pleasure
mp3: Viva Voce - From the Devil Himself

web: Official “Word of Mouth”

So here’s the thing. I love this band. I don’t really know why.
Perhaps it’s the upbeat way in which they chant, “we do not fuck around” in the song of the same name. Maybe it’s their occasional piano-bar sing-a-long gone wrong sound. Maybe it’s the way they sound somehow familiar, a conglomerate of beloved bands past: somehow part Apples in Stereo, part Mama’s and the Papas, part Delgados, part Polyphonic Spree, part Flaming Lips. Do I hear piano strains from The Rocky Horror Picture Show? A little Kim Deal patois? Perhaps.

In any case Viva Voce are great. Originally from Arkansas they now reside in Portland, Oregon, where they create beautiful music together. Literally. The band is Anita and Kevin Robinson, a couple who met at a concert in 1998, and by 2001 were releasing Lovers, Lead the Way!, recovering from a scrape with the record industry, and oh yeah, were married. After touring about the planet, they returned to their living room and began writing more fabulous songs you want to clap along to releasing a second album The Heat Can Melt Your Brain in 2004 and Get Yr Blood Sucked Out in 2006.

One moment sentimental, the next psychedelic, the next dark and melancholy, the songs are infectious and enjoyable: a happy cacophony of guitars, drums, keys, vocals with the occasional samples and loops. “Birds on the Wing” is from Lovers, Lead the Way!, “Alive with Pleasure” is from The Heat Can Melt Your Brain and “From the Devil Himself” is from Get Yr Blood Sucked Out.

I hope you like it.

Buy.