Charades

The Shivers "Charades" – A NYC group that claims to involve “music, mime, clowning, and drama.” Fortunately this is only the music. Mostly acoustic low-fi stuff with some noisier and arty bits thrown in. Primarily you'll hear nice simple guitars that are sometimes layered along with male vocals. Some nice vocal harmonies and sometimes piano and other keyboards. Overall it's warm and familiar like curling up with a warm blanket. Quite nice.
My Picks: 2, 11, 17
Katie P. 1/19/05


1)Weird backwards song with vocals. Slow and quiet. Nice.
2)Quiet slow acoustic guitar strumming. Intimate style vocal delivery. Occasional vocal layering. Fades out with moaning.
3)Fcc: says “asshole”, “tits”, and more. Answering machine message starts it off. Then something that sounds like an alarm goes into a midtempo bouncy tune. Drops off in the middle and picks back up again. Nice vocal harmonies.
4)Fades in with what sounds like a tape loop. Distorted low vocals come in. Their theme song maybe? Slow and plodding repeats “The Shivers” over and over.
5)Slowly fades in with acoustic strumming guitar. Goes into a slow midtempo song with a bit of a twang. Nice vocal harmonies.
6)Starts with muted/lo-fi vocals and adds clean guitar. Slow. Cute.
7)Moody midtempo song. Half through it stops and lightens up mood a bit, but sings about violence.
8)Slow midtempo acoustic guitar. Nice vocal layers. Lo-fi recording.
9)Slow and moody guitar with male and female vocals. Ends abruptly, very short.
10)Keyboard/organ pulsing the same line over and over. Noise builds in the background. Instrumental. Ends with rain sounds.
11)Midtempo guitars. A little reverb on the vocals. Sweet yet intense love song. Heavy vocal layering in last minute.
12)Fades in with piano hits and then it goes into a lilting midtempo number. Guitar and piano along with vocals. Smoky and cool.
13)Starts with drum machine. Keyboards are added. Faster drums, but with slower keyboards giving it an anxious feel. Instrumental.
14)Lo-fi recording with background noise. Soft guitar and up front vocals. Odd lyrics.
15)Background sounds, like car horns and radio noises. Slow piano on top and some humming. Instrumental.
16)Slow string plucking. Drums are added along with electric guitar and vocals. Slow midtempo waltz.
17)Leonard Cohen song. Slow midtempo acoustic guitar with simple male vocals. Nice.
18)Slow acoustic guitar and simple male vocals.
19)Starts with a tape loop that almost sounds backwards. Guitar picking is added. More and more layers of guitar is added. Some weird stereo things going on. Instrumental.
20)Quiet acoustic guitar and simple lo-fi vocals. More guitars are added with vocal layers. Kind of sad feeling. Ends early with 1 minute left.