The fact that they’re friends with fellow experimental pop collective Friend Roulette should’ve tipped me off to the pleasant weirdness of Brooklyn quintet Landlady but oddly enough it took seeing them live at the first of Hometapes’ two SXSW showcases this year, which enabled my first actual listen, for it to become clear just how refreshingly unique Landlady is.
Their latest single “Above My Ground” essentially offers the gist of what makes Landlady function, while their live show expands on all of their charms exponentially. Built around a two-drummer set up and anchored by Adam Schatz’s soulful vocals, the fivesome essentially subvert the very notion of experimentalism by the nature of their being so convincingly sincere. There’s no feeling that Landlady is trying its damnedest to be challenging, quirky, and/or different. In fact, there’s no real feeling of off-putting impenetrability in Landlady’s bold, complexity-inlaid tunes. Landlady’s combination of its multitudinous ideas and collective musicianship is by far its greatest strength and certainly the one that provides their gateway to accessibility. Landlady are that rare band where the notion of genre seems downright laughable. You can’t pigeonhole such a band and there’s really no use in doing so.
“Above My Ground” might be the most straightforward track in the band’s catalog thus far but that by no means makes it any less impressive. It’s a song with more heart than your standard Brooklyn band can seem to muster but also downright seductive in both its subtle building of layers and its ear-catching nature. It’s an omen of things to come that should both frighten and excite you. Whether featured on an upcoming EP or a full length, “Above My Ground” hints at the total all-consuming quality of Landlady’s beguilingly rugged experimentalism. Until then, fortunately, Landlady’s debut full length Keeping to Yourself is available for your perusal. Dig in via their Bandcamp.
