The Debutante Hour
Encyclopedia
The Debutante Hour are a trio, based in New York City, consisting of multi-instrumentalists Susan Hwang, Mia Pixley, and Maria Sonevytsky. Typically, Sonevytsky and Hwang trade off accordion and primary vocal duties, and Pixley plays cello, as well as providing additional vocals. Hwang and Sonevytsky also alternate playing "hobo drum kit", consisting of a mini bass drum and firecracker snare (usually with brushes), while standing. The group's approach spans a variety of styles, and includes elements of close harmony
, vaudeville
, cabaret
, and Americana
.
Hwang's songs have been described as "oddly amusing love songs about zombies and bed-bugs" and in reference to their debut album, The Birth and Death of Meaning, it has been stated "For as much as The Debutante Hour have an obvious penchant for absurdity, a closer listen reveals three women actually trying to make sense of their world through a dark humour."
Their music has also been described as "antifolk songs with the occasional waltz, warming up the audience to clap along and cheer" and "songs about lost love, weird love and the devil."
One of their UK shows (with the notable Shonen Knife
), at the Brixton Windmill, was also reviewed favorably, the reviewer writing, "my favourite of the evening were the openers – The Debutante Hour. Visitors from New York and, according to the various researches I have done since, part of the anti-folk scene over there".
Their song "Croak Hiss and Sputter" has been described as a "shindig tribute to a relationship’s tribulations, all in the manner that a cheeky trumpet personifies, not quite daring to expose its true feelings by using the most upbeat of formulas." They have also been described as having a "bouncy, cabaret style."
The Birth and Death of Meaning (named after the book by Ernest Becker
) was produced by Franz Nicolay
, formerly of The Hold Steady
. Nicolay is also credited with "additional engineering, guitars, glockenspiel, mandola, keys, baritone ukulele, ukulele, banjo, additional vox and percussion." Drummer Brian Viglione
(The Dresden Dolls
) is also listed as a collaborator (drums on the songs "Your Worldview Gets Me Down", "Sunday In The Trailer", "Zombies Are Zen", "Croak, Hiss & Sputter", and "Be Yourself").
Sonevytsky and Hwang sang on "Slapped Actress," off 2008 The Hold Steady
album Stay Positive.
The group has self-produced a handful of colorful and highly visual music videos. The videos are conceived, directed, and shot collaboratively by the group (and edited by Sonevytsky), in such diverse locations as Seoul, Korea; Padova, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic; Wrocław, Poland; and Wetzlar, Germany. The group's first video, "Hammer, Hatchet, Chainsaw, Gun" was directed by Thomas Bayne.
Two of the group's videos have been in the form of humorous, tongue-in-cheek send-ups of the public service announcement
format, delivered in song, and composed of original material.
Their videos have included guest appearances by fellow NYC musical luminaries, such as Amy Kohn
and Franz Nicolay
.
, each in the role of "Denizen of the Great Below", about which OffOffOnline wrote: "Add in the antics of The Debutante Hour (not only presenting their strong voices but also doing that while playing drums, guitar, and accordion), and the hour-long performance builds what good theater should always build: an alternate world that allows us to re-learn and reflect upon the great questions at the core of our being human." Nytheatre.com
wrote: "Gorgeous Ukrainian and Kyrgyz traditional songs performed by women with exquisite voices, accompanied elegantly by ancient instruments, as well as stunning changes of tone with the contemporary duo 'The Debutante Hour,' combine to create a beautiful soundscape through the simple story of two daughters leaving their mothers and losing their cultural identities in the process. Scythian Stones is unlike anything I've heard before." In September 2010, they travelled with the production to Asia, performing in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Kyiv, Ukraine. While in Kyrgyzstan, they also played a show at the American University of Central Asia
, as The Debutante Hour.
Sonevytsky is a member of the composer/performer collective Anti-Social Music
.
Hwang joined fellow Anti-folk act Ching Chong Song
as a third member on their second album, Everything is for the Babies, playing accordion, janggu
(a traditional Korean drum), and providing a third vocal harmony.
Sonevytsky also collaborated with photographer Alison Cartwright to create an art exhibit, No Other Home: The Crimean Tatar Repatriates which was on display at The Ukrainian Museum
from May 16, 2010 until September 26, 2010. Sonevytsky created the sound and text for the exhibit.
Hwang is also founder, contributor, and curator of the Bushwick Book Club, a monthly performance series, about which The New Yorker
writes: "Books inspire many things: movies, plays, religions, and even political platforms. Less frequently, they inspire songs (Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights,' Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit'). For the past year, the Bushwick Book Club, which meets monthly, has addressed that deficiency by choosing a bill of songwriters to compose songs prompted by a chosen book, ranging from 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' to 'The Origin of Species.'"
New York Press
writes, "The widely varied events feature just about every imaginable genre, from folk and country to cabaret and drinking songs" and "the songs don’t seem to suffer from the frantic circumstances under which they are created. The songwriters who participate appreciate the structure the club imposes, and the book club has yielded some surprisingly complete compositions."
The Village Voice
gave Bushwick Book Club the "Best of NYC" award for 2009, in the category of "Best Literary-Musical Crossover".
Close harmony
Close harmony is an arrangement of the notes of chords within a narrow range. It is different from open harmony or voicing in that it uses each part on the closest harmonizing note , while the open voicing uses a broader pitch array expanding the harmonic range past the octave...
, vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
, and Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
.
Background
The band's official bio states: "The group formed as a duo in 2007 when Maria Sonevytsky and Susan Hwang joined songwriting forces and fashion sensibilities. In addition to playing their favorite NYC venues, they toured Far East Asia (South Korea, Japan) and Europe (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Italy, UK). Mia Pixley joined them in 2008 and has added to a fuller sound and irrepressible energy."Hwang's songs have been described as "oddly amusing love songs about zombies and bed-bugs" and in reference to their debut album, The Birth and Death of Meaning, it has been stated "For as much as The Debutante Hour have an obvious penchant for absurdity, a closer listen reveals three women actually trying to make sense of their world through a dark humour."
Their music has also been described as "antifolk songs with the occasional waltz, warming up the audience to clap along and cheer" and "songs about lost love, weird love and the devil."
One of their UK shows (with the notable Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife
Shonen Knife, written in Japanese characters as 少年ナイフ, which transliterates as Shōnen Naifu, literally "Boy Knife," is an all-female Japanese pop-punk band formed in Osaka, Japan, in 1981...
), at the Brixton Windmill, was also reviewed favorably, the reviewer writing, "my favourite of the evening were the openers – The Debutante Hour. Visitors from New York and, according to the various researches I have done since, part of the anti-folk scene over there".
Their song "Croak Hiss and Sputter" has been described as a "shindig tribute to a relationship’s tribulations, all in the manner that a cheeky trumpet personifies, not quite daring to expose its true feelings by using the most upbeat of formulas." They have also been described as having a "bouncy, cabaret style."
The Birth and Death of Meaning (named after the book by Ernest Becker
Ernest Becker
Ernest Becker was a cultural anthropologist and interdisciplinary scientific thinker and writer. He is noted for his 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death.-Early life:...
) was produced by Franz Nicolay
Franz Nicolay
Franz Nicolay is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He is perhaps best known for playing the accordion and the piano in The World/Inferno Friendship Society and playing keyboards in The Hold Steady from 2005 to 2010...
, formerly of The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2004. The band consists of Craig Finn , Tad Kubler , Galen Polivka , Bobby Drake , and Steve Selvidge...
. Nicolay is also credited with "additional engineering, guitars, glockenspiel, mandola, keys, baritone ukulele, ukulele, banjo, additional vox and percussion." Drummer Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...
(The Dresden Dolls
The Dresden Dolls
The Dresden Dolls are an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione...
) is also listed as a collaborator (drums on the songs "Your Worldview Gets Me Down", "Sunday In The Trailer", "Zombies Are Zen", "Croak, Hiss & Sputter", and "Be Yourself").
Sonevytsky and Hwang sang on "Slapped Actress," off 2008 The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2004. The band consists of Craig Finn , Tad Kubler , Galen Polivka , Bobby Drake , and Steve Selvidge...
album Stay Positive.
The group has self-produced a handful of colorful and highly visual music videos. The videos are conceived, directed, and shot collaboratively by the group (and edited by Sonevytsky), in such diverse locations as Seoul, Korea; Padova, Italy; Prague, Czech Republic; Wrocław, Poland; and Wetzlar, Germany. The group's first video, "Hammer, Hatchet, Chainsaw, Gun" was directed by Thomas Bayne.
Two of the group's videos have been in the form of humorous, tongue-in-cheek send-ups of the public service announcement
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
format, delivered in song, and composed of original material.
Their videos have included guest appearances by fellow NYC musical luminaries, such as Amy Kohn
Amy Kohn
Amy Kohn is an American composer, lyricist, singer, pianist and accordionist.Born in Chicago, she studied at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in Ohio and New York University Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program...
and Franz Nicolay
Franz Nicolay
Franz Nicolay is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He is perhaps best known for playing the accordion and the piano in The World/Inferno Friendship Society and playing keyboards in The Hold Steady from 2005 to 2010...
.
Additional projects
In April 2010, Sonevytsky and Hwang performed in the Off-Off-Broadway production Scythian Stones at La MaMa Experimental Theatre ClubLa MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for...
, each in the role of "Denizen of the Great Below", about which OffOffOnline wrote: "Add in the antics of The Debutante Hour (not only presenting their strong voices but also doing that while playing drums, guitar, and accordion), and the hour-long performance builds what good theater should always build: an alternate world that allows us to re-learn and reflect upon the great questions at the core of our being human." Nytheatre.com
Nytheatre.com
NYTheatre.com is a theatre information and review website founded in 1997.The Washington Post recommends it to "dedicated fans" of live theater....
wrote: "Gorgeous Ukrainian and Kyrgyz traditional songs performed by women with exquisite voices, accompanied elegantly by ancient instruments, as well as stunning changes of tone with the contemporary duo 'The Debutante Hour,' combine to create a beautiful soundscape through the simple story of two daughters leaving their mothers and losing their cultural identities in the process. Scythian Stones is unlike anything I've heard before." In September 2010, they travelled with the production to Asia, performing in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Kyiv, Ukraine. While in Kyrgyzstan, they also played a show at the American University of Central Asia
American University of Central Asia
The , formerly the Kyrgyz-American University, is a liberal arts University located in Bishkek, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan....
, as The Debutante Hour.
Sonevytsky is a member of the composer/performer collective Anti-Social Music
Anti-Social Music
Anti-Social Music is a composer/performer collective founded in New York City in 2001. The group started as a one-off concert organized by Franz Nicolay of world premieres of works by William Brittelle, Jason Freeman, Dan Lasaga, Franz Nicolay, and John Wriggle at Columbia University's Philosophy...
.
Hwang joined fellow Anti-folk act Ching Chong Song
Ching Chong Song
Ching Chong Song are Dan Gower and Julie LaMendola, a vocal duo rooted in New York City's Anti-folk scene. Gower typically plays piano, while LaMendola plays singing saw. Their music is often experimental and off-kilter in nature, shifting from humorous to dark, serious, or thoughtful in tone,...
as a third member on their second album, Everything is for the Babies, playing accordion, janggu
Janggu
The janggu or sometimes called seyogo is the most widely used drum used in the traditional music of Korea. It is available in most kinds, and consists of an hourglass-shaped body with two heads made from animal skin...
(a traditional Korean drum), and providing a third vocal harmony.
Sonevytsky also collaborated with photographer Alison Cartwright to create an art exhibit, No Other Home: The Crimean Tatar Repatriates which was on display at The Ukrainian Museum
The Ukrainian Museum
The Ukrainian Museum, founded in 1976 by the Ukrainian National Women's League of America , is located at 222 East 6th Street between Second Avenue and Cooper Square in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, an claims to be the largest American museum dedicated to the cultural...
from May 16, 2010 until September 26, 2010. Sonevytsky created the sound and text for the exhibit.
Hwang is also founder, contributor, and curator of the Bushwick Book Club, a monthly performance series, about which The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
writes: "Books inspire many things: movies, plays, religions, and even political platforms. Less frequently, they inspire songs (Kate Bush's 'Wuthering Heights,' Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit'). For the past year, the Bushwick Book Club, which meets monthly, has addressed that deficiency by choosing a bill of songwriters to compose songs prompted by a chosen book, ranging from 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' to 'The Origin of Species.'"
New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
writes, "The widely varied events feature just about every imaginable genre, from folk and country to cabaret and drinking songs" and "the songs don’t seem to suffer from the frantic circumstances under which they are created. The songwriters who participate appreciate the structure the club imposes, and the book club has yielded some surprisingly complete compositions."
The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
gave Bushwick Book Club the "Best of NYC" award for 2009, in the category of "Best Literary-Musical Crossover".