The Sharp Things

All Music Guide:

Vocalist/pianist Perry Serpa left his beloved New York City behind for a brief vacation in late 1995, escaping to the Pennsylvanian countryside with drummer Steven Gonzales. The two planned to record some indie pop songs for fun, recording under the fictitious moniker the Sharp Things. What came from those sessions was a good-natured, theatrical rock sound. This was incentive enough for Serpa and Gonzales to make the Sharp Things a reality. Over the next few years, the Sharp Things played gigs in and around the East Village. Jim Santo, guitarist for the New York noise pop outfit Jenifer Convertible, caught one of the band's shows and was immediately impressed.

In summer 1997, Santo joined the Sharp Things. The band was now comprised of Serpa on acoustic guitar, Santo on electric guitar, and Gonzales on drums. Ex-Fluffer guitarist Janet Treadaway and Erica Maeyama, drummer for Knocked Out Loaded, were added to the band by 1999 to help out with bass and keyboards. Numerous friends from the N.Y.C. music community helped out on strings and brass, including Dawn Hui (violin), Aisha Cohen (viola), and Brian McWhorter (trumpet). The Sharp Things headed into the studio in early 2000 to record their debut album, and ten songs were written and produced in less than two days. Here Comes the Sharp Things was self-released in spring 2002; it was picked up by Dive Records and made its official debut in early 2003.

The Sharp Things gigged regularly around New York in support of the album, and enjoyed solid reviews of their rich chamber pop textures. They reentered the studio late that year to record a follow-up, and Foxes and Hounds appeared in May 2005. In addition to Serpa, Santo, and Gonzales, the album featured guitarist Michelle Caputo and bassist Rich Holst. String players included violist Cohen, cellist Claire Freeman, violinists Janis Shen and Andrea Dovalle, and violist/violinist Katie Schnepp. The band teamed up with the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble for their third release, A Moveable Feast, which also featured contributions from Michael Cerveris, the Hold Steady's Franz Nicolay, and Antibalas' Stuart Bogie. The album hit stores in the summer of 2007.

Wikipedia:

The Sharp Things is a New York City-based chamber pop collective led by singer/songwriter Perry Serpa (born 1965). Current members include Steve Gonzalez, Jim Santo, Aisha Cohen, Michelle Caputo, James Pertusi, Andrea Dovalle and Adrienne Day.

The band originated in the late 1990s as a recording project of Serpa and drummer Gonzalez. The band's name was taken from the title of an unreleased demo tape, Here Come The Sharp Things, which in turn was taken from a lyric to a never-recorded song, the title of which is now forgotten. Guitarist Santo (formerly of Jenifer Convertible), joined in 1997 and the trio adopted The Sharp Things as its name for performances at small clubs on the Lower East Side of New York City.

The Sharp Things steadily added members over the next few years and began to broaden its musical palette with strings, horns, woodwinds, keyboards and other instruments. The group's first album, Here Comes The Sharp Things (an entirely different set of songs from the similarly entitled demo tape) was released in the United States in 2002 on Dive Records.

Comprising songs recorded by two different ensembles in 2000 and 2001, and largely produced by Serpa and Santo in the former's basement studio in Queens, New York, Here Comes The Sharp Things won critical acclaim for its lush, melancholy blend of British folk, classical music, jazz and 1970s radio pop influences. Favorable comparisons were drawn to a diverse list of artists, including Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, Nick Cave, Talk Talk, The Left Banke and Randy Newman. A cassette-only release appeared in 2003 on the Italian label Best Kept Secret, followed by a release in the United Kingdom on Setanta Records in the spring of 2004. In August of that year, the song "Demon Of Love" was released by Nettwerk on Public Display of Affection: The Sound of Independent Radio, a compilation of songs chosen by program directors from four of the most influential public radio stations in the United States. (The Sharp Things were picked by Rita Houston of Fordham University station WFUV.)

Foxes & Hounds was released in 2005 on Bar/None Records. In contrast to the lo-fi, homemade approach of the debut, the second album was entirely recorded and mixed in professional recording studios in New York City. Foxes & Hounds also marked the emergence of The Sharp Things as a relatively stable line-up, and coincided with a stepped-up schedule of performances. R&B, blues, disco and rock influences manifested themselves in the songs on the album.

The Sharp Things began recording their third album on October 14, 2006. Entitled A Moveable Feast, the album features performances by The New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble. The 40-piece orchestra, conducted by Sybille Werner, was recorded on November 9, 2006, at the Julia Richman Education Complex in Manhattan. Other performers include Tony Award-winning actor and musician Michael Cerveris; Franz Nicolay, keyboardist for The Hold Steady; and tenor saxophonist Stuart D. Bogie of Antibalas.

Returning to the homemade approach of Here Comes A Sharp Things, A Moveable Feast was recorded in various kitchens, living rooms and basements around New York City by producer Billy "Prince Polo" Szeflinski. The album was mixed March 8–12, 2007, by Alex Lipsen at Headgear Recording in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At the urging of Bar/None owner Glenn Morrow, an additional song, "Cruel Thing," was recorded April 26–27, 2007, at Truth & Soul, also in Williamsburg. Clay Wells Holley was recording engineer, and mixed the song with Szeflinski.

A Moveable Feast was released June 26, 2007 on Bar/None Records. Reviews of the album are collected on the band's official web site.

On September 28, 2009, The Sharp Things began recording their fourth album. Again produced by Szeflinski, the as-yet-untitled album is the band's first to be recorded at The Kennel Recording Studio in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a facility co-owned by Santo and current Sharp Things bassist James Pertusi, with whom Santo previously performed in Jenifer Convertible. Between July 23, 2010 and September 15, 2010, the band sponsored a Kickstarter fundraising drive that received more than $3,600 in pledges to fund the album's recording.