Artist of Note: Matt Kanelos & The Smooth Maria
April 28th, 2009 - by Eddie
The night air is cool in Boston tonight and I’m listening to Matt Kanelos & The Smooth Maria for the fourth or fifth time tonight.
Music that starts off with a soft piano is always soothing, but there’s something different about Kanelos’ sound, and it may have a lot to do with the occasional breeze the enters the apartment.
It begins with the soft lyric “We’ll start in Babylon…” and continues with a rolling piano melody that slowly builds toward the end when Kanelos is now yelling that same opening line with an entire band backing him.
On multiple listens the song continues to surprise, though it feels completely natural for the song to end up where it does and makes me hungry for more.
“My tears, don’t mean a thing…”
It’s here where the song pushes forward and the sound begins to get louder with Kanelos repeating the opening lyric.
We were tipped off about the band from a friend of group’s, who also stated they will be playing their CD release party tonight at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC at 7pm, where you will most likely hear “Peacock Dance.”
I can’t tell you what the song is about, even after multiple listens, which is probably a good thing. Music that reveals itself too easily is like the one-dimensional date, where there is no mystery to the person and it inevitably ends in you feeling you just wasted three hours listening to someone ramble on about their college days.
This is different and for now I’ll take Kanelos’ advice and start in Babylon.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Sounds great, thanks!