Fairies Wear Boots




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A Mighty Wind
Le Vent du Nord explores the regional color of the Great White North.
-Mary Armstrong

Joey Sweeney
of The Trouble With Sweeney
-Interview by Patrick Rapa

Karl Hendricks Trio
-Paul Burress

Calla
-Andrew Parks

Roy Hargrove's RH Factor
-Kyle Parker

Josh Wink
-Sean O’Neal

Gillian Welch
-Sam Adams

Drive-By Truckers
-Sam Adams

June 19-25, 2003

music

Fairies Wear Boots

Laughing AT danger: (l-r) Melissa Kramer, Neal Ramirez, Jayme Guokas, Justin Staller and Rose Bochansky are The Snow Fairies.

Who will fight Philly’s most huggable band?

by Patrick Rapa

"We could beat up anybody," says Rose Bochansky, the lofty voiced lead singer of The Snow Fairies.

This is precisely not the sort of band you’d expect to get into a scrap with another band -- or even contemplate it. They make blissful, strummy, friendly pop music. It’s pretty laughable that these happy little popsters would get up the nerve and motivation to throw down. Still, they ponder which of their Philadelphia contemporaries they could take on.

"What about The Teeth? Can we take The Teeth?"

"They're art students."

"Their drummer's tough."

"Bill Ricchini with one hand tied!"

"We would not stand a chance against Stiffed."

"What about She-Haw?"

You’ll have to excuse The Snow Fairies’ momentary brutish indulgence. For one thing, they’ve got a reputation for wussiness with which they politely disagree. (This paper in particular has referred to them as "hobbits." Twice.) For another, they’re just about to put out their debut full-length CD and they are feeling ready to take on the world.

Feel You Up (Red Square) is a lot of what you'd expect from this band: jangly guitar and dreamy keyboard hooks, peppy beats, groovy melodies, charming lyrics that bounce around in your headphones. But there's a real depth here. The wordplay is insightful, the arrangements skillful.

"Freeze-dried Ice Cream" is a silly, Jetsons-inspired fantasy about living in space with your sweetheart. The music rocks and rolls while Bochansky sings of otherworldly delights: "Shooting stars with bows and arrows, firing bottle rockets too/ We were astronauts me and you."

Meanwhile, "El Misisipí" is a bitter, mean-spirited tale of friendship gone sour: "I don't wanna see that look on your face/ Or hear your pointless babbling." Ouch. There's a dark side to this band after all. It's quite satisfying, if a little off-putting, to hear the same casual, lighthearted music backing up a line like, "I wouldn't be your best friend now if you paid me."

The vocal interplay between Bochansky and guitarist/bassist Neal Ramirez on "Begins" recalls Philly’s long-departed guitar pop band, Moped. But in general, there’s not much in The Snow Fairies’ sound that jibes with what the rest of this town is up to. Surrounded by bands aiming for the bigger and the wilder, they like to keep things small and neat. That these five like-minded people found each other is a minor miracle.

Although some of them met in college or ran into each other at local Brit-pop dance parties (immortalized with synthesizers and a catchy chorus on "Cutting a Rug With You") they pretty much agree they linked up through local scenester Bethany Klein. She played drums with Ramirez, Bochansky and guitarist Jayme Guokas in The Skywriters, a short-lived but similarly inclined ancestor to the current band. When Klein departed (after "tensions developed," according to Bochansky), the three re-formed as The Snow Fairies with keyboardist Melissa Kramer and, eventually, Justin Staller on drums.

Each of them takes turns writing music and lyrics for the group. They deny that there's a specific sound they are going for when they gather around to write or practice.

"We wouldn't continue doing it if we didn't have some sort of unified vision," says Guokas.

"I actually only listen to Stinking Lizaveta," volunteers Ramirez.

"But nobody is beholden to a certain philosophy," says Kramer. "I've never heard anyone totally flat-out nix anything and be like, ŒWe're not playing this song, it's just not a Snow Fairies song.'"

"We might think that privately," jokes Bochansky. "We're a bit too democratic sometimes."

Feel You Up is not the stuff of hobbits, and it doesn't fit into the "twee" mold either. The band seems to be alternately confused and disgusted by the word. Is it used apologetically? Does it mean they're too cute? Whatever it is, they don't think they're twee. "It sort of implies this saccharine quality, all about puppy dogs and cherry-scented nail polish," says Bochansky. "We use the F-word from time to time."

"We don’t mind being wussy," says Ramirez.

"We’re not like singer/songwriters. That’s who I think is like wussy," says the relatively new Staller, whose work behind the drum kit is credited (and mockingly blamed) for accentuating the rock element of their live show. "We’re as much a band as any other band."

"We're not," asserts Bochansky, "as sissy as our name might imply."

The Snow Fairies play Sat., June 21, 10 p.m.-2 a.m., $5, with DJs SPF 33.3 and Suky Tawdry, Tritone, 1508 South St., 215-545-0475.

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