Arms & Choir of Young Believers played Pianos in NYC - pics & more tour dates (SXSW)

DOWNLOAD: Choir of Young Believers - Action/Reaction (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Arms - Arms EP (SENDSPACE - ZIP)

by Gabi Porter

Choir of Young Believers...

Denmark's Choir of Young Believers were in town for a pair of pre-SXSW shows - the second of those was at Pianos on March 11th with NYC's own Arms (a band that features Todd Goldstein, formerly of Harlem Shakes).

The Pianos show was so good it gave me goosebumps. Choir of Young Believers remind me of a Zbigniew Preisner soundtrack. Really lush and melancholy, haunting melodies played with a kind of cathedral grandness. So many bands use reverb to cover up flawed vocals, but Choir of Young Believers use it to paint a giant soundscape for their music.

And ARMS might be my favorite NY band of the moment. They have such great songs, really dense full of lots of angsty minor keys, but instead of languishing in endless slow dance numbers, they keep an energetic pace. It's as if your doldrums decided to write a collection of anthems to celebrate being a little down at the mouth.

Choir of Young Believers go on to play SXSW, as do Arms, whose dates are below.

You can download a free copy of Arms' new EP above, and grab a track off Choir of Young Believers' This is for the White in Your Eyes, above. A video of the latter playing on KEXP with more pictures from Pianos, below...