“Hailing from Brooklyn, NY The XYZ Affair makes epic power pop with theatrical vocals and instrumentation. It’s a sunny sound with rich, four-part harmonies and driving guitars. Their latest album, A Few More Published Studies is a consistently upbeat, multi-layered and melodic collection of progressive power pop.
The odds were against us — with a starter that wouldn’t start, a muffler hanging on by a thread, and an engine that sounded like a wheezy old man running a marathon, we were sure the van would croak before we pulled up to our house. Somehow, by the grace of some higher being, she made it in fine style. Over 11,000 miles and the only things we needed to replace were the transmission, the tires, the battery, the exhaust system, the wiring, the starter, the headlight, the tie rods, and maybe the entire suspension.
It’s time to put this van to pasture.
There are untold multitudes of “next-big-thing” bands in Brooklyn, but The XYZ Affair actually deserve the title. We learned about their Weezer-meets-Arcade Fire indie pop via blog posts and their music video starring old-school Nickelodeon stars like Pete and Pete.
We’re having an amazing time here at SXSW. It’s quite an overwhelming scene at times, but we’ve still been able to see some great music and some good friends from all around the country. We played our official showcase Thursday night at the Hilton Garden Inn, which was a lot of fun. The SXSW crew was extremely helpful and very very nice.
Hey kids! Greetings from sunny California! Sorry about the lack of a photo. We’re still working on the whole camera thing. The last post found us in Denver, Colorado where our transmission crapped out on us. Since then Russ has come down with a severe case of food poisining, and we’ve also been through some minor gear malfunctioning. But things are sunny, XYZers! We’re in California, Russ is feeling much better, and our gear problems are currently under control (knocking furiously on wood). We’ve had such an amazing time out here on the west coast despite our tribulations.
