They return:

Au Revoir Simone - A Violent Yet Flammable World

Last week, I got to catch these very talented women - Annie, Erika and Heather, aka Au Revoir Simone (that's a Pee Wee reference) - perform a show here in Brooklyn with a couple of other Moshi Moshi Records-associated bands (Metronomy, and Hot Club De Paris, both of whom were really excellent btw).

See, Au Revior Simone's first mini-album, Verses of Comfort, Assurance and Salvation, was released in the UK by Moshi Moshi, so they're all old pals. Their new album, The Bird Of Music, just came out on Moshi Moshi in the UK, and will be released here in the US on ARS' own label, Our Secret Recording Label, in May. However, if you're on eMusic, you can grab it now, or buy it from iTunes.

The new album is really very good: the group presents a more mature face to their songwriting, but still wraps it up in a warm blanket of sweetly-humming synthesizers, drum machines and handclaps. On first listen, this song immediately reminded me of Jesus & Mary Chain's "Just Like Honey" (that 'boom, boom-boom, clash' beat is a classic that will always stick out when I hear one like it), and those vocals make the song rise right up in the air, especially when their harmony parts come in - you'll feel like you're three feet in the air.

Anyway, as I said, their live performance last week was great. They (and the other bands) did that little Moshi-night here in NYC before heading down to Austin, and now ARS are on the West Coast, where they've been playing shows with Frida Hyvonen and Under Byen - tonight they're at Holocene (hey guys!) in Portland - and throughout May they'll be touring with the excellent Peter, Bjorn & John, and Cass McCombs, and then with Voxtrot in June. Click the "News" link on their homepage for full tour details, and/or check their myspace page for deets and music. Recommended.