Winston-Salem Journal: Press for NC this weekend part II

The Lascivious Biddies are having lots of fun, and so are their fans

By Ed Bumgardner | Journal Reporter | The Winston-Salem Journal

Published: July 17, 2008

Since forming in 2000, The Lascivious Biddies, an all-female quartet from New York, has been steadfastly touring, recording and otherwise tirelessly promoting the band's highly entertaining mix of jazz, pop and cabaret, cut through and through with smart humor.

The group has released a concert DVD, Live In New York City; three albums or EPs -- Biddy-Luxe!, Get Lucky and Love You Mean It -- and is working on a holiday CD for release this Christmas. As good as the group is on disc -- and it's very, very good -- it is the Biddies' live concerts -- more shows, in the theatrical sense, than conventional concerts -- where the group's music really comes alive.

It's an experience to be relished with eyes and ears open wide.

"There's a lot to take in," said Lee Ann Westover, the group's singer and sensory provocateur. "There are the songs, the humor, the musicianship -- we can really play and sing, even if I do say so myself, and I do," she said, laughing. "The object is for the people who come to see us to have as good a time as we are having, and we are having a good time. That's the reason we have been doing this for so long."

But things are changing for the Biddies: Westover; pianist Deidre Rodman Struck; bassist Saskia Lane (who also tours with singer-songwriter Dan Zanes and is recording with Ziggy Marley) and new guitarist Ila Canter, who replaced founding guitarist Amanda Monaco last year.

Monaco, a skilled jazz musician, had grown tired of life as a Biddy, and her lack of enthusiasm was beginning to spread into a general malaise for the band. Monaco, who has multiple sclerosis, eventually decided to pursue her own music, a decision, that while sad for everybody, proved beneficial for all parties.

"Amanda's illness really had nothing to do with her leaving, outside of the fact that she knew that she could wake up one day and all of a sudden by unable to play," Westover said. "So it's hard to blame a musician for wanting to follow her heart before it's too late.

"The parting was amicable, but it was like losing a limb. We had been sisters a long time. Initially, we didn't know what to do. So we took a minute to think who we are and where we want to go."

Westover, Struck and Lane all decided that they had spent too much time, and had too much fun, not to continue. A search for a new guitarist began, and went on, and on, and on.

"We finally found Ila (Canter) at the last second," Westover said. "It has proved to be a great fit, and has helped us grow. It has helped heighten our expectations and it has deepened our songwriting. It has gotten a little more personal.... The humor remains intact -- that is part of being a Biddy -- but it may have a gotten a little more dark and snarky and world-wise."

Westover laughed. "Not that we still don't love the life we have. It's great. It's just that we've realized that there can be a dark cloud that can temporarily shade the brightest sun."

For the first time, the Biddies are being represented by a major booking agency. The group is now flying to concerts to shows all across the country, and instead of playing tiny clubs -- the band played Speakeasy Jazz in Winston-Salem several times -- the Biddies are finding a new home playing larger theatres and amphitheatres.

"I miss playing Winston-Salem, and I hope we get booked back there again," Westover said. "At the same time, it is amazing to be able to do what we do all over the country. It's so civilized. " She laughed. "Now we have health insurance, and we can pay our bills.

"Well, some of our bills, anyway."

---

Want to go?

The Lascivious Biddies will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock. Tickets are $20, $26. Visit www.brcac.org or call 828-295-9627.

Mountain Times: Press for NC this weekend!

Biddies from the City
Cocktail Pop Quartet the Lascivious Biddies at the Hayes Center July 21
From Mountain Times

By Jeff Eason

Deidre Rodman, Ila Cantor, Lee Ann Westover and Saskia Lane make up the fab four known collectively as The Lascivious Biddies.

The Washington Post has called them “Manhattan’s Hippest Girl Group” and their music has been featured on the CBS Evening News, The Food Network and the Discovery Channel. They have even starred in their own commercial for Chili’s Restaurants. Now they are coming to the High Country.

They are New York City’s super-smooth female cocktail pop quartet The Lascivious Biddies. And they are performing at the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock on Monday, July 21st at 8 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.

Formed eight years ago, the Lascivious Biddies specialize in original pop-jazz songs that showcase their songwriting, special brand of humor and soaring three and four-part vocal harmonies. The band includes Deidre Rodman on keyboards and melodica, Ila Cantor on guitar, Lee Ann Westover on lead vocals and glockenspiel, and Saskia Lane on double bass. All four band-members sing.

The Biddies are known for their tight ensemble playing and playful banter with the audience between songs. This past year the band has been working steadily, playing at theaters and festivals throughout the country as well as maintaining a regular gig at Jones’ Pub in New York City.

“I think this is a really good time for the Biddies,” said Deidre Rodman. “It used to be a problem because we didn’t have a drummer…people thought that would keep us from getting booked or getting airplay. Now I think people really like that we cut across a lot of genres. We tell people that our setlist is like the weather in the South. If you don’t like it wait five minutes and you’ll have something different.”

That diversity of sound used to be hurdle in gaining an audience, but today’s music lovers are sophisticated enough to expect their favorite artists to branch out into new territory. The New York scene is particularly vibrant these days with Broadway-esque songwriter Nellie McKay and retro soul shakers The Sweet Divines, joining the Biddies among the leading female-dominated acts in town.

“We used to tell people that we were a jazz-pop-lounge-cabaret quartet, which is quite a mouthful,” said Rodman. “Then I read the phrase ‘cocktail pop’ in a magazine and thought, ‘That’s perfect!’ It sums up in two words what we’re all about when people ask us what kind of music we play.”

So far, the Lascivious Biddies have released an EP and two full-length albums: Get Lucky from 2004 and last year’s Love You Mean It. The band has also released a DVD of live performances and are planning to film Monday’s show in Blowing Rock with the help of a western North Carolina video company. The videos continue a trend that the Biddies helped develop on the Internet when they began posting free videos on their website in the early 2000s.

“We started pod-casting years ago when it first came out,” said Rodman. “We got some stories in the press for that. We believe that giving away music to your fans can only help spread the word about what we do.”

It’s not only the group’s fans who are spreading the word about the Biddies’ uniquely cool vibe. Time Out NY called them “The cast of Sex and the City transformed into a modern jazz quartet,” and the CBS Evening News raved, “The Lascivious Biddies could teach us all a thing or two.”

Music lovers who see the Lascivious Biddies today might be surprised to learn that they started out as an 80s cover band.

“We originally formed as a Go-Go’s cover band,” said Rodman. “Then as we started getting together and playing, we realized that our hearts were more with the original material we were writing. We still play one Go-Go’s tune, ‘Head Over Heels,’ but we do it with a distinctive bossa nova beat. All of our cover tunes are done in our own style.

“As for our original songs, we write a lot of songs about the characters, some that are fictional and some based on our own experiences.”

Rodman added that for the first time this year, the band has begun writing collaboratively, with the individual members contributing to each other’s songs in terms of vocal harmony parts and arrangements.

“It’s taken us eight years to fee brave enough to write together,” said Rodman. “I feel like we are reinventing ourselves.”

Tickets

Tickets for the Lascivious Biddies show at the Mariam and Robert Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock are $20 and $26. They may be purchased by calling (828) 295-9627 or by visiting www.hayescenter.org.

Do you want to buy Lee Ann's Guitar? Black/Gold Les Paul Studio

MORE PHOTOS HERE

I'll mail it anywhere if you paypal moi!

*MINT* LES PAUL STUDIO ELECTRIC GUITAR - Black gloss ("Ebony" )& Gold -
$1199

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No scratches, no dings - MINT condition.

Guitar is dated 2007.

VIRTUALLY UNPLAYED
Black Gloss finish (Gibson calls it "Ebony")
Gold hardware
Rosewood fingerboard
Trapezoid perloid inlay in
fingerboard
Vintage-style tuners
Humbucking pickups
Hardshell case,
also like new. (Black faux lizard with white fur lining. Combo lock, gold
hardware.)
Original shipping carton included

ALL ORIGINAL, NO
MODIFICATIONS

I got this Les Paul Studio not even a year ago, and have
hardly played it since. It's a great guitar, just not my style.

Erm, if you are into that sort of thing, The Biddies would sign it with a silver paint pen - something like "[Your name here] certainly rawks harder than Lee Ann does on this thing!"

(retail is a bit over $1300 for this lil' guy. Black & Gold is Hot-t-t-t-t)

http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/msg/729576076.html

The Critics agree...

Terry Teachout (Wall Street Journal theater critic, and old school critic of many other things on his blog) wrote about The Biddies' show at Joe's Pub last week...

To Joe's Pub in the evening to hear the Lascivious Biddies, whom I haven't seen on stage since they played at my wedding last October. After the show I meet the Biddies' new guitarist, Ila Cantor, about whom I've been hearing good things ever since she joined the band a few months ago, all of which turn out to be true. Back at home, I Google Ila and am sent to her MySpace page, where I listen to an original
composition for solo acoustic guitar called "Dance of the Chromozomes" that knocks me sideways.

Thanks Terry! We like her too!

:)

Time Out NY! Joe's Pub This Weekend ::May 24th :: 7 & 9pm

PHOTO CAPTION:
NEW SENSATION The Lascivious Biddies break in recent recruit Ila Cantor, left, at Joe's Pub Sat 24.
Photograph: Michael Cogliantry

"Mixing angelic vocal harmonies, wordy humor, jazz chops and pop moxie, the Lascivious Biddies play sassy originals, savvy covers and what must surely be the sexiest paean to Mister Rogers ever (“Neighbor”). Tonight’s a big outing for the quartet, as it introduces a newish Biddy, guitarist Ila Cantor, and an album’s worth of fresh material. Ethan Lipton opens each set with his lighthearted tales of alienation and despair."

United Airlines Excess Baggage Fee & Boris the Cat

Yesterday evening, The Lascivious Biddies flew out of LaGuardia to Denver on United. We have an unweildy merch bag that needed to be checked. As you know, United now charges $25 for the second checked bag. Here's what you may NOT know:

United Premier members (25,000 miles plus) don't have to pay the fee! Lucky for us, Saskia (our bassist) is Premier (in more ways than one), so she checked it for us (thank you Sas). I had already paid the $25 dollar fee and sent the bag down the conveyer, so you missed a rather comic moment of us yelling "STOP THE BAG! I'm so sorry...PLEASE STOP IT!" We took the receipt for my paid bag down to an actual agent (agents don't work with the rabble anymore - I feel impressed that the dude kept it together to check my I.D.). Said actual agent was pleasant and helpful while refunding the fee to our card.

My friend is moving to London. She has an excedingly rad cat named Boris who needs a home..can you help her? At least look at the cute photo http://mycatboris.blogspot.com/

xo

Lee Ann

Great Press in Colorado! New voices and new songs

The Reporter-Herald
Loveland, CO :: 5/2/2008

N.Y. quartet blends cabaret, jazz
By Glenn BurnSilver

What do you get when you take a country music singer who likes jazz, a classically trained upright bass player, a Latin-infused guitar virtuoso and a quirky melodica and piano player and swirl them together in the big blender of New York City influence?

A tall, cool drink of cocktail pop, compliments of the Lascivious Biddies. This female-foursome takes a jazz meets cabaret meets pop music approach to songwriting, penning ditties with a dose of humor wrapped up in excellent musicianship and the occasional four-part harmonies.

And nothing is off limits for these biddies, who sing about everything from men and relationships, life in and out of the Big Apple, but also buying shoes.

“One time, we found this shop,” begins Deidre Rodman with a laugh. “We came out with eight pairs of shoes. We actually have a song about (buying shoes), so that made for a good intro that night.”

As for the cocktail pop title, Rodman proudly states no other band holds that designation.

“It took us years to come up with that,” she says. “We all wear cocktail dresses on stage, so there is a glamorous side to it. We blend some pop with jazz, cabaret and four-part harmonies. There’s just so much going on that cocktail pop wraps it all up.”

An Idaho native, Rodman arrived in New York in 1997 after earning a master’s degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas. Lead singer Lee Ann Westover also relocated from Texas some years earlier and happened into her life as a singer, albeit with a country swing outfit. Upright bassist Saskia Lane came from San Francisco to study at the Juilliard School, while Ila Cantor is the solo New York native, though much of her guitar education was picked up in Barcelona, Spain.

The original intent of this combo was to form a Go-Go’s cover band. However, the obvious limited potential of such a move led the band to focus on their own writings and talents.
“No, that never really happened,” Rodman says with another laugh. “We still do one song, but we realized we wanted to do so much more than that.”

And that idea of always doing more sticks with the Biddies. While early on the band generally sang as one and always shared the stage together, now the singing and playing are broken up into various combinations, with duos and trios filling the space.

“We’re growing as a band, so we have some different ideas now,” Rodman says. “We’ve started mixing it up. We don’t all need to sing and play at the same time.”

The instrumentation has changed a little as well.

“I play the melodica, then (Westover) got a glockenspiel, which added a nice sound, and now’s there’s a ukulele in the band,” she says. “We joke that soon we’ll have to start traveling with a tuba and string section.

“But it’s been a really organic process,” she adds. “The growth has been really nice, and I think people will appreciate (the variety). ... It’s so much fun.”

All contents Copyright © 2008 Daily Reporter-Herald. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed for any commercial purpose.

Lee Ann Finally Has A Myspace Page!!!

Wonder of wonders! Miracle of miracles!

Be her friend, dang it.

http://www.myspace.com/thewestover

There's a fresh new MP3 up there!