“An
Exaltation of Larks”
If you follow
Albuquerque's music scene, you can't help but notice the omnipresent
Mauro Woody. A singular songwriter and vocalist who draws listeners
into an inviting aural comfort zone. Hugely talented yet accessible,
confident, vulnerable and fragile all the same. In her own modest
fashion, Mauro has firmly established herself as a unique and
powerful voice on the local scene. Mauro's bewitching delivery,
accented with a variety of vocal nuances lends itself well to the
swirling textures and precise structures of dream pop. That's not to
say that she's not at home outside that genre. “Blue Flowers” for
instance, rooted in Appalachian folk tradition is delivered as a
comforting lilt, a tonic for anguished souls that descends into a
dialogue of ghostly whispers at the end.
A stark contrast to the
vocal style Mauro used with her first band, Animals in the Dark. Back
then she sang with the stridency of old school punk chanteuses
such as Penelope Houston or Poly Styrene mixed with vocal elements
reminiscent of Cindy Wilson & Kate Pierson from the
B52s. Since then her singing style has evolved. Presently, Mauro
favors more refined vocals adorned with scintillating
instrumental fills, alternatively switching to something that
resembles the deliberately witchy voice affected by Kate Bush on
“Wuthering Heights” While Mauro is also fully capable of veering
off into Liz Fraser phonetic gymnastics, she rarely takes that
plunge.... “Dustlands II” (the bonus live track from the five
song ep, “Vulpes Vulpes”) being a pleasurable exception.
As previously mentioned,
Mauro started out with Animals in the Dark, self described as “a
psychedelic garage rock band with wide influences” which included
her brother Brahm Woody on bass, Tianna Yazzi on guitar and drummer
John Butler. Animals in the Dark toured extensively, releasing a demo
“Winter Demos” an e.p. “Animals in the Dark” an album
“Frozen in the Headlights” before breaking up. Mauro segued into
dream pop indie rock outfit, The Glass Menageries joined by Gena
Lawson, Brahm Woody and Chris Newman. The Glass Menageries have
released one album to date “Edge of a Knife” Co-produced by Harry
Redus-Brown (Unit 7 Drain) mastered by Carlos Jose Rafael Garcia
(Carlos the Tall, YaYa Boom,Youngsville) The band is currently in the
midst of an extended hiatus.
Harry Redus-Brown also
makes a guest appearance, playing guitar on the seven minute opus
“Foxy” a shimmering triumph, that sticks to you like a deep
haunting dream. Mauro met Gena at Titwrench while performing with
Milch de la Maquina, an experimental female group, one of the side
projects she's involved in, which includes Lady Uranium (Mauro's solo
outfit) The 5 Star Motelles “an all girl garage doo wop band”
Chicharra (three female bass players and a male drummer) A new
release from Chicharra is in the works. Lady Uranium, while not as
radically experimental as Milch de la Maquina, does diverge from
Mauro's previous works. It's a vehicle for experimentation, allowing
Mauro to deconstruct the constricting concept of musical genres.
Mauro Woody is also
involved in Melanthius, which she describes as “an all wizard band”
with her brothers Brahm and Dhaveed w/ Eric Wellman. Psychedelic prog
music that brings memories of the mid-1970s rushing back for old guys
such as myself. Last but not least, Mauro also teams up with Gena
Lawson as Merma & Roberta, a harmonizing duo of Jersey housewives
with a taste for Alpaca butter and Designing Women. Fraser McAlpine
(writing for BBC America's music blog “Anglophenia”) describes
the daunting task faced by writers attempting to interpret Liz
Fraser's unique vocal style “Elizabeth's voice is the kind of
thing that forces music writers to reach for the thesaurus, eager to
find a new word to describe things that spin and wheel around in the
air like a flock of starlings” or in the case of Mauro Woody, “an
exaltation of larks” Pass me some of that Alpaca butter, I'm done
here.
A to Z, women in
Albuquerque are doing it. That hasn't always been the case,
throughout the 1960s, 70s, 80s and into the mid-1990s women (with a
few rare exceptions) were absent from the local scene. We've since
witnessed an amazing turn about, women are now firmly planted at the
forefront of Albuquerque's local music scene. This has brought about
a shift towards more experimentation and genre bending than ever
before. Events such as the Denver based Titwrench Festival, the local
Gatas y Vatas festival (which expanded to Oakland, Ca. In 2015) ABQ
Zine Fest and venues such as The Tannex, are all spearheaded by women
bent on building not just a cohesive musical scene but an inclusive
and varied artistic community. This installment of Dirt City
Chronicles (the podcast) is the first of a triumvirate showcasing
women's contributions to 'Burque's local music scene. Three hours
that are but a sampler of the astonishing and varied music produced
by our better half. Beam me up, there is intelligent life here after
all.
White Horse ~ Lindy Vision
Home ~ Red Light Cameras
Blue Flowers ~ Lady
Uranium
Blue Winner ~ Star Canyon
Idiot ~ Lindsay Jayne
Nose Ring ~ Weedrat
Foxy ~ The Glass
Menageries
Pink and Black ~ Lindy
Vision
Past Perfect ~ Bigawatt
Down by the Water ~
Chicharra
Beat on my Bones- YaYa
Boom
Bogus Journey ~ Feels Like
Sunday
For Shelly ~ Giranimals
Get Your Gun ~ Animals in
the Dark
The Ones ~ I is for Ida
