Artist description Art rock/intelligent pop three-piece exploring colorful melodies, wide-open chords and moody spaces

Music Style Intelligent Pop

Musical Influences Cocteau Twins, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Velvet Underground, Sigur Ros

Artist History People came, people left. The tide rolled in an out. Promises were made and broken. People went from here to there. Ground was broken and ground was lost. Some things died and some things were reborn or rediscovered. We wrote about some of these things. Red Camels and traffic lights changing.

Group Members Andrew Plymale -- Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards; Scott Mercado -- Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards; Tim Reece -- Drums, Samplers, Rabbit Holes

Instruments Guitars, Bass, Drums, Computerized Programming

Albums Wake Up Heavy, !TRAFFICO!, We Heart Music, re:Public

Press Reviews San Diego Union Tribune POP MUSIC SCENE DRAWING ON LOCALS Iceland's Sigur Ros looks to San Diego talent to beef up national tour By George Varga POP MUSIC CRITIC Sunday April 6, 2003 San Diego drummer Tim Reece and his bandmates in Via Satellite were in the audience at last fall's Spreckels Theatre concert here by Sigur Ros, Iceland's most acclaimed alterna-rock group. Now, quicker than you can say "melting glacier," Reece is on tour as the drummer in fellow San Diego indie-rock act the Album Leaf, which is opening every date on Sigur Ros' ongoing U.S. tour. "It is kind of like a dream," said Reece, 25, from a Monday tour stop in Houston. "Especially with a production like this, because everything is so planned out and professional that all the little details are taken care of, and the guys in Sigur Ros are really nice. Plus, I'm using their drum kit each night. So, yeah, I'm definitely pinching myself." Reece's dream gig is the result of the friendship between Sigur Ros' four members and former Tristeza guitarist-keyboardist Jimmy LaValle, who records one-man solo albums as the Album Leaf, but uses a backing band for most of his live performances. LaValle hooked up with the Icelandic group after Sigur Ros singer Jonsi Birgisson bought a copy of the Album Leaf's 1999 debut album, the gently atmospheric "An Orchestrated Rise to Fall." Birgisson was so impressed that he invited LaValle to be the opening act on Sigur Ros' U.S. tour in 2001 and again this year, both here and in Europe, where Sigur Ros backed LaValle after his three unaccompanied opening songs. For the U.S. leg, LaValle, 24, is being accompanied by a band that includes Reece on drums, former Tristeza bassist Luis Hermosillo and keyboardist and pedal-steel-guitarist Nathan Delff. They are augmented on some songs by two members of Sigur Ros, keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson and drummer Orri Pall Dyrason, as well as by cellist Maria Sigfusdiptir. The tour is a prelude to the Album Leaf's next release, which LaValle will record next month with Sigur Ros at the band's home studio in Reykjavik. "We'll write the album together," LaValle said from Houston. "I'm making a lot of connections. Sigur Ros' manager has been helping me out with publishing, film soundtrack and management contacts. I don't have a manager and kind of need one." LaValle had originally hoped to have fellow San Diego band Ilya back him for his U.S. tour with Sigur Ros, which opened March 15 in Boston and concludes Tuesday in Oakland (but bypasses San Diego). Ilya's members declined in order to focus on their own work, a decision that LaValle believes "they're basically kicking themselves over now." His move to enlist Reece on drums at the last minute came about through LaValle's rapport with Drew Andrews, the singer, guitarist, keyboardist and leader of the four-man Via Satellite. "Drew and I work together at the Mission (restaurant in North Park), and we're good friends," LaValle said. "I respect him and his band as musicians, and I like Tim's drumming. Basically, Drew said: 'If you need a drummer. . . . ' "I've done about 40 tours and feel like a hardened veteran. But this is Tim's first tour, so it's refreshing to see his enthusiasm. He's the best drummer I've ever had on any Album Leaf tour." Fortunately, Via Satellite only had to cancel one gig to accommodate Reece's tour with LaValle. "I'm really excited for Tim because Sigur Ros is one of his favorite bands, and one of mine, too," Andrews, 24, said. "About three years ago, I was hanging with Tim at his apartment, and he said 'You have to hear this new album!' And it turned out to be Sigur Ros." Andrews planned to attend last night's Sigur Ros/Album Leaf show at the Joint in Las Vegas. So did Via Satellite bassist James Trent, 25, and singer, keyboardist and guitarist Scott Mercado, 28, as well as Via Satellite's producer, Sven Erik-Seaholm (a local-music mainstay who is also Andrews' father). The tour has stopped at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club and at New York's 6,000-capacity Radio City Music Hall, where fans bought 11 copies of Via Satellite's latest album from Reece during intermission. There was also a March 29 date at the House of Blues club in New Orleans, where LaValle said he was arrested for public intoxication (no mean feat in a city that boasts drive-in daiquiri joints and allows pedestrians to stroll freely with alcoholic beverages in plastic cups). The Album Leaf performs a homecoming gig next Sunday at 'Canes in Mission Beach, where it will share the stage with Pinback. Via Satellite launches its first tour April 25 in Merced to promote its 2002 album, "ĄTraffico!" and "We Heart Music," a new joint-album with the band Goodbye, Blue Monday. In May, Via Satellite will release "re:Public," which features seven new songs and six song from, "ĄTraffico!," which have been re-mixed by LaValle, Pilotram, Square Circle, Icons, Rotator and the Snodgrass. "I hope this tour with the Album Leaf and Sigur Ros will make me better for Via Satellite," Reece said. "Being part of the support act for this big tour is pretty interesting. Sigur Ros drives in tour buses with sleeping compartments and bathrooms, and we follow them in a van. What matters in the end, though, is getting on stage and playing really good music." For more information on the Album Leaf, log onto: www. albumleaf.com. For more information on Via Satellite, log onto: www.viasatellite.ws.

Location San Diego, CA - USA

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