Artist description The Clevergirl journey is a long and relaxed one, cuz she keeps having to stop to pee, get some snacks, fuel up, sightsee, and sleep.

Music Style tweeky lush indie pop

Musical Influences Bjork, Aimee Mann, Weezer, Radiohead, Talking Heads, The Delgados, Elastica, New Order

Similar Artists Bjork meets Aimee Mann meets Elastica

Artist History Clevergirl is one of my solo projects I've been working on. I have my hands in a few pots, but this is my first solo pop effort. I started playing drums in a 60s surf and go-go band in Ann Arbor, MI called Mondo Mod back in 1993. Then I joined up with Collin Rae (Ultra Vivid Scene) to form Supra Argo, where I did programming, drumming and a bit of singing. That was in 1996. Currently I'm also the drummer for jimmyjack, a San Francisco punk-groove trio that is playing and recording in the Bay Area. Clevergirl is an outlet to do all the silly, wierd, introspective, personal stuff that I don't like to subject other bands to. It allows me to be a control freak, and forces me to learn how to do everything on my own. I may perhaps open it up to a band setting someday, but for now, it's just me.

Group Members Karen Sandvoss

Instruments Guitar, drums, vox, CS1x, ASR 10, MS2000R, JD800, Nanobass, O1W, TD7, D4, ER1, Protools LE, Mac

Albums Masters of the here and now

Press Reviews Clevergirl – Masters of the Here and Now The harder Karen Sandvoss tries to make pop songs, the stranger the music end up sounding. The sole member of Clevergirl and one-half of the consumately creepy rocktronica duo Supra Argo, Sandvoss is blessed (if indeed "blessed" is the word for it) with a knack for twisted lyrics and a voice that sounds just as haunting on its own with an acoustic guitar as it does over a wall of beastly synthesizers and distorted guitars. On her debut EP as Clevergirl, Masters of the Here and Now, she casts herself in the role of Dido's evil twin, crafting ever-so-slightly warped electronic alterna-pop that would make great Musak were Starbucks to open a new location in the deepest pit of Hell. Masters of the Here and Now begins with "Martiansong", a reading of a personal ad placed by a lonely extraterrestrial, its happy guitar strumming interrupted at various points by a gutteral analog synthesizer imported from a Nine Inch Nails record. "Clean", the second cut, adds Spanish guitar blasts to a heavily filtered hip-hop loop, topping them off with an eerie nightengale vocal and ominously detuned keyboard riff. "Kiss You Awake" takes the opposite approach, grafting an uplifting vocal to dark, dirty loops. The dissonant, detuned guitars on "Depending On" turn the chorus from a question into an ultimatum, while "Consider It" breaks from the rest of the EP's bare-bones formula, offering a slightly denser arrangement more akin to Sandvoss' work with Supra Argo. Those whose tastes in run slightly left of center would do well to check out Clevergirl. Hopefully, there's more where this first batch of songs came from. -EH-www.100unnatural.com

Additional Info On sale now at Amoeba Records in San Francisco!

Location San Francisco, CA - USA

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