Caught in the Carousel

My Favorite Girl

Another Bite At The Apple
Golden City

My Favorite Girl

My Favorite Girl's Trish Shallest and Jen Czeisler know that when it comes to music, there's nothing more resonant than a great harmony. The duo's debut album Another Bite At The Apple is a ten-song collection of some of the mot sonorous harmonies in recent memory. Czeisler, who played in the Pixies tribute band No. 13 Baby and Shallest, who fronted the Heart cover band Bebe Le Strange, have an effortless musical relationship, and know exactly how to occupy all the spaces in a pop song. With its fuzzy chorus, "Kingmaker" is an examination of the birth of a future leader; "Blue Eyes" is a sultry winner; "Better Day" is a blast of breezy pop and "Step Inside" is a horny little rocker, that finds Shallest and Czeisler flirtatiously inviting one to, "Step inside my door/It's always open to you." Recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle, Another Bite At The Apple is a rich and varied collection. There's the dark, jangly folk of "Can't Let Go," the rootsy "Simpler Time" and, with its handclaps and infectious background vocals, "Superstitious" is a blissful and satisfying parting number.

CITC Talks To My Favorite Girl About Their Debut Another Bite At The Apple:
Caught In The Carousel: Another Bite At The Apple is really rich on harmony—was this something you two were aware of as a strength from the start?

Jen Czeisler: We knew that we wanted to start a project where we both contributed in a meaningful way to the singing and the songwriting but I don't think we really understood in the beginning how naturally our voices would fit together. One of Trish's strengths is her ability to sing those impossibly high notes, and mine is in keeping those lower notes powerful. After we wrote and 8-tracked our first few songs in that way, we realized we had discovered our sound.

CITC: Thematically, what subjects does the album explore?

JC: This album is really all over the place. It explores power, lust, frustration, hope, disappointment and the longing for simplicity.

CITC: Hunter S. Thompson used to type passages from classic novels to see how it felt to write them. Having been in tribute bands did you find playing songs by The Pixies or Heart informed your own material?

Trish Shallest: Absolutely. It's funny you ask that because I was just reading a book (about writing a book) and in it they suggest doing what Hunter S. Thompson did to learn different points of view and writing styles. I think musicians naturally do that. Every song you learn growing up or cover song you play in a set has a way of influencing your originals. Recently we learned the Police's "So Lonely," and it totally made me want to include some "scatting" kind of vocals like they do at the end (only with harmonies like we do in our other songs).

JC: I learned so much about songwriting from having to play every Pixies song ever written. Frank Black is an amazing songwriter and he doesn't stick to conventional patterns. It helped me to see that I don't have to write everything in a certain time signature or keep an entire song in the same key.

—Alex Green