The Annuals with Jessica Lea Mayfield at the El Mocambo; Saturday January 24, 2009

The Annuals with Jessica Lea Mayfield at the El Mocambo; Saturday January 24, 2009.

Jessica Lea Mayfield from Ohio and is only nineteen! It made me incredibly jealous that a nineteen year old girl could be travelling the world doing what she loves… I first heard of her through the blues rock pros The Black Keys. They are a band whose most recent album really got me. Mayfield’s most recent album ‘With Blasphemy So Heartfelt’ was produced by Dan Auerbach who is the guitarist and vocalist of the Black Keys. I later found out that she even does vocals for them on the last track of their album called “Things Ain’t Like They Used To Be”. This is a song that sounds like a carbon copy of the song “Don’t Let Me Down” by the Beatles. With that being said, Mayfield has received tremendous support from big time rockers in the studio, seeing her alone was the tipper. Doing that she was just fine. She’s small and trendy…she looks her age. Most shocking is her sound, in that it doesn’t reflect her age. Her voice comes out careless and flat, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It almost seemed as though she was bored while she was singing. After a tune or so it became apparent that that’s how she sings. She sings with ease, making it even simpler was the fact that her voice moved very little pitch wise. Again, not necessarily a bad thing.Her band was comprised of a drummer and female drummer. I really liked the energy both people put into Mayfield’s quiet songs. The guitarist especially was really great, he looked probably ten years older than Mayfield, but he definitely knew what he was doing. He accentuated each song with lingering guitar lines and energetic solos. The sound at the El Mocambo for her set was a little off, I found the instruments to be far too loud. At times I could barely make out her singing. Mayfield’s voice has a country drawl sound to it, very distinctive. It’s really reflected in her voice as well. It really reminds me of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, but with more vigour. Likewise it also reminds me of Amy Milan of Stars, throughout her solo work. Except significantly less delicate and pretty. These artists all have something in common, that’s melancholy. I have no idea how a nineteen year old girl has so much pain to write about. It comes off nice though, I really wish I bought this CD because her Myspace is ridiculously hard to use and there’s no music on there!! From her page you’d think she was a small time local artist, but I think she has bigger things ahead of her especially with the help of the Black Keys!The Annuals headlined and I had no idea that they were so popular. The venue was by no means sold out but it was packed. The Annuals are an indie-rock band, I sort of struggle to call them this because they’re the sort of band I would have bought all their merch for five years ago for a series of reasons. Firstly, they’re ridiculously good looking, not to say that I judge a band on this but it’s true. Secondly, their vocals sound identical to that of Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday. The lead singer screams but much neater than that of Lazzara. Third, and I still agree with this now is how tight their band is. They sound great, this had to be the most perfect sounding group I’ve seen so far this year. The Annuals are pretty big in size. There are six members, nothing to Broken Social Scene but their sound was pretty big. They quite often had two drummers on two kits and at times three guitarists… They also had a girl on the keyboard, who lent vocals for a bit of harmony for some songs. By the fifth or sixth song I grew pretty tired of them. I must give them credit for their innovative sound and their brilliant live performance.

January 25, 2009