Little Ugly

"Best in State: CT" - Little Ugly - N.E. Music Awards

Here’s a little known piece of trivia for you. In the first two years of the Connecticut Music Awards no band has had as many nominations as Little Ugly’s five. In 2013 they were winners of the Best Indie Rock category. It was well-deserved but really only part of the story. Indie rock, folk, even tiny bits of country, blues and plain old rock n’ roll make up what’s become an unmistakeable and unique Little Ugly “sound”. Powered by acoustic instead of electric guitar and supplemented by fiddle, percussion, and a dual male/female vocal dynamic, Little Ugly took their sound to the studio this year and came away with hands down their best work yet in the Where The River’s Born EP. It’s five songs that run the gamut of what “Americana” could possibly be and yet remains something so unique. Check out the entire EP at the Little Ugly Bandcamp page. - Lonesome Noise

Well, it’s a scorcher out there this summer and I hope you all are keeping cool. Let me tell ya this, my next review is about a band that is doing anything but cooling down as they are truly just heating up.

Little Ugly’s latest gift to the world is “Where the River’s Born”; an EP that is surely going to make you yearn for more from this band who calls Hartford home. They are no secret to those “in the know” in the New England. They have been honored by the Hartford Advocate as the Best Rock Band of 2011 and Hartford Magazine awarded them the best Musician/Band in 2012. Listen to “Where the River’s Born” and you will know why.

This 5 song EP gets a whole lot done in just about 24 minutes. And since there are only 5 songs, I am going to give you my thoughts tune by tune. ENJOY!

Named After Saints – Oh Mumford and Sons, you are going to be really pissed that you didn’t write this one. Michael Day’s flawless vocals and heartfelt lyrics are effortlessly expressed and complimented by the multi-talented Kaia Pazersky on harmony.

Til the Earth Stops Shaking - Kaia Pazersky is featured on this powerful piece that has one of my favorite lyrics ever “We have arrived at our greatest fears”.

And We Said – …Is a sad tale of lost love. “Your suitcase packed, my heart broken”. And We Said is melodic, beautiful and sounds like they have a 10 piece orchestra backing them up. The production is amazing and the song is hauntingly beautiful.

Promise of a Storm - ..is most definitely my favorite tune. When I first heard it, I was reminded of one of my favorite bands out of Australia, Silverchair. Promise of a Storm could easily have been featured on the Neon Ballroom album. The coolest thing about this is that when I write a review, I don’t read the band bio, except to get names and location. I don’t read reviews and I don’t watch videos. I want the experience to be solely about what I am hearing and not influenced in any way. Now that I am done, I went to their page and found out that Silverchair is one of their influences and it’s apparent in only the awesomest of ways.

Last, but not least, we have:

Oh Return - This is all Kaia; all the time. Oh Return is a soulful ballad and Kaia channels a little Norah Jones on this one. She pours her whole heart out through her vocals; giving us all she has and making us yearn for more.

Little Ugly may be the name of this eclectic group of souls but their music is absolutely beautiful.

You can see them live this Saturday, July 20th for their CD Release Party at Arch Street in Hartford or check them out at a show near you by going to http://littleuglymusic.com.

You can purchase Where the River’s Born here, too, via bandcamp.com



That’s it from me. Until next time…

You + The Music = The Scene

Support Local Music!!! - Local Band Review

Being a musician and being in a band is a never-ending journey. No two journeys are the same but sometimes the narrative is one that people can relate to. In the case of Hartford’s Little Ugly the narrative consists of multiple line-up changes, a rigorous live schedule, and the culmination of years of ups and downs with a fantastic recorded testimony to all of the above.

Where The River’s Born is the newest EP from one of the hardest working bands the Connecticut music scene has to offer. After years spent perfecting their line-up and their live sound the band now finally have a disc in hand that matches their collective talent level. That’s not to disparage anything they released prior. They’ve never put out a “bad” record but simply put, this EP trumps all that came before in songwriting, execution, and production.

This is also the first release to feature Kaia Pazdersky on vocals and violin. That can’t be understated in its importance. Vocalist/guitarist, Michael Day, and percussionist, Nick Dickinson have been the core of this band for a long time now but they’re also the only members left over from the previous release. In between albums Little Ugly not only found a new member but they found an integral piece to making their sound a more complete product. It’s apparent on tracks like “Oh, Return”, where Pazdersky steps out front for them that her talents, intertwined with those of Day and Dickinson, have taken Little Ugly from a very good band to a great one.

Little Ugly’s sound has always been a difficult one to categorize. Their win at the 2013 CT Music Awards for “Best Indie Rock” band tells only part of the story. Their acoustic-based sound is caught somewhere between indie rock, folk and Americana – sometimes encompassing it all within one track. “Promise of a Storm” is a perfect example, going from unassuming folksiness to bombastic rock orchestration all with five or so minutes. However you want to categorize their sound it’s unmistakably their own. Simply put, there are no other bands in the CT scene that sound like Little Ugly and Where The River’s Born highlights that over and over again.

If you’ve seen Little Ugly live you’ve heard these songs before. But never like this. The studio has clearly allowed them to play with different nuances and instrumentation that they’d need way more than three people to pull off live. But the songs are so recognizable all at the same time, a testament to their perfectionism on stage. If you’ve sung along to a song like “Named After Saints” at a bar you’ll certainly be doing so in your car or at your desk at work. But that’s another trademark of the Little Ugly sound – write memorable songs that stick with you like an evening with friends and family over a good home-cooked meal. Their passion for their craft is evident and therefore comforting in that way.

Where The River’s Born is out now. You can listen to the full album and purchase through the Little Ugly Bandcamp page. - CT.com

Little Ugly

Hartford's Little Ugly is one of the hardest working bands you'll ever encounter.

"It's a teamwork kind of thing," said singer/guitarist Michael Day. "We are in constant communication daily."

They're also one of the most talented. Day, drummer Nick Dickinson and violinist/singer Kaia Pazdersky recently completed an EP, Where the River's Born, which at times has been offered for free on their Bandcamp site. "We try to give back as much as possible," Day said. "We play two charity events per month... We try to make every show a family event, and we're trying to involve the audience in the show as much as possible."

For the EP, "we went in two goals," Day said. "I've always wanted the recordings to be completely different than the live show. Our live show is more raw and energetic. As far as the studio goes, there's nothing wrong with getting into areas that we don't do live... We tried to get exactly what everyone has in their heads down on tape, and I think we accomplished that."

The second goal was to make sure the super-talented Pazdersky was highlighted. "She came in with a few songs and we wanted to make sure she was represented," Day said.

Being an independent artist in Hartford, Day said, is really about teamwork and support from other local musicians.

"When we started, we were working together to bring other bands and our band into new venues," Day said. "The band we work the most right now is 1974, but we worked closely with String Theorie at first. If they got a gig, they had us open, and if we got a gig, we had them open. We were introducing each other to our fan bases. It wasn't about competition."

Little Ugly also doesn't shy away from the machine of self-promotion.

"I get personal requests from people to stop blasting their Facebook pages with our show announcements, and I'm like, no, sorry," Day said. —Michael Hamad - CT.com

Little Ugly's funky instrumentation (they feature an upright bass and violin) sets them apart from the crowd. Fans of chamber pop like the Decemberists and latter-day Silverchair will find familiar elements in their songs. The quartet just released their debut E.P., and is now gigging like crazy. They'll be performing at Sully's in Hartford on Aug. 26, and Stella Blues in New Haven on the 27th. - Hartford Advocate

Those who can do teach; Little Ugly is a tight-knit group of friends and fellow music teachers who play gigs several nights each week around Hartford and New Haven. A breakout chamber pop quartet, the band features an upright bass and violin with funky instrumentation that sets it apart from the crowd.
- Hartford Magazine

Fans of the great Hartford band Little Ugly can pitch in and help send them back to the studio.

So far, so good: they've pulled down $1,435 in two days, singer-guitarist Michael Day told me in an e-mail. To contribute, head over to their Kickstarter page and contribute toward their new EP.

Little Ugly won the Advocate's Grand Band Slam for Best Rock Band in 2011, Hartford Magazine's Best Musician/Band last year and was nominated for two categories at the first-ever CT Music Awards (they also performed at the award show). You can pledge anywhere from $5 on up. (Dig this: a $1,000 donation gets you a bunch of merch, plus your name listed as a producer and an in-house concert anywhere within 400 miles of Hartford.)

Here's a clip of Little Ugly performing at the CMAs (video by LocalBandReview.com).
- CT.Com

When you’ve won a Hartford Magazine “Best of” award, you’ve got to be good. And the four-year-old, four-member “orchestral folk rock” band Little Ugly is good. Very good. Reminiscent of the English folk rock band Mumford & Sons—which lead singer and guitarist Michael Day names as one of his main musical influences, along with The Decemberists and singer-songwriters like Jeff Buckley and the late Elliott Smith—Little Ugly is heading into the studio to record a new five-song EP.

To raise the $3,500 it will need for production and studio costs, Little Ugly is turning to Kickstarter, a which uses the Web to fund creative projects. (It’s all-or-nothing—if the project’s monetary goal is not reached, none of the donations are accepted.)

The other band members—Nick Dickinson (drums and percussion), Kaia Pazdersky (vocals, violin) and Jared Gardner (upright bass) had been encouraging Day to look into Kickstarter, but Day was reluctant.

“I didn’t want to ask people for money, but I finally checked it out and I realized that for every donation you get a reward that’s equal to the amount of the donation,” Day says.

In Little Ugly’s case, a $5 donation earns a free download of the EP, $75 nets a half-hour music lesson over Skype (all four band members are music teachers), and $1,000 gets you all the lesser rewards, plus a producer credit, special thanks in the liner notes and a concert anywhere within 400 miles of Hartford.

Day hopes the EP, which Little Ugly will record at the Tapeworks recording studio on Maple Avenue in Hartford, will raise the profile of the band, and perhaps lead to bigger and better things. “The goal is for a management or booking agent to pick us up and hopefully to get on a tour at some point,” Day says. “But no matter what, we want to able to continue playing music together.” For more information or to contribute, visit www.littleuglymusic.com. —Elaine X. Grant - Hartford Magazine