The Curios - Pillow Book

Award winning singer/songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Nancy Hall and Lee Parvin are the creative core of The Curios. Together with a list of talented friends they build what Northern California Songwriter has called a "wonderfully eclectic, quirky and beautifully complex musical universe." An earthier version of Feist, moldy peaches meets P.J. Harvey in a strobe lit alley, steam-folk and pirate cabaret with a cast of characters dark and dangerous.

Hall has recently completed a tour with Neil Young and Crazy Horse, twice through the US and on to Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. If you were on her E-list you'd have been treated to Road Dog Grrl; Letters to the Virtual Entourage a widely forwarded tour-chronicle that includes berzerk accounts of having been swept up in a world-class rock tour after playing the small concert hall, house concert and coffee house circuit. Hall has recorded with Young on his Greendale project and more recent Chrome Dreams II CD.

The Curios play "hyphen-music": freak-folk-funk-psychedelic-cabaret, a juicy blend of mystery-rich, textural grooves and cliche-free lyrics, alternately abstract and narrative. "You can think and party", says Hall. Hall and Parvin have evolved a seamless, tandem playing that is like "psychic band mates"; they follow each other in melody and harmony like partner dancing, switching from a slow-motion piano/guitar meditation on marital infidelity called "Kiss and Tell", to a rollicking ukulele and harmonica duet about money (or the lack of it) called "Sailor on a Windless Sea".

They variously combine electric and acoustic guitars, organ, dulcimer, piano, ukulele, accordion, banjo, double bass, hand-drums and full kit drums with band mates Michael Tyler, Marc Games and James Kerwin helping to create the psychedelic pirate cabaret ambiance they have become known for.

1. Beautiful 4:32

2. Harbor 4:57

3. Sailor on a Windless Sea 3:46

4. Always be Your Girl 4:19

5. Hollow 4:19

6. Cherries on the Ground 3:55

7. Commit 3:40

8. Meanstreak 4:02

9. Sweetness 2:49

10. Man with a Megaphone 3:54

11. Fortress 5:24

12. Trampoline 4:19

13. Empty 3:58

14. Pickle 3:27

15. Back in Spades 4:06