Annie Girl and the Flight is an impeccably apt '90s throwback, a post-grunge, lady-fronted reverb rock band with a lo-fi charm and a smoothness that comes from a lack of forcing music to happen. There's a swaying proclivity to the band's songs. Dreamy, bulldozing guitar riffs fill the void left by leisurely tempos and Annie's airy but pointed, froggy soprano. It's not something that hasn't been heard before, but it's a new take on Liz Phair, Mazzy Star, Beach House and Silversun Pickups, a hazy mesh of ambient psychedelic wondering and punk. After moving from Denver to San Francisco three years ago, Annie Girl teamed up with Joe Lewis in a band called Family Folk Explosion, then met Josh Pollock of Os Beaches and Nick Ott who plays drums with Emily Jane White, to form the new project that twisted her songwriting out of an aesthetic and complex folk-phase and took her back to basics. "This iteration of the band has been together for about a year," said Annie. "I started off playing with a lot more people...string arrangements and more folk qualities to the music. As the songwriting progressed I wanted to get back to my roots by taking a minimal approach. The four of us have come together to try and make something honest." A part of that honesty is the belief that there's no such thing as too much reverb.
"I don't think I've got a handle on that...Josh is always telling me to turn it down," said Annie. Despite some obviously audible influences, Annie Girl isn't necessarily eye-droppering stylistic qualities from the likes of Mazzy Star and Portishead directly into her own music. As she explains, she would rather pull inspiration from what she is immediately surrounded by in the Bay Area musical scene.
"I do love Mazzy Star and Portishead—they come up a lot when people talk to me about my music. Everything I listen to seeps in, but my biggest influence is my community," said Annie. "It's the makers cycle instead of a vicious one. Someone makes something, musical or otherwise and it sets a fire under the rest. [I'm influenced by] Everyone is Dirty, Ash Reiter, Down and Outlaws, Lauren Espina from Bay Bridged, and Sylvie Simmons, to name a few."
Annie Girl and the Flight
9 pm. Wed., Oct 1 Volcanic Theatre Pub, 70 SW Century Dr. $5.
