Foxtails Brigade – Live in Studio B
chamber pop, intricate violin and cello arrangements are anchored by
Laura Weinbach’s intricately played classical guitar and pitch perfect
vocals. But underneath the simple melodies lie an impeding darkness, a
lyrical landscape populated by shadowy and bizarre characters, rife with
hints of rot, aging, and death.
The Hollywood Hills-born daughter of a cult filmmaker and sister of offbeat stand-up comedian Brent Weinbach,
Laura grew up in a musical household that embraced eccentricity. Her
next-door neighbors were circus contortionists with emus and
fang-toothed monkeys as pets and her childhood activities included snail
hunting and spying on celebrity neighbors like Slash, Ice-T and Larry
from Perfect Strangers. While her mother, an accomplished
pianist, taught the children piano, her father had a more unique
approach to musical education:
“When I’d get in trouble as a kid, my father would punish me with
cassette tapes,” Laura recalls. “He would make me mixes of all his
favorite jazz singers like Billie Holiday, Blossom Dearie, June Kristie
and Edith Piaf and tell me that if I could learn all these songs and
sing them back to him just like they did on the recordings then I could
go out and play with my friends. I’d run to my room and start
memorizing. When I was done, I’d sing them all back to him through a
little Pig Nose amplifier that we got at a garage sale.”
The method paid off. Much later, these same songs would form the core
of Laura’s repertoire as she busked the streets of Paris, her home for
half a year. Eight years of classical guitar training along with
literature and music degrees from UC Santa Cruz were coming to fruition.
Likewise, her off-beat childhood and post-graduate experiences as a
substitute teacher would provide a wealth of ideas for compositions of
her own.
Laura started Foxtails Brigade in 2006 with her friend, violinist
Sivan Sadeh. She moved to San Francisco a year later, playing every club
and street corner and she could find. It wasn’t long before the city
started to notice. She quit her day job as a substitute teacher in 2009
and has been a full-time performer ever since, sharing stages with Faun Fables, Chris Garneau and Bart Davenport amongst others. She has collaborated with a number of talented musicians in Foxtails Brigade, including cellists Jen Grady (Emily Jane White, Adam Stevens), Robin Reynolds and Lewis Patzner (Mates of State, Tim Kasher), and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Pollock (Citay, Bob Saggeth). Her most recent musical partner is violinist and arranger Anton Patzner of Bright Eyes and Judgement Day.
