Saint Bernadette - In Your Ears

How can you go wrong when one of your first live shows is opening for Run-DMC? I mean to me, you're practically at the top already. Where can you go from there - having Run-DMC open for you? I guess if you're Meredith DiMenna or Keith Saunders (collectively known as Saint Bernadette) and you're releasing your debut album (In the Ballroom), you've got plenty of time to figure that out.

Not content to the studio thing, or even the new en vogue move (recording in your bedroom, closet, and bathroom, and playing all the instruments yourself), the pair has taken the path less traveled. They located a local redevelopment project in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the historic Bijou Theatre (pictured on the cover), which housed a magnificent ballroom dating from 1908. They brought every musician on the album into the space, and after three days offered forth their appropriately named child: In the Ballroom. "We've always wanted to create something like Motown or early Atlantic Records," says Meredith. "Where everyone on the label collaborated and performed together."

The album seems to have picked up some ambiance from its incubator. It just might be Meredith's dusky vocals (which very much remind me of Joan Wasser A.K.A. Joan As Police Woman, who also released her debut album earlier this year). It might be the jazzy atmospheric instruments that feel like they belong in a smoky lounge. Either way, the album exudes a certain draw to it. Listen to the album opener (I Own the City) and the album closer (Beat Dialogue) below, then buy the album to listen to the middle.


Saint Bernadette - I Own the City : In the Ballroom

Saint Bernadette - Beat Dialogue : In the Ballroom

Visit their website, their label Exotic Recordings, and become their friend on MySpace.

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Run-DMC - Peter Piper : Raising Hell

Joan As Police Woman - Flushed Chest : Real Life

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Catch them Live

11/17 Danbury, CT SUB ROSA/Cousin Larry’s
11/29 Knoxville, TN TBA
11/30 Athens, GA TBA
12/01 Asheville, NC Westville Pub
12/02 Philadelphia, PA TBA
12/11 New York, NY Piano’s