-Noah Lit When frontman Noah Lit was faced with the collapse of his former indie rock band Oliver Future, he took what he saw as the only next logical step, put aside the electric guitar, and dive into the world of acoustic gypsy jazz. As he dug deeper into the dizzying scales, arpeggios and antiquated chords and patterns, Lit found a concealed wealth of songs surfacing in a form that quickly became Noah And The MegaFauna. His new sound: a clamorous whiskey filled raucous of sing-a-longs on the eve of destruction. Noah’s new song writing inspiration had him calling upon the diversity of his record collection and creating a combination of influences that while once were founded in rock bands like The Kinks, Radiohead and The Beatles, now also included jazz artists Django Reinhardt, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong and genre benders Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Jacques Brel and Leonard Cohen. Simply put by Noah himself, “Anthems for a Stateless Nation is a humble attempt at making a record that sounds like my record collection.” What resulted is a narrative caravan through moments of torrential downpours and shiftless shadows followed by the blissful warmth of a calm you hope will stay for good. Once Noah Lit’s pen took on this ambitious new task he quickly enrolled longtime friend and accomplished producer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Yo La Tengo, Clem Snide) to help build his dynamic vision. Quickly joined by the efforts of his brother and long time collaborator Joshua Lit (Oliver Future) on backing vocals, piano and accordion and a rhythm section of Shiben Battacharaya on upright bass, Chris Lovejoy on drums and Travis Knight on percussion, the record took it’s first breathe at Lasus’ Los Angeles studio Fireproof Recording in November of 2010. With each track growing rapidly and naturally into a lush bed of guitar driven gypsy pop Noah soon enlisted his younger brother Gabriel Lit in New York City to provide horn and string arrangements as well as play clarinet and bass clarinet on the record. In order to best capture his new eight piece horn section and the severely talented violinist Wen Chang, Noah sought out a special environment and traveled to New York City to record with friend and producer Joe Rogers (Kelli Scarr, The Shivers, Moby) at his unique studio space Silence Breaks atop a elementary school in the South Bronx. The devastating horn section, littered with New York City’s best young, up and coming jazz musicians screamed, squawked and honked in moments of fury and passion and harnessed a warmth and subtly in quieter moments that also balanced well with the cinematic air provided by the vast array of female guest vocalists. Amongst the record’s guest vocalists are Kat Edmonson, Marianne Dissard, Emily St. Amand-Poliakoff and Mindy Gaspar. Also lending their talents are world renowned gypsy guitarist Gonzalo Bergara playing bandoneon and lead guitar and Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, George Harrison) playing drums. The end result is a dramatic dialogue recounting a tale of pre, and post-apocalyptic displacement, wandering, panic and ultimate redemption laced within the narrative of a dark folk record. The nine piece live band has now become a force that goes even beyond the record. Lighting up bars and clubs in Los Angeles and New York City, the band has made fans and followers on both coasts. In fall of 2011 they were invited and filmed for Judd Apatow’s new movie This is 40. The band blew away Paul Rudd, Chris O’Dowd and Apatow who exclaimed “Now I have to rewrite the movie for you all!” Rewrites aside, the song Moan All Night, will be featured in the film and the band playing it live will be in the DVD extras. When they stopped into WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schafer, after the first song John gleefully exclaimed “The folks downstairs in the Archives called up to say, they heard you through the floor!” and Noah quipped back “That’s hard to do with acoustic instruments.” The band went on to play a sold out show at the prestigious, Joe’s Pub. Noah And The MegaFauna’s “Anthems for a Stateless Nation” is nightmare pop, a modern day allegory of Noah’s Arc, a narrative tale of global warming, indie folk with jazz for a right hook, a big band swinging, a small gypsy ensemble moaning, a convergence of influence and orchestration that represents the ever shrinking world we live in, a wanderer’s diary played on instruments that can be carried on your back, a singer/songwriter/indie/gypsy/jazz record that dares it’s player’s to growl, squawk, squeak, and squeal, and it’s listeners to climb aboard for an eclectic but determined vision of the future. Noah And The MegaFauna’s “Anthems for a Stateless Nation” was proudly be released on the Brooklyn based indie label Silence Breaks on October 18th, 2011, the band is on tour this summer. |
