Agent Ribbons is way too cool.
Guys, they are like the cool musician girlfriends you wish you had. Gals, they are the chicks that inspire you to pick up some bright 
hair dye and an instrument just hoping you will achieve an ounce of their utter, effortless, awesomeness. Yes, they’re so cool, they make awesomeness a word actually worthy of being used in print.
They’re press release was written by a media genius, because once you read such gems as “a tree house club of post-feminism dreamers trying to find their place in the scheme of things, like a hand-sewn and lovingly-crafted garment in a modern disposable world” and “banned in the UK in 2008,” you feel extremely compelled to give their music a spin and see what this Austin-by-way-of-Sacramento trio is all about. Or, at least I did.
If you, like me, feel there is not nearly enough appreciation and performance of cabaret and burlesque in the world today, you may find that Agent Ribbons is a comforting yet sexy breath of hope. After listening to the first few tracks off of the trio’s upcoming sophomore release Chateau Crone, it struck me that I had actually heard the group perform in San Diego as a two-piece a couple of years ago. Vocalist Natalie Gordon belts out the band’s baroque pop in a style that is somehow both melancholy and exuberant, and hard to forget. Her delivery on Chateau Crone is the special little prize of the album, giving the sometimes threadbare garage band jams a decidedly more whimsical inflection.
Percussionist Lauren and Naomi, who does “violin and various odds and ends” provide a landscape that is vintage but not overly so, and I do declare – I think I hear a bit of punk influence mish mashed in there.
Chateau Crone isn’t seeing the streets until October, but Natalie, Naomi, and Lauren Ribbons (they’ve adapted the unified Ribbons surname for the stage) are embarking on tour Aug. 16. To tide yourself over, check out them out on the web and if you like what you hear, preorder their album now on CD or LP (I vote vinyl). Both come with a full color handbook and a temporary tattoo!
Dang, those girls are so cool.
