With Austra
Oakland's Merrill Garbus' first album sounded like it was recorded on a boombox, but she's taken a huge leap forward on the follow-up "w h o k i l l," upping the production values and coming out of her shell with a vibrant and focused effort. On stage, she is nothing short of mesmerizing—she plays percussion, ukulele, and showcases her awesomely weird voice, using a loop pedal to build songs from scratch. Accompanied only by her secret weapon—bassist Nate Brenner, who provides the incredibly funky backbone to these beautiful layers of sound—and some skronking saxaphone, she'll make you forget about the annoying capitalization in no time. With Austra.
