Hey Anna Baby's All Right Setlist

Review to come.

HEY ANNA - 08.08.16 - BABY'S ALL RIGHT (41 minutes)

SET -
Anaphaze / By the Bay / Move Your Body / Yas Queen / Kinda Love / Rise to the Sun / Mt. Picchu / Island > Don't Talk Stop

Hey Anna Acoustic Hifi Records Setlist

Review to come.

HEY ANNA - 09.25.15 - HIFI RECORDS (15 minutes, 30 seconds)

SET -

Island / By the Bay / If You're Wondering / On the Sea

The Next Round - Episode 40: Hey Anna

Lordy, Lordy, we've made it to forty!  The Next Round's 40th episode is a charming chat with Erin Rauch-Sasseen from Hey Anna, who recently released their debut album Run Koko.  The NJ/NY indie pop group consists of Erin, her twin sisters Katie and Anna, and friends Matthew Langner and Jamie DiTringo.  Find out what it's like to play music with your sisters, how Anna ended up with the band's name, and who makes the best meatballs.

Stream below, download directly, or subscribe on iTunes like a model citizen.


Buy tickets for Saturday's Run Koko vinyl release show.
Show the band some love on Twitter and Facebook.

Hey Anna Baby's All Right Setlist

Review to come.

HEY ANNA - 07.09.15 - BABY'S ALL RIGHT (49 minutes, 30 seconds)

SET -

Anaphaze / By the Bay / Move Your Body / If You're Wondering / Little Things / Cloudbird / Yes Queen / Island / Dance Until Three / Don't Talk Stop / Mt. Picchu

Hey Anna Celebrate New EP at Rockwood Music Hall

I discovered Hey Anna back in March at Muchmore's in Williamsburg, and I said I'd be keeping them on my radar.  Well, they played a gig at Rockwood Music Hall last night, so I decided to head on down.  Hey Anna is fronted by the three Rauch-Sasseen sisters (Erin, Katie, and the band's namesake, Anna), and rounded out by Andrew Smolin on guitar and Matthew Langner on drums.  They recently released their second EP, Pompette, which you can download for free at their Bandcamp.  "Or for some money if you're feeling generous," said Erin.  "$3000?" offered Katie optimistically.  "You never know," replied Erin hopefully.  They played all four songs from the EP, starting the set with the sweet love song "Superglue."  Erin reminded me of a mid-1990s songstress on this one, but make no mistake, they are not a revival band.  Smolin's staccato stringwork is the superglue that holds Hey Anna together, and sets them firmly into today's indie pop scene.  On the EP's best song, "Pia," Erin matched him on the verses with her jerky vocals as Anna tried her best to contact aliens with her keyboard.  Unfortunately, the room was quite talkative for the first half of the set until Anna and Erin harmonized a cappella on "Rollercoaster," which silenced the chatterboxes.

More stage time should allow them to command a crowd better, but they're so new that right now they seem to mostly just be playing the songs as they would when jamming in the studio.  Smolin was the exception, looking up from his guitar to clap and sing along (He doesn't have a mic.).  I suggest starting a set with Katie's spunky "Love Love Baby," which got the crowd dancing and the band smiling.  The shift was noticeable, with Smolin and Langner laughingly displaying their wingspans as they pretended to coast like birds at the beginning of "Cloud Bird."  When the band announced they had one more song, there was a collective "aww" from the audience (Awwdience?), followed promptly by a request for "Blackout" from their self-titled EP.  Erin retuned her guitar and they honored it, Smolin leading the crowd on the shout of "Woo!" towards the song's end.  If you were disappointed by Vampire Weekend's new album this week, give Hey Anna a try.  It could be the best $3000 you ever spend.

HEY ANNA - 05.16.13 - ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL (38 minutes, 28 seconds)

SET -

Superglue / I Don't Care About Your Money* / Tim McQue / If You're Wondering How I'm Doing* / Pia / Rollercoaster* / Dance Until Three / Love Love Baby / Cloud Bird* / Blackout

Both Brians of Beat Radio Back in Brooklyn

I walked into Muchmore's about five minutes before 9 to find a tiny bar that only had Abita on tap (What?).  I quickly discovered there was much more to Muchmore's (Well, not exactly.) when I looked through a doorway to my right to see a stage in a room about the size of a studio apartment.  Couches lined the muraled walls, decorated with grotesque characters like this angel.

Why was I in this unfamiliar place?  Beat Radio were making their return to Williamsburg after last month's gig at Pete's Candy Store.  And this time, Brian Sendrowitz would be accompanied by his sole bandmate, Brian Ver Straten, on drums.  The duo opened with "Elegy," and transported the room into a what resembled a mid-'90s grungy house party.  While Sendrowitz himself has described his music as "bedroom pop," Beat Radio's latest effort, Hard Times, Go!, was recorded in his basement, and it sounds like it.  Just listen to the screeches of guitar on "Hurricanes, XO" or Ver Straten's cymbal crashes on "Never Let You Down."  You can't make that kind of noise in your bedroom.  Bringing that basement-sized sound into the demented living room-vibe of Muchmore's paid off in a big way.  Every song sounded fuller than it did at Pete's or on the record.  The distortion in "East Coast" could've curdled milk, and it contrasted wonderfully against Brian's tender singing.  When he hit a wrong chord in "Stars Collided in Our Hearts," Sendrowitz apologized, "Sorry," with a bashful smile.  He was immediately excused because it was so genuine, it was like he was among friends.  Even his pitch for merchandise was affable, if silly: "We're like Kiss.  We have action figures, beer koozies, Hot Pockets.  Some of those are true."  And while Hard Times songs made up the bulk of the set, it was a nice surprise to hear older tune, "Everything is Temporary."

Because the show started a half-hour late, I wasn't able to run over to Brooklyn Bowl to watch Everything Everything as I'd planned, so I stuck around for the next two bands on the bill.  The Pine Hollows came next, playing most of their new album, Something My Heart Understands.  Led by Gianni Napolitano, who looks and sounds like he could've been a member of the Beatles circa 1963, the Pine Hollows make music in the mold of those early Beatles singles.  Perhaps too tightly in the mold.  There are worse bands to emulate, for sure, but the strongest moments came in a three-song sequence towards the end of the set that rocked harder than the rest, ending with the creepy cadence of "After Dark."  Hopefully they will continue to expand their sound, and not just in the way the Beatles did.

The final band of the evening was Hey Anna, an indie pop outfit consisting of the three Rauch-Sasseen sisters and two of their friends.  The band incorporated several trendy styles into each song to create music that is both catchy and substantial.  While the sisters often swapped lead vocal duties, I preferred the configuration with Erin at the helm, as it seems the band does, just based on the number of songs she fronted.  Things got moody and literal when guitarist Andrew Smolin requested, "Can we turn all of the lights off?" for "Blackout," and new song "Dancin' 'Til 3" recalled a female version of Vampire Weekend.  I'm gonna keep them on my radar, as should you.  Download their EP for free here.

BEAT RADIO - 03.22.13 - MUCHMORE'S (37 minutes)

SET -

Elegy / Golden Age / East Coast / Hard Times, Go! / Stars Collided in Our Hearts / Teenage Anthem for the Drunken Boat / Everything is Temporary / Days Like Diamonds / Hurricanes, XO