Delivering funny, smart, sad pop
What’s the deal? Melbourne duo Oh Pep!’s moniker derives from a conflation of singer/ guitarist Olivia Hally and nimble-fingered mandolinist/violinist Pepita Emmerichs’ names (get it?) rather than an attempt to convey the spirit of its music in concise form.
That’s not to say Oh Pep! can’t be peppy. Hally and Emmerichs proved a charmingly geeky and self-effacingly funny pair whilst playing their first North American dates at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, this past March.
And there are bursts of eruptive, all-in buoyancy on Oh Pep!’s forthcoming debut LP, Stadium Cake — due June 24 via Dualtone Records — to justify the record’s tongue-incheek title.
By and large, though, these two musically gifted art-school friends move in the same smartypants-sad-gal orbit as such CanCon singer/songwriter heroines as Leslie Feist, Basia Bulat, Jenn Grant and Tegan and Sara — with a touch of Melbourne citymate Courtney Barnett’s wordy bite occasionally creeping in and deployed in less black-humoured directions.
Some some instant traction with the CBC Radio 3/Indie 88 crowds seems guaranteed. They could do a lot worse. Sum up what you do in a few simple sentences. “We, Liv and Pep, collaborate on songs that stem from our inner explorer and love of all musics. Pop songs with a twist? And an exclamation mark. That’s us.”
What’s a song I need to hear right now? “Doctor Doctor.” Gilds Oh Pep!’s sorta-twee folksiness with a welcome soupçon of New Wave and an easy-to-get-behind chorus.
Where can I see them play? At the Great Hall on Feb. 9, opening for Valerie June.