When Brooklyn-based elementary-school music teacher Sharon Hagopian goes home she becomes Cannonball Jane, a one-woman band on a mission to make bouncy, fluffy pop out of distorted guitar riffs, leftfield synth loops and darkside drum and bass.
Hagopian recorded Street Vernacular in her own home, using a medley of samplers, guitars, piano, percussion, children's keyboards and sultry vocals to create eleven mini-pop masterpieces.
Relentlessly chirpy, the album tumbles from Bis-like indie-pop to electro, hip-hop, ballads and rock.
What makes Street Vernacular unique is that these styles all clash with an enthusiasm and twinkle that borders on J-pop.
Where else will you find a track (Brave New World) that melds ethereal backing vocals, dirty guitar riffs, shouts of "Take Medication", a sample from Pac-Man and a Mozart melody?
Occasionally cluttered as her wealth of ideas compete for space, Street Vernacular is nonetheless a triumphant blend of lo-fi music-geek cool and bubblegum pop.
Released February 6, 2006.
Mark Horne
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