Sarah Rabdau

With piano that glitters and smolders, and vocals that seethe and soar, Sarah RabDAU and Self-Employed Assassins’ songs are a wish list of things we should have said. “You should have loved me,” the heroine laments to her lover/victim in the band’s namesake ballad, Self-Employed Assassin. In the delightfully nasty Crushing, a rising starlet is rebuked for her ruthless ambition: “I hope all the people that you stepped on didn’t stain your dress.” Rabdau warbles, whispers and wails these quips with a voice that most closely resembles that of Bjork or Elizabeth Frasier of the Cocteau Twins. Rabdau’s piano pounds and cascades, drawing equally from Erik Satie and Phil Spector, with unapologetic nods to the usual girl-at-piano influences. Drummer Matt Graber (Mascara, ex-Caged Heat) demurs, bolsters and punctuates, always keeping the melody in the forefront. After two years of developing the songs live, Self-Employed Assassins set to work on an album, with Peter Moore (Count Zero, Think Tree, Blue Man Group) producing. The album mostly features the duo unadorned, occasionally embellished by a string quartet and guitar that call to mind This Mortal Coil.

TRY: #1, 2, 5, 8

Full Album Available Here:
https://www.piratepirate.com/downloads/
http://www.sarahrabdau.com/
http://www.myspace.com/sarahrabdau