Album Notes

Boston-based power-pop group The Vivs prepare to release their debut album Mouth to Mouth on September 22nd, 2009. A CD-release party in Boston at Church on Friday, September 25th will welcome many special guests, including a one-night reunion of seminal Boston band The Barnies, a special appearance by David Minehan (The Neighborhoods) and friends, and Boston’s own Buttercup among others.

The members of The Vivs (formerly Edith) are no strangers to the Boston music scene. As Edith, they released Outfit (2000) to critical acclaim, with Billboard Magazine heralding the band as a modern throwback to “the salad days of the New York post-punk scene.” With this debut album and incarnation of the band, The Vivs bring into sharper focus their love of contrast— most notably via the yin/yang of two very different female voices: front woman Karen Harris’ gritty one joined by the pretty, other-worldly harmonies of long-time friend and keyboard player (and former member of the 90s Boston band Tribe) Terri Brosius.

After playing together as Edith for a few years, half the members (including Harris) took a breeding hiatus. The name, The Vivs (think vivir, the Latin root for “to live”; think vivisection), marks their rebirth, as does Mouth to Mouth--a kinetic, hook-laden, fraught, powerful collection of songs. Harris, a high school teacher and mother of two, sings with the passion of a seasoned post-punk all-star. Her songwriting is marked with the raw sexuality, intelligence, and humor of legendary post-punk or lit-pop bands like Scrawl or Patti Smith. With The Vivs, she pioneers a fresh sound that could fit alongside power-pop and post-punkers Bettie Serveert or fellow Bostonians Mission of Burma.

“I felt alternately heart-sick and off-the-charts elated when I wrote most of the songs on Mouth to Mouth,” says Harris. “It was just one of those seasons.” Lyrically, this intensity shows: From the paradox of being both beaten down and raised up by love ("You Should Have Seen the Other Guy") to celebrating the blowjob ("Better Now") and denial ("Waking Up"), the lyrics cut to the chase. Meanwhile, the driving (and sometimes unapologetically beefy) guitars marry up with good old-fashioned pop sensibility that put The Vivs alongside artists like The Kinks. These are songs you want to play loud; these are songs you hum all day.

The maelstrom of the music undergirds lyrics that smack with power, purity, and sometimes world-weariness (i.e. "There's only so much rock and roll can do"). The Vivs’ guitarist Matt Magee is joined on Mouth to Mouth by guitars from David Minehan and from their producer (and former Tribe guitarist and Rock Band guru) Eric Brosius. The Vivs also include bassist Jim Collins (Brett Rosenberg, Gene Dante), and drummer Scott Rogers.
Perhaps the coolest band you haven’t heard of yet, The Vivs make it evident with Mouth to Mouth that they are prepared to break back into the Boston music scene and ultimately reveal themselves to the masses.