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Some nice things people have said about our music.

CHIP's UNNAMED BAND SHOW - INTERVIEW

chip mccabe / WCCT-TV {11.28.11}

ALBUM OF THE DAY 10/20/2011

chip mccabe / www.ct.com {10.20.11}
We come back to the musical realm of CT based bands for today's Album of the Day and I'm not lying to you when I say that this is one of my most favorite albums ever released by a Connecticut band. True story.

Atrina, fronted by Kelly L'Heureux whom some people in CT would recognize these days as the bass player for New Haven's M.T. Bearington, has been around for a long time by local band standards. The late 90's to be exact. But as good as their earlier material is (and it's good, trust me) this EP originally recorded in 2008 is a masterpiece to these ears. When you can listen to an album over, over and over again and not ever tire of it then the band is doing something right to tickle your musical palette.

So for the uninitiated what does Atrina and this EP sound like? The easiest comparison is early PJ Harvey. But it's darker, sexier and at times more robust in composition than any of the early material Polly Jean was producing. What it lacks in the raw power of say an album like Rid Of Me it bests it's influences in mood and at time overall creativity. I know these are fighting words to most die hard PJ fans. But trust me when I say you need to listen to this album and then I think you'll agree with me. This isn't your daddy's "alt rock".

THANKSLISTENING: CTindie makes a mix of Connecticut bands to be thankful for

chris march / New Haven Register {11.25.10}
“Seven Ways,” Atrina: In 2008, the now defunct Play magazine wrote that Atrina sounded as if “Siouxsie sang some pop tunes through the Melvins’ gear” with “chilling atmospheric beauty.” CTindie says singer Kelly L’Heureux is “a reminder of why we should all be thankful.”

ear might: check out atrina

dan barry / Hartford Advocate {05.27.10}
Lately I’ve been cranking some tunes by Atrina, the nom de band for Kelly L’Heureux’s long-running alt rock project. (Was it chintzy of me to say “nom de band” in reference to a person who has, like, the most French name ever? Would you like some hors d’oeuvres wif dat?) P. J. Harvey is probably the closest touchstone—think dark, driven, angular, sensual.
L’Heureux seems like a devoted bedroom artist. Atrina has gone through several phases and lineup changes (the most recent featuring members of the Vultures and recently-deceased Bloarzeyd), but the cool thing is that she’s been at the creative helm since at least 1996. That’s a hell of a tenure!
I know this because I just discovered this archive of Atrina tunes on L’Heureux’s website. Go to http://www.kelly-lheureux.com/atrinamusic/sounds.html to check out a bunch of her music, collected in little chunks from year to year.
Lately, L’Heureux’s been putting in time behind the bass geet with M. T. Bearington, whose indie rock is wildly popular but a little too salty for my taste.
Noteworthy fact: Kelly is a 3 time cancer survivor, which officially puts her in league with Clint Eastwood and Samuel L. Jackson on the Badass Polls. She donates a portion of her proceeds from her latest record to cancer research. So you should buy one if you like what you hear on the demos!

tear me to shreds / Atrina's harrowing performance strips the crowd bare

dan berry / New Haven Advocate {03.11.09}
I haven't quite fully put myself back together after the sound ass-whooping Atrina delivered at Two Boots in Bridgeport last Friday. Their set left me with the same delicious stabbed-in-the-guts feeling that vintage P. J. Harvey evokes. Atrina are in good company: they fit into a noteworthy and largely unsung company of female-fronted grunge rockers from dilapidated Connecticut towns, including bands like Farewood and Eula.
Atrina looks nothing like their music. Bandleader Kelly L'Heureux's dress and hair and cheeky cheeks all hint more toward indie than alternative. Aside from drummer Dave Parmelee's Godflesh T-shirt (and even that band is eclipsed by its newer, more hipster-friendly incarnation, Jesu), there's not a hint of recognizable scenester iconography on stage. What's more, I left the show thinking that Atrina's two axmen looked familiar, and some Google-fu confirmed my suspicions. Bassist Will Iannuzi also mans the low end for trashy punkabilly scumbags the Vultures; and the tall guy who kept his back to the audience the whole time was none other than Phil Law, who transforms into a bass-pawing math-metal lunatic when playing in Bloarzeyd. Shit, dude, even the band's pedigree makes them impossible to pigeonhole.
But it's nice to be disarmed. Atrina force you to meet them with openness and wonderment, rather than superficial expectations based on their clothes or equipment. And it ultimately pans out, since the feel of their music is iconic. Their set was marked by turbulent riffs in angular time signatures. L'Heureux's vocals were relentless, plaintive; she wasn't yelling or screaming, and yet her lyrics seemed to evacuate her voice before they ever reached the audience, leaving us with just the sound itself, a husk of something communicated. Chilling, morbid, and delicious.

close to home, close to perfection/Dashing through the discs: A look back at some standout CDs from Connecticut bands in 2008

-brain larue / New Haven Advocate {12.18.08}
Atrina, {beautiful evidence}: The moody, heavy, minor-key, mid-tempo, post-punk guitar rock on this disc sounds like a unified piece. It's hazy and a little foreboding, but the reasons aren't easily identifiable. Something sinister is hanging in the ambiance, and the uncertainty of what it is produces great effect.

the past, present, and future/review of "{beautiful evidence}" ep

-gary vollono / IndepenDisc.com {Issue #111 Oct. '08 Featured CD}
6 years ago in 02, Kelly L'Heureux sent me a 4 song EP by her band Atrina. It was called “searching for a better way….” an unheralded heavy punk, Fuzz fused journey through musical expression which was so far out on the edge that the Velvet Underground would have dug listening to it. Unfortunately, an unforeseen disbanding prevented this golden child of 60s grunge, early 70s Metal & Glam, late 70s punk and every burn and slash Metal band of the 00s from being properly exposed. L’Heureux along with Johnny B. and Warren B. crafted songs that rivaled the production values of Alan Parsons, when he was engineering Dark Side Of The Moon for Pink Floyd, crossed with a Hard Core post-punk sound while still coming across as fresh and up beat.
Now, here in Oct ’08, Kelly L’Heureux sends me a 5 song EP “(beautiful evidence)” by her “new” band Atrina. It is as amazing an accomplishment of sound, style and substance as you will find in any of today’s recordings. You will be aurally hypnotized before you have a chance to realize what is going on. The new line up of L’Heureux (guitars, vox, piano, trumpet, samples), Will Iannuzzi (bass), Dave Parmelee (drums, percussion), Phil Law (guitar) take that far out edge and reel it n, to form a Rock sound that can only be described as; a base root of Classic 60s/70s Metal a la` Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc. mixed with complements of Prog-Metal (Rush 2112 to be exact), blended with a Smashing Pumpkins inesse/aggression and Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nail Industrial mentality.
“seven ways” rings in upon a muted distant thunder of drums as the rest of the band slips in to the sound in ways that are opening doors as we skate on past. A journey is surely beginning… Then, bam! We’re in metal heaven, but what stands out almost immediately is that the instrumentation, the chord and note arrangements, are not buried into the mix via heavy compression in efforts to amp up the sound. Instead, Atrina amps it up with production values that were abandoned long ago. Atrina understands that amping up through production compression would rob their sound of its art. The Old School production techniques show through when, only 3 minutes in, your senses are tingling from an edginess of music that hasn’t been achieved in this artistic of a swoop in decades. Whatever Kelly had ingested in the past 6 years has certainly paid off – (and by ingested it was not meant as a sly drug reference, but as a studious compliment). Her music consumption has taught her the entire collection of teen angst, musical rage and expression, that when broken down into a musical score, can rival that of all the best hard rock/metal/punk/grunge bands of the past, present and future.
{beautiful evidence} continues with “a witness,” production of this track has the Butch Vig, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins hand all over it. Next, the Portishead eeriness of the title track has us throwing down to a sound birthed in such maturity that it is a vital part of the past, present and future. By the time the total Fuzz tones take over to close out the track we’re just trippin’ in the escapism. The Math Rock opening of “feed” develops quickly into a Monster Metal distortion anthem spiced with otherworldly vocals and Kelly’s coupe de grace trumpets, which arrive to herald countless victories and plunge us back into the depths of sound that continue to attach themselves to our conscious. It’s a cerebral indoctrination to metal fused with art, a cultured Head Banger triumph over most musical categories of the day and becomes a part of the rock landscape for years to come.
The masterstroke of this 1 sided Album is the bleed-over segues as we change tracks, none more so deserving than the final one melding “feed” with “how can you have a beautiful ending without making beautiful mistakes?” – so infused is this one that you’ll be backtracking several times to fully understand, get, and marvel at the way it was put together. The final 2:35 collage of studio produced loops and samples (Atrina’s own recorded samples) gradually brings us out of our intense aural hypnosis with such finesse that we are left with a feeling mostly reserved for moments of all-knowing bliss.
The past, present, and future… If you listen very closely, the {beautiful evidence} is here.

riffs are universal/interview

jason devin / ct indie {10.07.08}
Kelly L'Heureux recently talked with CT Indie about the band's new form, older songs growing into newer songs, the new self-released EP {beautiful evidence}, and Kelly's own renewed sense of self. read it here

review of "{beautiful evidence}" ep

-brian larue / New Haven Advocate {09.24.08}
Atrina sounds like they mean it, with an earnestness matched by technical expertise and solid songwriting. This record is high-stakes. It bears the superficial markers of earnestness — deep, heavy riffing, a brooding and moody sensibility, haunted-sounding vocals and songs exclusively in minor keys — but it transcends superficiality. Singer Kelly L'Hereux sounds impassioned and entirely straightforward, her voice positioned low enough in the mix to create a compelling push-and-pull between vocals and band.
This dark stuff is thoroughly rocking, spooky, tuneful and direct, a collection of mid-tempo post-punk tunes from the depths that delivers. New Haven rocker boys, take note — L'Hereux's not joking around, and she's helping to trash the local scene's in-joke-isms and to bring us in touch with something more universal in the process.

review of "i am festival" show, 09.13.08

-brushback / one bass on an overthrow {09.14.08}
Atrina's presentation still needs a bit of work--to be fair, they've apparently got five years' worth of rust to contend with-- but their songs are really great; nice bottom-heavy rock stuff with some spacier passages in between, sorta like a more rugged Farewood. Like that's gonna help anyone, seeing as most of you haven't heard any of the newer Farewood stuff, but y'know, that's what the song down below is for.

review of "{beautiful evidence}" ep

-craig gilbert / PLAY Arts & Entertainment Weekly {09.03.08}
About five years ago this band just kind of went away which was a dang shame 'cause they were a great, moody-without-being-mopey, sorta arty group that worked well. This here is a "return" recording with a sorta new line-up. And it's better than the old stuff. For real. Five songs, pleasantly shadow-y (if Siouxsie sang some pop tunes through the Melvins gear) and spot-on solid. Chilling atmospheric beauty, just enough distortion, delicate vocals offset the dirge-ous bits, all good. Holy crap! Seriously now. This is really good.
Standout Track: Just get the disc, okay? And don't worry about it.

atrina walks into a bar

-brian larue / New Haven Advocate {07.18.08}
For what feels like, in retrospect, a glorious yet brief moment earlier this decade, Atrina was one of the most promising rock bands in town. Powerful and confident, they struck a balance between rock history and hipness, a kind of zeigeist-capturing cool.
With a lineup of four vets of the regional rock scene, a muscular and moody sound that could be described as some sort of post-punk art-garage rock, and a handful of cracking songs, the band gigged around New Haven in support of the gritty and thoroughly rocking EP "Searching for a Better Way", then… seemed to disappear. Atrina's last gig was at Toad's Place at the end of July 2003.
But now, five years later, they're back, playing a show at BAR this Sunday, toting an advance CD-R (the disc is currently being mastered in Chicago) of the new EP, {beautiful evidence}. The disc, and the band's current incarnation (which includes Vultures/Goose Lane drummer Dave Parmelee, Bloarzeyd/Humanoid bassist Phil Law, both new Atrina members, and longtime bassist Will Ianuzzi, also of The Vultures), represents "a continuation of the next natural step of the band," singer/guitarist Kelly L'Heureux said in a recent phone conversation.
The band's working in, she says, "a similar style, different feeling. Especially when you bring two people in who were audience members before, they absorb it in a new way. Every song is kind of just a mood. Everything that fits that mood is right."
In a recent e-mail, L'Heureux explains that while Atrina "kind of fell apart" in 2003, after which she "dropped out of the scene for awhile," she long viewed the band as an unfinished project.
Atrina's show at BAR, playing with Californian neo-psych band Film School, features the films of Ancient Domain, the nom de film of a college friend of L'Heureux's. Sales of Atrina's CD-R will be funneled directly into pledging for L'Heureux's bike ride for the Connecticut Challenge in support of cancer survivors. Once the EP comes out in earnest, a dollar of each sale will continue to go toward the Connecticut Challenge.

a blogger reacts to atrina after stumbling across our site...

-confluence.za.net {07.04.05}
Something about these songs just grabbed me as soon as I heard them, although the quality of some of the recordings isn't very good. The music is weirdly atonal in places, and uses chords which nobody else seems to use - which is possibly why I like it so much. Recommendations: Memento, Eviscerate, Polaroid, Sulu, Seven Ways, Spy, Witness, Sci-Fi #2.

review of "searching for a better way" ep

-annie tomlin / Punk Planet {may/jun 2003}
Noisy, down-and-dirty, metal-tinged rock. Singer Kelly nails that wail/sigh vocals that meld smoothly with fuzzy guitars. Although there's an apparent Slint influence, these kids are best when they drop the arty songs (promising but ill-fitting) and stick with the rock 'n' roll, hoochie koo.

review of "searching for a better way" ep

-jeff breeze / Northeast Performer {jun 2003}
If you're looking for music that has certain antecedents, all you have to do is determine what influences you're looking for and then be prepared to find the answers in the strangest locations. Anymore it seems that if you're looking around in the big cities of the Northeast, what you're going to find are bands that have refined their specialty to the point that they can accomplish the style they seek to attain with severe precision, but if you knock them out of their box, you're left with someone who flounders. Atrina is a band that combines the aggression of a Dischord band with the angular guitar wails of people reared on the sounds of Sonic Youth, and all of that is churning away beneath the impassioned wail of vocalist Kelly. “Sulu” is the opening track and it rambles around looking for a center but ultimately decides that bulldozing through the middle is the best track of all. It's the deliberate drumming that defies you not to start clapping along at the beginning of “Memento.” Then suddenly, all of the elements that made you enjoy listening to the array of female-fronted Alternative bands in the '90s comes crashing headlong in a big wave. The song has the rhythmic insistence of Elastica, and the exuberance of the Breeders, and the pure pop of Veruca Salt all wrapped in one. Just when you expected this band had hit its limits, “Sci-Fi #2” heads off in a drifty, floaty direction that draws tight comparisons to My Bloody Valentine. “Eviscerate” takes elements from the three preceding tracks and sticks them all into a 7+ minute opus. Ultimately, the way that Atrina pulls it all together is similar to Eyes Like Knives. The band isn't afraid to use force to get its points across, but similarly knows that it can lull you into a spot that will make knocking you from your headphones all the more satisfying.

band spotlight

-Rainer Maria website {march 2003}
A little touch of garage, a little bit of electroclash, and a whole lotta rock. This relatively new band from the hinterlands of Connecticut have loads of songs you can download from their site. If their live show is as intense as their recordings, they'll be showing up on the bigger stages pretty soon.