Landlady

"This is the part of the song when we come together." Adam Schatz's voice rings out in the flickering candlelight of Manhattan Inn. Last summer, he began a monthly series in the Greenpoint bar's piano-anchored back room, built to bring his friends together to play music. And Schatz – who plays in Man Man and Father Figures, co-produces NYC Winter Jazzfest, founded Search & Restore, and has wielded his saxophone on numerous stages and on recordings for bands like Vampire Weekend (see "Diane Young") and Those Darlins – has a lot of friends. But on this warm summer night, the man that energizes so many NYC scenes stood on a piano bench, gazing somewhere only he could see, and declared a scene of his own: "There's no before. There's no after. There's only this." This is Landlady.

The song was "Above My Ground," a disarming sing-along anthem and a wide window into Schatz – the songwriter, the multi-instrumentalist, the vocalist. Over the past three years, Landlady has evolved alongside its busy leader, self-releasing Keeping To Yourself in 2011, solidifying into a striking five-member lineup that includes Mikey Freedom Hart, Ian Chang, Ian Davis, and Booker Stardrum, and recording Upright Behavior. The new album will be released July 15, 2014 on Hometapes (home to Bear In Heaven, Celestial Shore, Megafaun, Leverage Models, Brad Laner, Pattern Is Movement, and more).