Hailing from Rhode Island, indie-pop artist Miss Geo is ready to make a big impact on the New England music scene, and with an album like The Story, it’s hard not to be impressed. The album contains some of the best vocal tracks I’ve heard from a local artist in a long time.

The project serves as a solo outlet for leading lady Abby Gutierrez.  Her voice is a wonderful combination of Tegan and Sara with a splash of Metric thrown in for good measure. 

Gutierrez seems to have cracked the code for crafting perfect pop songs; her track Snake Soiree being a prime example of her talent. The long, slow build-up of the verse into a full-on synth-laden dance party chorus is brilliant.

Once again, I found myself dancing in my chair as I typed this review. 

Gutierrez’ talents extend far deeper than just instrumentation or orchestration of songs. Her lyrical descriptions are quite striking. Fore xample, in Snake Soiree she described her significant other as being “muter than the silent film stars”, an image that I found to be very powerful.



This collection of songs is well-worth a listen (or two, or three). I would not be surprised to hear her songs start showing up on the radio (they certainly have enough hooks and pop-clarity). If my ravings about Miss Geo haven’t yet convinced you of Gutierrez’ skills, head on over to the Miss Geo Myspace page or check Miss Geo out live (accompanied by her live band consisting of fellow musicians Jessy Bartlett, Chris Mendoza, and James Wilhelmsen).


–Daniel McMahon

Sometimes, there’s no show to talk about, we just get something pretty cool and want to share it. Such is the case today. When is Miss Geo (alias Abby Guttierez) going to get out there and make some real live noise? Heck if I know, I just hope it’s soon. Why? Do I really need to tell you? Because I will, once I am done with this here intro. You will hear this track and be all “OMG, this woman better play a live show soon!” You might even start to make moves to make this happen. Does she need a band? I don’t know. What do you think I am, her manager? Check her out on her Facebook page or, if you’re a glutton for punishment and/or stuck in 2005, her MySpace page. On second though, don’t go to MySpace, that will just encourage them. But do join her on The Facebook and tell her to go play a show. Now.
 
Miss Geo gently prods this song awake like it is a beloved pet and she’s ready to bring it out for a walk to meet the neighbors, the neighbors being the listener. The main characters in this mix are a duo of clean toned guitars that converse with each other as much as they regard us in their sound. Panned left and right respectively, the left favors the midtones and the right stays in the higher registers, brightening up the arrangement with bright melodies.

Miss Geo herself stands in the middle of these two entities, putting words to fill in the spaces left by her otherwise mute companions. Her voice is breathy yet elastic – able to flow smoothly through the air yet tensile and strong enough to be able to carry a melody win style and grace – and a bit of feline power. The melody is sleek and silky, even in the more-powerful strains of the chorus. Abby Gutierrez displays the vocal agility of throwback heroes such as Juliana Hatfield, with the sweetly aloof manner of one who knows she’s doing it right so why push it?

The melody of this song is cool – it’s too cool to care that it’s too cool to care, if you can dig that. While “Half-Assed” is clearly in no hurry to move anywhere, it still retains a highly mobile nature, as if it is able to fake to the left and go to the right and vice versa. The fluidity of the song comes from that center joint that is Gutierrez’s vocal – the bending twist of her melody pumps and pistons to drive this song from deep below and behind its half-closed big brown eyes. This notion is an excellent one to express the feel of this track – it could open wide and really charm the heck out of you, but instead it’s going to make you intrigued enough to work for it – and end up charmed anyway.

With Liz Isenberg, The Rice Cakes, The Brother Kite, and Peacewise

October 02 2011
MS GEO at Oktoberfest in Harvard Square!, Oktoberfest 2011 Harvard Square
Free + All Ages

Come watch MS GEO, 4pm at the Fire+Ice Stage!
(Located on Church St. in the Parking Lot) 04:00
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