Agent Ribbons was a Sacramento indie band built around vocalist/guitarist Natalie Gordon (later known as Natalie Ribbons) and drummer Lauren Hess, blending blues and "baroque" indie-pop with character-driven, story-style lyrics.[1][2] Explicitly identified by Submerge as "Sacramento locals," the group emerged from the Sacramento art-gallery circuit before relocating to Austin, Texas.[1][3][4]
At a glance
- Sacramento-origin duo: Natalie Gordon (vocals/guitar) and Lauren Hess (drums).[1]
- Formed around early 2006 — described in February 2008 as not yet having "entered their terrible twos," with that milestone coming "this coming March."[1]
- Sound described as "a delightful balance of blues and baroque."[2]
- Relocated to Austin, Texas, while still identified as a Sacramento act ("Austin, Texas-based (by way of Sacramento)").[3]
- Gordon later formed the Austin band Tele Novella, debuted at SXSW in 2013.[4][5]
Origin and members
The core duo was Natalie Gordon (vocals, guitar) and Lauren Hess (drums).[1] Before Agent Ribbons, Gordon had played sporadic solo shows and had nearly quit music — she has said she sold her guitars and didn't play for about a year after hitting a songwriting "dead end," and credited meeting Hess as the turning point that brought her back to writing.[1] At one point the two lived in the same building, with Hess in the flat below, though Hess split her time with San Francisco where she worked in a bead shop.[1] Gordon worked by day as an assistant to a corset maker (which she jokingly called an "independent sweat shop"), and had studied art history.[1]
A third member, violinist/cellist Naomi Cherie, joined the band in early 2009 and departed in October 2010.[6]
Local status
Agent Ribbons is treated unambiguously as a Sacramento act in the corpus. The earliest feature opens by calling them "Sacramento locals."[1] A 2009 live review frames them as "local talent" poised to outgrow "the Sacramento art galleries" and warns the city may "lose them to some hip coastal city."[2] Even after the move to Texas, Submerge described them as "Austin, Texas-based (by way of Sacramento)" and called Gordon a "Longtime Sacramento musician turned Austin, Texas, resident."[3][4] Origin, not later base, governs: Agent Ribbons is local.
Awards
According to LocalWiki Sacramento, Agent Ribbons won Outstanding Local Act (Critic's Choice) at the Sacramento Area Music Awards (SAMMIES) in 2007, and Best Pop Band in both 2008 and 2009.[7]
Lyrics and approach
Gordon's songwriting is character- and story-driven rather than idea-driven, drawing on a "hybrid of personal experience and either movies or books," with much inspiration coming from the headspace of watching films.[1] She has described her songs as often "dark and kind of twisted," and said she enjoys writing from the perspective of "the sad or vengeful lover."[1][8] Live, the duo's set was characterized as evoking The Velvet Underground's "After Hours," mixing "gentle nursery rhyme" material with "naughty" innuendo.[2]
Releases and artwork
Agent Ribbons released a 7-inch, And the Star-Crossed Doppelganger, with cover art by comics artist/musician Dame Darcy; the band met Darcy when she was touring with her own band Death by Doll and invited her to play their CD release party.[1] An album, On Time Travel and Romance, initially circulated with handmade covers — Gordon estimated roughly 800 handmade CD covers — before the band moved to printed artwork illustrated by French artist Marie Caudry.[1] According to LocalWiki Sacramento, the album was released in 2006 on Are You Alive Records (catalog AYA-CD-003) and was recorded at Ambition Bind Studio with Jim Sandelius and David Houston.[9] The band also made handmade merchandise such as jewelry.[1] As of early 2008 they were working on new material with hopes of a release in early 2009.[1]
Songs from Chateau Crone were placed in several television shows, including The Vampire Diaries, Cougar Town, Revenge, and Being Human.[10]
Notable shows and touring
On April 24, 2009, Agent Ribbons played Luigi's Slices & Fun Garden in Sacramento on a bill with touring acts Vivian Girls (Brooklyn) and Abe Vigoda (Los Angeles), plus young Sacramento sister duo Dog Party; the show ran alongside a Wyclef Jean concert visible over the venue's fence on K Street.[2] By spring 2011, the now Austin-based duo toured back through the region, with dates at Harlow's (May 10), an in-store at Phono Select (May 15), Tin House in Grass Valley (May 17), and a headlining Friday Night Concerts in the Park set at Cesar Chavez Plaza (May 20).[3]
The band opened for Cake on their 2007 tour[11] and appeared at Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona and performed at multiple SXSW and CMJ festivals.[12]
Aftermath: Tele Novella
After moving to Austin, Gordon formed a new four-piece, Tele Novella, with members connected to the band Voxtrot — Gordon (guitar/vocals), Jason Chronis (bass/vocals), Sarah La Puerta (keyboards), and Matt Simon (drums).[5] Tele Novella debuted at SXSW in 2013 and released early psych-pop tracks including "Don't Be a Stranger" and "No Excalibur," followed by the EP Cosmic Dial Tone.[4][5] Gordon reflected that the move out of Sacramento was difficult but that she felt she was "working 10-times harder with Tele Novella than I was with Agent Ribbons," describing the older band as looser, more "random and thrown together," and full of "raw energy."[5] She also recalled that Agent Ribbons drew unusually harsh local criticism during its Sacramento years.[5] Returning shows brought Tele Novella to Bows and Arrows (May 28, 2013) and Witch Room (Sept. 1, 2014, with Shannon and the Clams, Silver Spoons, and DJ Roger Carpio).[4][5]