When music blogs and critics alike start comparing you to song poet Patti Smith or Chan Marshall’s Cat Power, you know you’re doing something right. EMA, a.k.a Erika M. Anderson, may not be on everyone’s indie hit list just yet, but like the songstresses before her who have developed a cult-like following in the underbelly of the independent music scene before reaching household name status, it probably won’t be long before EMA joins the ranks and revolutionizes the genre.
Fans of her former folk drone band Gowns – a group that took off in the underground, yet never forged a significant audience until their break-up last February – surely rejoiced when EMA debuted her first solo record, Past Life Martyred Saints, in May.
The album, an emotional stream-of-consciousness that may or may not be accessible to all ears who aren’t used to such vivid, long-winded lyrical emotion, has already placed EMA as one of the new artists to watch by music titans like Rolling Stone.
Making a stop at Madison’s High Noon Saloon just two days before her Friday afternoon Pitchfork appearance and playing among the ranks of Neko Case, Fleet Foxes and James Blake, EMA is a definite must-listen if you’re the type of music snob who likes turning your friends on to new and noteworthy artists. Or, if you’re tired of the constant rotation on your iPod (too much Bon Iver lately?), EMA is sure to provide a respite, albeit an emotional, instrumentally charged one.
EMA will be playing the Red stage at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.
