The Affair:
Rock & Roll Survival
By: Heather Hoskeer


Doesn’t it seem like, every few days or so someone is announcing that Rock and Roll is dead, or conversely, that it is alive again, which would imply that it had been dead and is now miraculously resurrected? Whatever. I am of the opinion that Rock and Roll never died and it probably never will, so let’s all just calm down. The Affair, a New York based band, embodies the rock and roll survival ethos. Their music manages to pull off earnest rock and roll chops with the much needed modern nod of ironic self-awareness. This is rock and roll, kicking screaming and having fun along the way. Oh yeah, and it is very much alive. A little while back I sat down and sipped some wine with The Affair. We talked a little trash about life in Brooklyn, music in New York and how Barcelona is, well, overrated.

I spoke to the band just before their debut at the Austin music festival SXSW. They came across as, honestly, the most unpretentious, down to earth folks in the Lower East Side. While they are clearly striking out on their own path, they acknowledged that there is no place like New York. "It’s a good time to be a New York band," lead singer Kali Holloway said. The band seemed to agree that although there has always been a lot going on in New York, under the radar, now, for whatever reason, people are noticing.

Kali Holloway captivates with a soaring voice that catapults lyrics like "make your wages if you wanna live" (a line we can relate to from the song, Left at the Party) from the mundane to something other worldly, surreal and, yeah, even passionate. The tight musicality of Nelson Dellamaggiore (bass), Neel Arant (keyboards, guitar), Josh Leeman (lead guitar) and Marc Pattini (drums) comes together to create a force to be reckoned with.

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