Shalini to “Shine” w/Album, Tour

Fred Mills / Harp Magazine
September 5, 2007

With her new studio album The Surface and the Shine set to drop in October, Shalini (a/k/a Shalini Chatteree) will also be doing a string of concert dates with her band. The record will be released by Electric Devil/125 Records, which also brought us the recent Dynamico by Mitch Easter—who, not so coincidentally, is also Shalini’s husband, producer and bandmember.

Shalini’s last album, 2004’s Metal Corner, notched solid critical commentary, ranging from “a power-pop platter deluxe” (HARP) to “hooks bigger than the Strokes’ egos” (Aversion) to “a coy yet impressively sweet vocalist, a mix of the deadpan and the Spectoresque girlie” (Mojo). Meanwhile, in the upcoming issue of HARP we single out TSATS’s “winsome femme vocals and soaring harmonies to the mélange of brash, crashing chords to the pulse-quickening rhythmic surges and luminous keyboard flourishes,” and you know we wouldn’t steer you wrong.

Shalini’s been around since the early ‘90s when she fronted San Francisco’s Vinyl Devotion. After meeting Easter, who was producing a record for the band, she eventually moved to North Carolina and married the legendary producer/Let’s Active alumnus, and the two have been recording and touring together ever since. On the new album, in addition to her hubby she’s joined by Eric Marshall (Let’s Active), Paul Chastain (Velvet Crush) and Jane Francis (Velvet), but it’s still her show all the way.