Darling Noir

Dashing dames make cute and dangerous lo-fi pop.

by A.D. Amorosi

Elizabeth Anne Knauss (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Philly's cabaret pop lasses The Lemon Treasures follow a sweet, tart course throughout their self-released debut Mama Bear.

But it took a gander at their fascinating femme stage show to get how contagious their lo-fi electro-pop tunes were. And how starry high their voices twinkled. And how oddly passionate their lyrics were.

Catching them at Tritone and National Mechanics did the trick.

There they were — Elizabeth (aka Lisa) America Vega, 21, and Elizabeth Anne Knauss, 24 — tweeting high and squeezing squeeze boxes while wearing shortie nightgowns, high heels and corsets. During "Jasper" (think Beyoncé's "Single Ladies" with more sass) they throw wads of confetti into mid-air. They're a parade.

Knauss is a "migrant bird of Philadelphia." Her duet partner was a "kitten from the big ol' bright yellow lights of Las Vegas." They met in the devil's dreariest pocket of Catharine Street.

Their patter — like their overall sartorial and tonsorial demeanor — has a film noir feel to it. As they do throughout songs like "City Love," Liz and Lisa finish each other's phrases.

"It was around the eerie west end of Catharine," says Knauss. "Lisa was dating some off-the-track jasper —"

"He was a real sharper," Vega continues. "But after a while I gave him a big kisser and told him to take it on the heel-and-toe and that's when I met Liz. She was some pretty canary that was living with some goon herself when —"

"We made a tune one day in Lisa's Pine Street apartment and it was like eggs in coffee ever since," claims Knauss.

It's like that, their chatter. Clifford Odets meets Damon Runyon with a girlie come-hither mew to it. It goes down smooth with their noir-boho boudoir look. "It's about having real glad rags on, showing a little bit of gam, being the cat's meow with the most extreme class, real ladylike you know," says Vega. "We want to bring back the idea of being a femme fatale in the city like Lizabeth Scott or Phyllis Dietrichson, but with a modern twist."

The ambience of sunlit noir — that's Lemon Treasures' sound. They don't use that nattering patois in their weirdly funny lyrics. "I love it when you make me spa-ghe-tti/ I like it when you pour me champagne," they coo through the softly plinking synths of "Spaghetti" and its tale of what Vega calls "the erotic power of dinner." The pair's voices have the tonal qualities of Julee Cruise and Mariah Carey.

"Oh God, Lisa sings higher than me," says Knauss. "I'm no mockingbird."

By: Michael T. Regan Elizabeth America Vega. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Their music can be swishy and acoustic, like their cover of R. Kelly's "Ignition"; jangly and thumping, as they sound on "Oscar Wilde"; or simply dreamy, like all of Mama Bear. The dream might not always be cozy and comfortable. With its low, slow tempo and frightened lyrical mien, "Catharine Street" has a touch of danger. It helps that they sound as if they're singing and playing through a dozen antiquated echo chambers.

"'Catharine Street' is based on a true and tragic story about a boy and girl and the looming doom that follows the swindling boy," says Vega.

Though there's the 1930s in their lingo, mannerisms and fashion and something tongue-in-cheek about the way the music matches the lyrics, what they do embodies youth and love in the city. "Our personal experiences highly drive us to write in a way that is both fun and a release of emotions, whether they're amusing, defiant, fantastical, longing or loving," says Vega.

"It's all the tiny little moments you have — trolley rides to West Philly, springtime in Rittenhouse Square, feeling awkward playing for business professionals who just got out of their 9-to-5 and have to watch a bunch of girls sing love songs with the glances that we give each other," says Knauss. "When life gives you lemons, say, 'thanks life. I'ma make juice now.' Besides, you never hear anyone bitching about lemons, do you?"