Yellow Ostrich singer-guitarist Alex Schaaf, who recorded 2011's <em>The Mistress</em> alone in his Appleton bedroom, is the kind of guy who once relied only on his boyish voice and a drum machine to make one EP (<em>Fade Cave</em>) and drew lyrics exclusively from an actor's Wikipedia entry for another (<em>The Morgan Freeman EP</em>). Now relocated to New York City, he has expanded Yellow Ostrich to a three-piece indie outfit that plasters the image of a faceless head of hair on its album cover and uses text-speak in song titles (“I Want Yr Love”).<br /><br />Despite all that, Yellow Ostrich doesn't make typical indie-rock fare. For example, multi-instrumentalist Jon Natchez plays at least 11 different kinds of horns throughout <em>Strange Land</em>'s 10 lush, rhythmically compact songs, which often focus on how things are not always better somewhere else. Might Schaaf be drawing comparisons between Appleton and the Big Apple?<em><br /><br />Yellow Ostrich will perform at the Cactus Club on Sunday, March 11.</em> <p align="right" style="text-align: right;"><br /></p> <p><em> </em></p>
Yellow Ostrich
Strange Land (Barsuk Records)