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Darcy Malone and the Tangle

Tangled Up: Darcy Malone & The Tangle
Born of New Orleans music royalty, Darcy Malone mixes up her music and blurs genres with her band, The Tangle.

You know the T-shirt that says I may be older than you, but I saw all the good bands? Well, Darcy Malone saw most of the good bandswas even babysat by a couple of themand she probably isnt older than you. As the daughter of local music royalty, Malone grew up immersed in sounds from New Orleans and elsewhere. And as the frontwoman of the Tangle, shes poised to add to the tradition.

The Tangles recent album, Still Life, marks the official rollout of a project thats been in the works for more than a decade now. And though the band is now formally called Darcy Malone and the Tangle, she stresses that its not one of those star-frontwoman-and-the-guys situations. I was the only one who voted against altering the name, she says. Malone and guitarist/songwriter Chris Boye have been inseparableas friends, collaborators and now as a married couplesince meeting at a gig in 2004, and all six current members of the Tangle insist that theyre serious about taking this nationwide. Our ultimate goal is to be successful, says drummer Billy Schell, who came close to a national breakthrough with the Boondoggles ten years ago. If it was as easy as getting five smoking hot players together and writing some good songsthat should be the formula for success, right? But we all know it isnt; you need to have that it factor. And I think weve got it.

We want to appeal to a lot of people, Malone says. It can be hard to be a rock musician in New Orleans, and we knew we needed elements to make it a little different. What were trying to achieve is rock/soul, with elements of something catchysomething like Ike & Tina Turner meets XTC. Now, that idea may make someone else go what!?, but to me it sounds wonderful. Every member of the band might say something different, but in the end its rock n rollwith a lot of other things.