The Vanity Set is an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

group of mostly second-generation

Greek-Americans Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greeks, Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the hi ...

formed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in 2000. Led by

Jim Sclavunos James Sclavunos is an American drummer, multi-instrumentalist musician, record producer, and writer. He is best known as a drummer, having been a member of two seminal no wave groups in the late 1970s ( Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy, b ...

, the drummer/percussionist with

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and p ...

, they describe their music as a blend of "low art, high sass and raw bluster." Their music includes the sounds of

rebetiko Rebetiko ( el, ρεμπέτικο, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek music which have come to be grouped together since the s ...

, " psycho-billy guitar, creepy keys, raucous tuba, mellifluous theremin."

Current members

- lead vocals * Peter Mavrogeorgis - guitar,

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

* David Morton - keyboards, clarinet * Tam Ui - drums * Sasha Kazachkov - bass * Jennifer Carey - tuba & dead-bird-in-bag wrangler * Jaiko Suzuki - percussion

Previous members

Meredith Yayanos Meredith Anne Yayanos is a California-based violinist, vocalist and thereminist. Her work has been featured on tracks with artists including The Dresden Dolls, The Vanity Set, Revue Noir, David Garland and The Walkmen. Since 2021, Yayanos is a me ...

- violin,

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

* David Berger -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

* David Clifford -(Drums) * Brian Emrich - (Bass, Synthesizer, ondioline)

Discography

*''The Vanity Set'' *''Little Stabs of Happiness'' *''The Big Bang 7" record''

References

External links

Official Site
Indie rock musical groups from New York (state) Greek-American culture in New York City Musical groups established in 2000 {{US-indie-rock-band-stub