Caulfield Sisters
| The Caulfield Sisters | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Genres |
Alternative Indie rock Shoegaze |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Labels | American Laundromat |
| Associated acts | Pee Shy, Land of Tomorrow, Look It, Mostly Water, Gloria Deluxe |
| Members | Cindy Wheeler Mary Catherine Guidera Kristin Mueller |
| Past members | Aaron Kant |
The Caulfield Sisters (2000–present) are a critically praised independent band based in Brooklyn, New York, noted at times for their sonic similarity to Throwing Muses or Galaxie 500. They have appeared at the annual CMJ music festival in New York, were featured in the New York art magazine Esopus and in an April 2005 live performance on Seattle independent radio station KEXP, and have performed with bands such as Interpol.
Lead singer, accordionist and guitar player Cindy Wheeler founded the Caulfield Sisters with bass player and backup vocalist Mary Catherine Guidera following the break-up of their former band Pee Shy in 1998. Wheeler and Guidera also briefly led a three-person band called 3 Wheeler immediately after Pee Shy broke up, and recorded a Mercury-financed demo recording under that name in 1998-99. The duo soon added Aaron Kant as drummer; Kristin Mueller took his place in 2004.
The Caulfield Sisters take their name from Phoebe Caulfield, the sister of Holden Caulfield in J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye. As Wheeler explained in one radio interview: "After Pee Shy split, Mary and I took a little time off and then we missed playing together really badly. She was living up in Connecticut at the time, and I used to travel up there on the weekends to write songs with her. The whole vibe up there is very sort of Catcher in the Rye, very New England, melancholy, dreary, and it sort of lent itself to the songwriting we were doing." On the Sisters' Web site, they elaborate: "The Caulfield Sisters are the musical metaphor of Phoebe, little sister of Salinger’s anti-hero Holden Caulfield; Holden’s Phoebe, the little sister as savior, a glimmer of hope in a blue coat, a sonic swirl, a beautiful blur that keeps whirling past you on the Merry-go-round."
Interestingly, Wheeler said her high school in Tennessee had banned Salinger's novel from its library because of its strong language; she had to get written permission from her parents before the librarian was allowed to give her a copy. Guidera, who chose the band's name, has said she had become "obsessed" with the book after reading it as an adult.
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