EAST IS EAST

“Seeking true quirkiness in a female singer-songwriter? Skip Regina Spektor and give Pepi Ginsberg a chance…Her hyper-poetic words about vagabonds and drifters bounce and dip at alluringly unorthodox angles, with an almost Dylan-esque intonation.” — FILTER

“While driving one day, Pepi Ginsberg began to wonder what it would sound like if Bob Dylan-circa Blood On The Tracks-had a love child with Deerhoof. She was able to answer her question in the form of upcoming LP, East Is East (Park The Van), in which she evokes the spirits of those artists while still retaining the folk arrangements and tenebrous lyrics of her last two albums.” — MAGNET

“Ginsberg, after all, has one of the best, most restless voices around, full of little leaps and quirks. And her guitar playing is splintered and stuttered, embellished by an agile backing trio. The single “Coca Cola” is reduced to an almost calypso core, while the exuberant “Shake This” has turned thousands of heads with an unlikely video starring a teenaged L.A. dance crew…East Is East is bizarre, buoyant, and defiantly poppy like few records could manage.” — SEATTLE WEEKLY

“Pepi Ginsberg spins fear into beauty, at the same time she’s spinning beauty into fear. It tends to work well, both ways for the Philadelphian songwriter. It’s without any desire to cause a disturbance or any reason for disorder and hand-wringing that Ginsberg sits at a figurative wheel and does this, but without many other ways of explaining it, black storm clouds are always cooking and kicking up when she gets to writing. It’s as if one of those clear blue afternoons, on a late spring day, metamorphoses into a gradually-to-rapidly deconstructed abstraction of peacefulness, trending within heartbeats toward something that is going to pound out thunder, frightening every dog in its path and cause a weathered onslaught.” — DAYTROTTER

“Folk-rock experimenter Pepi Ginsberg and band tested the textures of her just-released Shake This EP, an appetizer for the bold East Is East, due early next year. Among the unreleased jams, “Lost River” and “Kid” best let Ginsberg work out her versatile voice while guitarist Amnon Freidlin snuck a shock of discordant runs underneath.” — PASTEMAGAZINE.COM

“From the elastic guitars of “Shake This” to the chopped-up beat in “Lost River,” the record has a pronounced and infectious Afro-pop feel not unlike Dirty Projectors, but Ginsberg’s gangly but affecting voice also commands more straightforward songs like the plaintive “Coca Cola.” — PORTLAND MERCURY

“The artsy craftsy pastiche of Pepi’s new “East Is East” album is appealing. Note the nods to Dylan (Bob) and bits of Bryne (David), the former in delivery, the latter in entangling rhythmic sensibility. But that exotic voice is strictly her own!” — PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS

“…Much of the instrumentation on East Is East is as traditional as it gets. But Ginsberg does display an acute talent for making minor tweaks to the most time-honored formulas. “Coca Cola” sounds as though the rhythm section decided to swap instruments as a goof, with a lead guitar lick that sounds much more like a bass line, and a bass line stripped down so far it seems almost ornamental.” — WNYC

“East is East is summery, poppy, and highly addictive.” — STARK MAGAZINE

“If Cat Power’s voice and Neko Case’s voice made sweet, sweet love to each other, you’d likely get the voice of Pepi Ginsberg. But the soft sounds are delivered with razor sharp lyrics that tell amazing little stories.” — PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER

“Shades of Regina Spektor abounded on new song “Coca-Cola,” as Ginsberg’s tremulous voice swooped and dived abruptly. The adventurous crowd warmed to this idiosyncratic artist and capped off her set with enthusiastic cheers, including one new fan who screamed out, “What’s your name?” — MAGNET (Review of a Show at The Henry Fonda Music Box)

“Last time she passed through, we referenced Edie Brickell, Jolie Holland, and, yes, Dylan while locating “a general Beatnik feel [in] the old-NY lyricism.” She still has that voice and a certain delivery. “Coca Cola” indeed feels less vintage, but in that way that Larkin Grimm, Jack Rose (and various other Golden Apples Of the Sun bands), or Matteah Baim, etc., seem to inhabit a couple of eras at once.” — STEREOGUM

“Vocal acrobat Pepi Ginsberg has made a fan out of our own Henry Rollins, among many others.” — KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic

PAST QUOTES

“Catchy and intelligent, Red has a driving pulse throughout…Like Dylan, Ginsberg’s voice has a tattered swagger that is deep, throaty, and rounded. However, she replaces Dylan’s gritty vocals with mellow tones that seem sipped right out of a few glasses of a favorite red table wine.” — VENUS

“Channeling Nashville Skyline-era Dylan, Mitchell and Baez, her freak-folk is unpredictable, feathery and, of course, disarmingly weird-that dramatic, unabashed voice alone warrants attention. Recently signed to Philly’s label-to-reckon-with, Park The Van, Ginsberg’s prolific output communicates a peculiar mix of heartbreak and joy.” — HEEB

“Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken was so taken with Pepi Ginsberg that he not only collaborated with the New York singer/songwriter on her third album, Red, but he also got her signed to Philly label Park the Van. It’s easy to see the musical attraction. On “The Waterline” Ginsberg sounds thoroughly self-possessed both lyrically and vocally, fitting a breezy, folky arrangement to dark lyrics about trying to keep your head above water.”
— PITCHFORK FORKAST

“The real star of the whole thing is her gorgeous voice. It hits with some sorta Edie Brickell warmth, but in a much jazzier Jolie Holland or, better yet, Spector realm.”
 — STEREOGUM

“Much of Red, her gorgeous third album, perfectly evokes the pathos of Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks and Desire. The intensity of her jarring, challenging wail-step off, Joanna Newsom-is met with warm, vintage piano and acoustic guitar arrangements orchestrated by Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken, who has built his own rep for pumping blood back into sounds from bygone eras with his own outfit. Just like the world-weary singing of Karen Dalton’s, which influenced Dylan in the 1960s, Ginsberg revels in the imperfections of her voice.”
 — PAPER THIN WALLS

“We can pretty safely file this one in the Things We Should Have Paid More Attention To folder.” — THE FADER.COM