Greetings, friend! My name is Robert and I play music under the moniker Pelicans and Their Allies. (I also make instrumental music under the name Poplr.) I write sweet and catchy indie folk songs with clever and insightful lyrics. The music aims to be somewhere between singer-songwriter-ish and jangly guitar indie rock.
This whole thing started in, I wanna say, 2009 or so in Washington DC. Back then it was called Addieville and I played with my pal, Dayana Yochim. These days it’s just me, making music as Pelicans and Their Allies in Santa Fe, NM.
On the recordings, I play a bunch of instruments. When I play out, it’s solo acoustic. You can check it out on all the streaming platforms. I hope you like it.
Spotify • Apple Music • Amazon Music
If you’d like to book me, there’s a contact form below. I play for tips/snacks/beer! Or money! If that’s on the table. (I just love playing.)
Anyhoo, peace and love.
Your pal,
Robert
Contact:
Reviews:
Magnet Magazine (Re: Just Like July)
It’s a buoyant, bouncy kind of indie-rock track with a slew of hooks—what more could you ask for?
~ Magnet Magazine, Re: Just Like July
RECORD REWIND PLAY (RRP Recommends)
If Beulah and The Shins got together for a basement jam, they might wind up creating something along the lines of "Just Like July", the debut single from Pelicans and their Allies. The lead single from their forthcoming self-titled EP, it's playful and melodic, indicative of the group's overall approach on a debut EP that includes "a song about Sam Clemens struggling with his alter ego, peppered with a hint of King Kong." The song came about, by the way, when a fan asked for a song about Mark Twain.
Pelicans and their Allies originally started life in 2012 as Addieville, an acoustic guitar and cello collaboration between Robert Higgs and Dayana Yochim. At some point around 2014 they went from acoustic to plugged in, changed their name and set about recording the debut EP. Recorded at Higgs' home studio - the enticingly entitled Blanket Fort Studio - Pelicans and their Allies is out on November 6th.
Notes from Left of the Dial: French Exit and more – nooga.com
By JOSHUA PICKARD
The music of indie pop outfit Pelicans and Their Allies is simultaneously weightless, eccentric and expansive. Composed of singer/guitarist Robert Higgs and singer/multi-instrumentalist Dayana Yochim, the band veers between soft gossamer melodies and bombastic pop hooks, while layering in strands of violin, glockenspiel, melodica and other ancillary instruments. The sum of these sounds creates a wondrous noise that’s characterized by its lack of musical artifice and an allegiance to a more open-ended exploration of the genre.
On their recent single, "Just Like July," they combine a communal playfulness with a literate pop execution, resulting in a song that’s as easy to sing along to as it is to sit back and feel its sounds wash over you in a rhythmic ebb and flow. The accompanying cut-and-paste video is a perfect analog complement to the music and draws out even further the sense that this is all done through a determined love for the creating process. Higgs and Yochim aren’t the first to delve deeply into this kind of pop wonderland, but they certainly have a better grasp of it than most of their cinematic pop peers.