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East River Music Project - August 11th


August 11

And now the lineup for our third show of the summer. Oh yes.

>> VAMPIRE WEEKEND (website | myspace )
>> JONATHAN KANE’S FEBRUARY (video | myspace )
>> MEG BAIRD (website | myspace )

August 11, 2007 | East River Amphitheater | Free
(FDR Drive @ Cherry St.)
www.ermp.org
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
Acclaimed by the New York Times (”…something about their preppie, polyrhythmic sound feels fresh and funny and, weirdly, inevitable. Instead of borrowing from early Talking Heads albums…they’re borrowing from Afro-pop, just as Talking Heads did on later albums. In retrospect it’s a brilliantly well-timed approach”) and John Darnielle (”They have awesome afrobeat-style guitar and an singer with a pretty sweet voice and, on the evidence of the songs on their Myspace, a natural gift for melody the likes of which you don’t hear very often.”), among others. Is it catchy? It’s very catchy. Currently available is a three-song EP, plus a contribution to Stereogum’s recent OK Computer tribute.
website: http://www.vampireweekend.com/
myspace/audio: http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
press: http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=892

JONATHAN KANE’S FEBRUARY
I’ll let the label bio speak for itself here: “Jonathan Kane is a Downtown NYC legend — as co-founder of the no-wave behemoth Swans, and the rhythmic thunder behind the massed-guitar armies of Rhys Chatham and the rock excursions of La Monte Young — and one of the hardest-hitting drummers on the planet. With his solo work, Kane summons Swans’ concussive wallop, Chatham’s dense guitar strata, and the perpetual propulsion of 70s krautrockers Neu, then steers it all head-on into… the blues.” From having seen February (Kane’s live band) myself, I can say that those comparisons are entirely accurate. Four guitars, one bass, and Kane on drums, playing music that draws from traditional blues and folk and runs it through a minimalist filter. To give you a sense of what this is like live, witness this live-at-WFMU performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlLLVA29Irs
site/audio: http://www.myspace.com/jonathankane
press: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/2407

MEG BAIRD
May 2007 saw the release of Meg Baird’s Dear Companion on Drag City. While Baird is primarily known for her work as a member of Philadelphia’s acclaimed Espers, this solo work has been receiving its fair share of critical praise as well. “Each of Dear Companion’s acoustic guitar-plus-voice songs feels as if it comes from another era, primarily the late-’60s heyday of British folk, with some ‘70 singer-songwriter touches thrown in for good measure. Whereas Baird’s contemporaries…come across like a modern band simply appreciating the music of decades ago, Dear Companion genuinely sounds like a lost Fairport Convention recording.” (Andrew Earles, The AV Club)
website: http://www.megbaird.com/
myspace/audio: http://www.myspace.com/pennsylvaniawildlife
press: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/43142-dear-companion



posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 12:50 am and is filed under music, ERMP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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