Recommended Gigs - Details
| when: |
Mon 27 October |
|
| Event title |
FOREVER Presents: Throw Me The Statue, Headlights |
| Where: |
Whelans
- Dublin |
| Category: |
Gigs |
| |
WHELANS, WEXFORD ST, DUBLIN 2
TICKETS: €
14.00
INCLUDES BOOKING FEES. OVER 18'S
Headlights -bio
The
story of Headlights' new album starts in an old, two-story farmhouse
just outside of Champaign, IL. Nestled between corn and soybean fields,
and within view of encroaching industry — a freight train line, a FedEx
plant, and the local mall visible from the 2nd floor window — this
farmhouse was the site where the band wrote and recorded its sophomore
full length album, Some Racing, Some Stopping.
To fully
understand what went into the album, one must first understand what led
up to it. Since its formation in 2004, the band has toured virtually
nonstop, playing over 300 shows in the past two and a half years in
support of both its debut Enemies EP and its stunning 2006 full length,
Kill Them With Kindness. It was a remarkable achievement, but
ultimately Headlights members Tristan Wraight, Erin Fein, and Brett
Sanderson needed a break. So in the Spring of 2007, Fein and Sanderson
moved into Wraight's farmhouse, and leisurely, little by little, the
trio started to write. This time they wanted something different from
the live-based approach to writing and recording that had led to the
obsessively crafted takes on Kill Them With Kindness. This time they
wanted something more natural, more immediate, more spontaneous. As
Fein says, they wanted to 'capture the moment of a new song.'
Now
working from home, without the pressures of studio timeframes and a
ticking hourly rate, the band was free to write and record as they saw
fit. The songs were recorded as they were written, and many of the
tracks that were used were first takes. Based around Wraight's acoustic
guitar and Fein's keyboards, the songs on Some Racing, Some Stopping
purposefully lack much of the spacey atmospherics that define the
band's earlier work. Instead, the album, which is self-produced with
drummer Sanderson manning the boards, is steeped in a classic pop
sensibility, reminiscent of the '60s, Brill Building song craft, and
Phil Spector production. Songs like the chiming, harmonic 'Catch Them
All,' the light and airy 'Cherry Tulips,' the solemn 'January,' and the
driving, string-touched 'Market Girl' are evidence of an album that is
more focused, and, in a sense, more simplistic than any of the band's
past work.
'It can really exhaust your ear if there's a huge
amount of stuff happening all the time, and that's one of the things
that we learned on Kill Them With Kindness,' says Wraight. 'We really
love that record and we're really proud of it, but we also feel a
little bit worn out after we listen to it because there's always so
much going on. We just wanted a few opportunities for people who are
listening to the record to have a break and have a little bit of small
space and a little bit of small sounds happening.'
Headlights
plans to hit the road once again in support of Some Racing, Some
Stopping. However, after years of touring, much of it just as a
three-piece, the band members have learned that they cannot do it
alone. This time they will be joined by Nick Sanborn (Decibully) on
bass and accordion, as well as a rotating cast of friends, including
John Owen (Shipwreck) and Kenny Seibert (Decibully), on guitar and
other odds and ends, filling out the sound that is established on the
album.
This album is very much the singular vision of its three
principal members who, by affording themselves the freedom to work in
their own space, have created a work that distills the best parts of
their songwriting into a concise, cohesive whole. Perhaps because of
this, Some Racing, Some Stopping sounds like a breakout work for
Wraight, Fein, and Sanderson. It is one where their true songwriting
prowess is on full display. No distractions. No outside influence. Just
three musicians, exploring their vision. And it all came together in
that old two-story farmhouse.
Throw Me The Statue-bio
THROW ME THE STATUE
Moonbeams CD / LP (SC168, released: 02/18/08)
Making
waves throughout the latter half of 2007, we're super pleased to
deliver Seattle's Throw Me The Statue's debut album, 'Moonbeams.'
Conceived and fronted by Scott Reitherman, 'Moonbeams', was constructed
with the help of Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, Pedro The Lion) to
create a wondrous concoction of fuzzed out synths, brass ensembles and
epic vocal melodies that have been noticeably absent since 'In the
Aeroplane, Over The Sea' first saw the light of day.
At the
album's core is a sharp sense of melody, a cutting lyrical honesty, and
a bludgeoning beat that brings to mind the whimsy of Magnetic Fields,
the lyrical expanse of The Microphones, and the lo-fi bliss of Eric's
Trip.
While the front of the album is nothing short of the next
evolution of skewed Northwest bombast with 'Lolita,' 'Yucatan Gold' and
'About To Walk' , the second half displays an unexpected maturity in
young Reitherman. The title track oozes down tempo vulnerability while
the closer, 'The Happiest Man On This Plane' combines the best of
Reitherman's predecessors Phil Elvrum and Dave Bazan.
TMTS's
live show has been described as 'Wildly energetic. Live drums, electric
guitars, and four-part harmonies replace Reitherman's multitracking,
and the able, athletic band switch instruments, add extra percussion,
and throw in melodica and glockenspiel with an abandon grounded by
serious musicianship.' (The Stranger, 2007)
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