Evangelicals (2 Viewers)

[Archie]

Anyone else like these?

kind of like a psych-rock pavement with a lead man that can falsetto
pretty good!

 

[Unicron]

Haven't heard their first record but The Evening Descends if my favourite record of the year to date.

 

[Archie]

first record "so gone" is in a similar vein...a little more meandering than The Evening Desends, equally as good though.

 

[warcam]

They're playing in Whelan's on 8th June.
Should be a great one...

 

[Unicron]

The Evening Descends if my favourite record of the year to date.

Boy has my opinion changed. I still think it's a good record but it's been eclipsed by plenty of other stuff. I suppose it was only February when I said that.

Looking forward to the gig though.

 

[Foggy]

anyone want to open for Evangelicals?

 

[Urchin PR]

Re: Evangelicals, Whelan's, June 8

Foggy Notions presents:
EVANGELICALS (Dead Oceans)
June 8, Whelan’s
Tickets from tickets.ie, Tickemaster, WAV, Road Records, City Discs

“The Evening Descends is bursting with balcony-pitched histrionics, molten Brian May leads, and standing-ovation-worthy crashes. But what really makes this album special is the ways in which the Evangelicals pull off big-stage spectacle on what still sounds like a public-access cable-show budget.” – Pitchfork, 8.3

"Channeling X-Ray Spex, OutKast, Prince and a less-twee-Sundays, and even out reverbing My Morning Jacket on an epic about having your legs sawn off, Evangelicals sing of skeletons, snowflakes and things that go bump in the night with witty samples and imaginative arrangements. A
testament to the occasional fearlessness of youth." - Uncut, 4/5

“Tearing down the day song-by-song as The Evening Descends, Evangelicals draw from their Okie idols the Flaming Lips, using everything from pop, soul, prog, and psychedelia to create arrangements that bleed into open skies, sounding like the weird uncanny cousins of Band of Horses.” – SPIN

The Evangelicals seems like an appropriate name for a band from the Bible Belt town of Norman, Oklahoma, but this band's skewed, psychedelic take on post-Pavement indie rock seems unlikely to thrill the average church youth group. Seemingly heavily influenced by fellow Oklahoma oddballs Flaming Lips and the Starlight Mints, as well as other members of the lysergic end of contemporary indie pop, the Evangelicals were started in 2005 by singer, songwriter, and, at first, sole member Josh Jones.

After recording the majority of the Evangelicals' debut album by himself, Jones recruited his childhood friend Austin Stephens as drummer and fellow Oklahoma University student Kyle Davis on bass, turning the group into a full-time studio and touring proposition. Signing to the respected indie Misra Records (Great Lake Swimmers, the Mendoza Line) the Evangelicals released their debut album, So Gone, on the thematically appropriate date of June 6, 2006.

Dabbling in glam, slipping in a little funk and soul, drinking the psychedelic Kool-aid, blasting the synths, cranking up the guitars, and wrapping it all up with a dose of pop smarts, Evangelicals’ second album The Evening Descends was released at the start of 2008 on Dead Oceans.

Picking up where So Gone left off, Evangelicals leave behind much of their ADD-addled approach on The Evening Descends, instead taking their wealth of great ideas and harnessing them for good. The hyperactive, overdriven pop is still here, but it is balanced with restraint -- not a lot, but enough that allows the songs to shine through.

Beneath the shrieks of guitars, keyboard blasts, and proggy space-age grooves, Josh Jones leads the listener through tales of religion and revivalism, plus insanity, drugs, black-outs, zombies, good and evil, car crashes, love and a mental institution called Bellawood. Jones's wild narratives and propulsive pop songs are anchored with the right balance of stoicism and wit by Davis and Stephens.

Evangelicals' The Evening Descends just might be Oklahoma's answer to Prince's Around the World in a Day, but from the perspective of someone crashing at Pee-Wee's Playhouse... who happens to have a chainsaw slowly gnawing through his leg. The Evening Descends is crazy, self-assured and above all, a totally wild ride.

They recently appeared on Stereogum's online covers album Enjoyed: A Tribute To Björk's Post, alongside Dead
Oceans labelmates Dirty Projectors and White Hinterland:
http://stereogum.com/bjork/

The band have also made a budget horror-style video for the song “Midnight Vignette,” which can be viewed here:
http://www.scjag.com/mp3/do/midnightvignette.mov

www.deadoceans.com
www.myspace.com/evangelicals