Giant Sand

By Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Chad VanGaalen - "Willow Tree" (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Women - Black Rice (MP3)

Chad VanGaalen

Pop songsmith Chad VanGaalen is playing Blender Theater at Gramercy in NYC this Sunday, Sept 21st, with Howe Gelb's Americana rock band Giant Sand. Chad later launches into a tour of his native Canada in October and visits Europe in November. It feels like forever since Chad was last in NYC, and this Sunday show also seemed to pop out of nowhere. Tickets are on sale.

Giant Sand, the headliner at Gramercy, is on a huge tour of their own in support of their new album proVISIONS, released earlier this month on Yep Roc. Their first album in almost four years features guest appearances by Neko Case, M. Ward and Isobell Campbell. "The incarnation of Giant Sand hitting the road in support of this release includes Howe along side Danish musicians Thøger T. Lund on bass, Peter Dombernowsky on drums and Anders Pedersen on slide guitar."

Giant Sand

VanGaalen's latest record, Soft Airplane, was released earlier this month on SubPop. (See MP3 above.) Unlike Chad's previous releases, which pieced together material spanning several years, the tracks on this album were all sprung from the same creative burst. To give an idea of the aesthetic, SubPop says that most of Soft Airplane was recorded in Chad's basement on "an old tape machine and a JVC ghetto blaster."

Women VanGaalen recently recorded Women's debut self-titled LP, out on Jagjaguwar Oct 7 (or out now in Canada on Flemish Eye). Women, in all their psych drone-rock glory, will be touring with VanGaalen this fall and visiting NYC on Sunday, Oct 19 for a performance at Cake Shop with The Pains of Being Pure of Heart and more ($7, 8pm doors, 21+).