Moonface at Mercury Lounge in July (more by Amanda Hatfield)

Last month, Moonface (aka Spencer Krug) released his debut LP under the moniker and wrapped up a tour in support of the album which hit Mercury Lounge on 7/20. After an appearance at this year's POP Montreal in September, he'll tour again. A full set of dates hasn't been announced yet, but a few are starting to surface including one on October 30 at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Friday (9/9) at noon.

In related but unfortunate news, despite being part of the recently announced lineup, Handsome Furs are not playing CMJ afterall. The dates they are playing are listed HERE.

Moonface dates below...

Continue reading "Moonface playing Bowery, Handsome Furs not playing CMJ"

photos by Tim Griffin

Handsome Furs @ the Mohawk

For their part, the Furs are eager to keep returning to places where few other Western bands ever venture, to maintain the friendships they've forged and the fanbases they've built. The tours sharpen the couple's perspective on their art, their politics, and the Handsome Furs' existence itself. Says Boeckner, "Instead of going into this band being like 'We're against this! We're against that!', it's, 'We're against these things, but we also feel happy and positive that we're able to make music.'" [National Post]

And though we don't know the venue yet, we do know that Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry will be back in NYC in October for CMJ UPDATE: Handsome Furs are not actually coming to CMJ anymore. All tour dates and more Austin pictures below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs played the Mohawk & Waterloo Records (pics), keep on touring (dates)"

Wild Flag at Williamsburg Waterfront (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

The first round of CMJ 2011 artists have been announced. The initial list includes Neon Indian (Webster Hall with Purity Ring), CSS (Webster Hall with EMA and MEN), Zola Jesus (KF and LPR), Wild Flag (Bowery Ballroom with Eleanor Friedberger and Hospitality), Metronomy (MHOW), Portugal. The Man (T5 with Givers and Alberta Cross), Viva Brother, Wombats, The Good Natured), Kvelertak, Handsome Furs, Memoryhouse, Pharoahe Monch, and more.

The Viva Brother show is on October 19 at Bowery Ballroom with 1,2,3 and Kitten. Tickets are on sale now (or you can try to get in with your CMJ badge). All dates below.

The Wombats show is on October 19 at Webster Hall with The Postelles and The Good Natured. Tickets are on sale now (or you can try to get in with your CMJ badge). All dates below.

Other bands scheduled to play that aren't part of CMJ's initial announce include Still Corners, Shonen Knife at Public Assembly, PS I Love You, and Revolver. Full list below...

Continue reading "CMJ 2011 initial lineup (Handsome Furs, Viva Brother, Wombats, Memoryhouse, Kvelertak, Pharoahe Monch, more)"

photos by Toby Tenenbaum

Handsome Furs & recent Sub Pop-signee Thee Satisfaction played a show at Bowery Ballroom in NYC last night (8/18), part of a long ongoing tour for the lovebird headliners. More pictures from the show below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs & Thee Satisfaction played Bowery Ballroom (pics)"

Handsome Furs at the Great Escape in May (more by Tim Griffin)

The Handsome Furs 8/18 show at Webster Hall has been moved to Bowery Ballroom. All tickets will be honored, and are still available. THEESatisfaction have also been added as the opener.

Last time I noticed THEESatisfaction's name it was on a bill with Handsome Furs' Sub Pop labelmate Shabazz Palaces. Well, it was also just announced that THEESatisfaction, who have collaborated with Shabazz, have signed to Sub Pop too...

THEESatisfaction, the self-produced "lo-fi rebel hiphop" duo comprised of Seattle's Stasia Irons and Catherine Harris-White, (thankfully) accepted Sub Pop's proposal to join our eclectic family! To celebrate this union, they will be headlining the Vera Project stage at Capitol Hill Block Party today July 22nd. The group, who has released five EPs to date as well as contributed to label-mates Shabazz Palaces latest release Black Up, are expected to release their debut full-length album early next year, For now, the kind women of THEESatisfaction have decided to give you the track Do You Have the Time for free! - Sub Pop

The Bowery show is part of a longer international Handsome Furs tour that includes Parlovr on some dates. Parlovr meanwhile play Mercury Lounge tonight (7/25).

Updated Handsome Furs dates & THEESatisfaction song below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs show moved to Bowery, now with THEESatisfaction who are now on Sub Pop --- updated dates"

Handsome Furs have released a new and NSFW video for "What About Us", the sixth track on their spankin' new LP Sound Kapital. Stereogum talked to the video's director Scott Coffey who explained how "the video ties into Sound Kapital's [NWFW] cover art?...

"I conceived the cover photograph. With the exception of the wonderful Chinese water park shots, the photo art was conceived by me during our video shoot -- the cover shot, the back cover of the Furs in the car with the creeping hand, the freeway and night shots where all taken as I made the video. Alexi and Dan chose that great shot of the naked woman on the car for the cover, but I didn't now that was going to be the cover when I shot it. I liked the idea of the album art and video being integrated. I like the idea of a unified vibe and theme for the album art and video. Sort of like the modern version of a 1970's concept album."

Handsome Furs hit Webster Hall on August 18th as part of a larger US/EU tour that kicks off next week and ends in middle October. Tickets are still available for the NYC show, and all tour dates are below under the new video...

Continue reading "new Handsome Furs NSFW video, updated tour dates"

DOWNLOAD: Handsome Furs - "What About Us" (Diamond Rings Remix) (MP3)

Spencer with Wolf Parade at Sasquatch 2011 (more by Josh Darr)

Spencer Krug will take his Moonface project on a previously announced tour which kicks off in July and runs through early August. As mentioned, the tour hits NYC on July 20 at Mercury Lounge. Tickets are still available. If you miss him the first time around, Moonface will return to NYC on August 13 at Glasslands. No opener has been announced for either show yet. Tickets for the Glasslands show are also on sale now.. UPDATE: Moonface is NOT playing Glasslands, and never was.

Handsome Furs' new album Sound Kapital comes out June 28 via Sub Pop. It's streaming now on KCRW. Its first single "What About Us" was remixed by fellow Canadian Diamond Rings. Grab the MP3 above.

Handsome Furs dates HERE. Updated Moonface tour dates below...

Continue reading "Moonface adds date, Diamond Rings remixed Handsome Furs"

Handsome Furs at the Great Escape in May (more by Tim Griffin)

"It's like a friends and family affair tonight," declared Wolf Parade singer/guitarist Dan Boeckner at the beginning of what had been announced as the indie rock band's final show at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver Monday night...

...In a way, wrapping things up in Vancouver after a somewhat surprising appearance at the Sasquatch! Music Festival last weekend was fitting...

"It wasn't until Krug said, "This is our last show for (a) long time," after Cloud Shadow on the Mountain, that reality set in.

Wolf Parade revisited some glorious moments: Shine a Light, I'll Believe in Anything, Little Golden Age, and Kissing the Beehive, and fans couldn't have asked for more.

They did get two encores, including tumultuous renditions of This Heart's on Fire and You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son, and culminating with that final Dylan cover.

Boeckner will now focus on project Handsome Furs with his wife, Alexei Perry, and Krug will move on to Moonface.
[Montreal Gazette]

And meanwhile, Moonface will have a new album out and is touring soon.

And we recently mentioned a number of Handsome Furs dates this summer including NXNE, but the band just added a bunch more leading up to their September appearance at MusicfestNW. The new dates include an NYC show at Webster Hall on August 18. Tickets go on sale Friday (6/3) at noon. All dates are listed below.

While you wait for Handsome Furs' new album, Sound Kapital to come out (June 28 via Sub Pop), check out their iTunes Live from Montreal EP which is available now. The EP includes two cuts off the new album, "No Feelings" and "Repatriated" (which you can also grab here), and three off 2009's Face Control. Check out the tracklist and more Handsome Furs dates and the other stuff, below.

Continue reading "Wolf Parade played their last show "for a long time", Handsome Furs add more tour dates (Webster Hall included)"

Here is the initial lineup for Willamette Week's MusicfestNW, scheduled for Sept. 7-11, 2011 in Portland, Oregon, and it's pretty great. The multi-venue fest includes big outdoor performances by Band of Horses (Sunday, Sept. 11), Explosions in the Sky (Saturday, Sept. 10), and Iron & Wine (Friday, Sept. 9), in addition to shows with everyone from Archers of Loaf to Big Freedia to Butthole Surfers to Neurosis. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 3rd. Check out the full list below...

Continue reading "MusicfestNW 2011 -- dates & initial lineup"

photos by Tim Griffin

Handsome Furs @ The Great Escape

Speaking of Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs revealed the NSFW album art for their third album Sound Kapital (below) which comes out June 28 via Sub Pop. They've also made another song from the album available in exchange for your email address. Check out "Repatriated" below, and "What About Us" here.

Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry recently got back from a trip to Brighton, England where they played the M For Montrea/BrooklynVegan Great Escape showcase at The B'ton Coalition on Friday, May 13th. Pictures from the UK show are in this post.

Their next show will take place in Toronto as part of the NXNE Festival to which they were recently added....

NORTH BY NORTHEAST announces the third wave of bands for the 17th edition of the festival, taking over Toronto June 13-19, 2011. Tickets are now available online at www.nxne.com.

NXNE has just confirmed that hardcore heroes FUCKED UP and glam gallant DIAMOND RINGS will join the Yonge-Dundas Square (YDS) line-up that includes previously announced acts such as Devo, Stars, The Pharcyde, Land of Talk, Digable Planets, Descendents, OFF! and Men Without Hats.

Men Without Hats will also play an intimate club show on Thursday, June 16 at The Great Hall in addition to their YDS performance - and Fucked Up headlines the NOW Magazine showcase on the same night, at Wrongbar.

Newly announced as part of the NXNE Music Festival are HANDSOME FURS, previewing tracks from the new album Sound Kapital, GRIMES with her genre-bending pop, retro Manhattan garage-pop stars THE POSTELLES, Los Angeles four-piece SUPERHUMANOIDS, Portland folk outfit HORSE FEATHERS, Pixies tour mates IMAGINARY CITIES, action comic-punk band PEELANDER Z, Nashville garage punks HEAVY CREAM and critically acclaimed one-man band GUARDS.

Continue reading "Handsome Furs played the Great Escape, added to NXNE, made NSFW cover art, etc (pics, dates & a new MP3)"

DOWNLOAD: Grimes - "Vanessa" (MP3)

Grimes (aka Claire Boucher) will accompany power-couple/canucks Handsome Furs on a handful of dates along the east coast this week. Those dates include Thursday's Brooklyn show at the Bell House which was sold out but just went back on sale.

UPDATE: Grimes is no longer on this tour due to visa issues. :-(

Maybe you recently caught Grimes at SXSW like Rachel did...

"Just as I passed the empty lot of an auto-repair shop, I heard a woman introduce herself and begin to play. It was Grimes, who, with her keyboard, knobs, and loops, is much like a female version of Baths... except perhaps a bit more eclectic and confident. (I love Baths, too, don't get me wrong.) But wow. Girl can multi-task. One minute, she's singing into the mic. The next, she has slung the chord over her shoulder and is going at it on the keyboard as she furiously taps pedals and cues samples."

Grimes recently dropped their LP Halfaxa via Arbutus Records (pay what you want) and are working on the follow-up LP, but meanwhile have released a split EP with fellow Canadian D'Eon which is out TODAY (April 12th). Check out "Vanessa" from the Darkbloom split. You can download it above or stream it below. Pick it up at their label.

In May the Handsome Furs will be playing shows overseas including a May 13th show at Coalition in Brighton with the Radio Dept. That show, part of the SXSW-like Great Escape fest, is co-presented by M For Montreal and BrooklynVegan.

Handsome Furs' new album Sound Kapital will be released on June 28 via Sub Pop. Check out the full tracklist and a new track below.

All tour dates, the Grimes song stream, and a video of Grimes at SXSW, below too...

Continue reading "Grimes released a split, NOT touring w/ the Handsome Furs (who are playing a BV/M show @ Great Escape) -- MP3 & dates"

Handsome Furs at Bowery (more by Alex Reside)

As the Wolf Parade fansite reports, Handsome Furs are going on a short April tour "as a lead up to the eventual release of their as of yet untitled 3rd record." The NYC date is at The Bell House on April 14th and tickets are on sale for what will be their first NYC date since they played Maxwell's and a secret show at MHoW over a year ago.

Wolf Parade is scheduled to play Sasquatch in May which is also the month Handsome Furs play a London show.

All tour dates and a recently shot video of the band in Chiang Mai is below.

Continue reading "Handsome Furs schedule April tour"

Handsome Furs @ Bowery in July (more by Alex Reside)

tonight in NYC
* benefit @ City Winery
* Ghostface & friends @ Knitting Factory
* Handsome Furs @ Maxwell's
* Blind Shake, Vaz, Loose Limbs @ Cake Shop
* Laurel Halo, Air Waves, A Rose Parade @ Zebulon
* David Sutton, 2673, Hikikomori @ Issue Project Room
* Charlotte Gainsbourg, Dinosaur Feathers @ The Bell House
* Lady GaGa, Jason Derulo, Semi Precious Weapons @ Radio City Music Hall
* Das Racist, Sonia's Party and Everyone's Invited, Junk Science @ Southpaw
* Reading Rainbow, Family Trees, Total Slacker, X-Ray Eyeballs @ Death By Audio
* Big Troubles, My Teenage Stride, The Sundelles, Lame Drivers @ LPR
* Freelance Whales, Animal Tropical, Still Life Still, Faces on Film @ Mercury Lounge

The four Haiti benefits at City Winery kick off tonight. The most updated lineup for this evening is: "Patti Smith, The Swell Season, The Antlers (Just added) John Wesley Harding,Carolina Chocolate Drops, Yo La Tengo, Young People's Chorus of New York City, Joshua Bell & Surprise Guest". General admission tickets are sold out, but $200 tickets are still available.

Ends up Handsome Furs didn't come all the way here to play just one show. They played a private CNN/Vice party at Public Assembly in Williamsburg last night.

CNN.com is throwing a party in Brooklyn [on 1/19] to celebrate new content partnerships with Vice magazine's video site and Seattle-based record label Sub Pop.

Every Wednesday, starting this week, CNN.com will feature a new web series produced by VBS.TV. The first feature, "Vice Guide to Liberia," follows Vice's founder Shane Smith as he travels through the the country's slums interviewing ex-war lords and residents...

...As for rock and roll bands, Sub Pop will also be contributing a series of documentary shorts to CNN.com, starting this Thursday. Handsome Furs, a Canadian husband and wife band on the Sub Pop label, used Flip cams to document their first tour across Asia in support of their second album release
, Face Control. CNN.com visitors will find those documentary snippets on www.cnn.com/IndieAsia. [Business Insider]

Lady GaGa is playing four shows at Radio City. You may have heard - Kid Cudi is no longer opening the tour. Opening will be Jason Derulo and Semi Precious Weapons. Witty banter and other clips from her Chicago show on Jan. 10th are below.

Kid Cudi instead plays shows at Irving Plaza starting tomorrow.

Spoon are at Mercury Lounge tomorrow.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Wednesday?"

Handsom Furs @ Bowery Ballroom in 2009 (more by Alex Reside)

While I am still grieving the fact that this year is over for our touring (since the shows of 2009 comprised the very best year of my life) and I have to sigh and gulp that it is coming to a close, I see a silver lining gracing my very near future. Handsome Furs happily announce a show in the very new year at Maxwell's in Hoboken New Jersey. To those who can make it, we look forward to seeing you. And to those of you who came to our shows this past year, thank you for everything. Wild big love to the whole wide world we met.

For tickets click here

x

Continue reading "Handsome Furs say goodbye to 2009, schedule 1 NJ show"

photos by Alex Reside

"the show was AMAZING! i think from my posts on this board it's apparent that i am of the krug persuasion (what can i say, i dig accordions and marimba) but dan may be my new hero, and alexei my heroine. so much energy and audience dance parties galore.

the best part though, the two of them are just so HUMBLE and seemed genuinely honored that so many folks came out to see them. alexei kept putting her hands to her heart as if she couldn't believe where she was...it's just so great to see bands that truly appreciate what they've achieved, and to see audiences having such a good time...everybody wins.

and they are just so fricking CUTE and lovely together. at one point they touched foreheads and gave each other big happy excited faces - it was such an "awwww" moment (who knew dan boeckner was capable of soliciting an "aw?")" [stuntgirl]

As stuntgirl pointed out, it was a great show. I completely agree with the humble/appreciation thing. Dan is also so funny and still talking about how NYC, and especially Bowery Ballroom, makes him nervous because of the time in 2005(!) that Wolf Parade played there and the Internet talked about how drunk he was the next day (sorry Dan!). More pictures from last night's show below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs, Dri & the Cinnamon Band @ Bowery Ballroom - pics "

Handsome Furs @ Mercury Lounge (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Handsome Furs have added a 2nd NYC show to their previously announced touring schedule. Tickets are still on sale for their July 7th show at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets go on sale at noon for the new show on July 8th at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Dri (not to be confused with D.R.I.) and The Cinnamon Band open both NYC shows.

Handsome Furs' new video for "I'm Confused", below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs add Brooklyn show w/ Dri & Cinnamon Band"

DOWNLOAD: Handsome Furs - I'm Confused (MP3)

Handsome Furs @ Mercury Lounge (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Which musical components of the new album do each of you think are the most influenced by your travels in the East?

Dan [Boeckner]: I was really influenced by this specifically Eastern "cheap" sounding techno. Songs where the equipment might not be as up to date as their western contemporaries but the spirit is stronger. Also the abrasiveness of early Polish and Russian punk guitar sounds I found really exciting...as if the instrument was struggling to live. That's something completely missing in Western indie rock...making fearless, strange sounds with limited resources. We also tried to work in some of the hard repetition of socialist architecture into the bass and drums. Just raw blocks of sound. [an interview @ Short and Sweet NYC]

The band is currently on tour in Europe, and they've added more North American shows this summer. Those include a Tuesday, July 7th show at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets for that, and all new dates, are available now via a presale. Tickets through Ticketmaster go on AxEx presale Wednesday, April 29th at noon. General sale starts Friday, May 1st at noon.

Speaking of members of Wolf Parade, Spencer Krug's Sunset Rubdown is also just announced a bunch of dates including June 12th at Studio B.

All HF tour dates, with the "I'm Confused" video and live clips from their current European tour, below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs - 2009 tour dates (Bowery Ballroom), presale "

Lemonade @ The Annex (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* Tribeca Film Festival
* Moby @ Issue Project Room
* Lemonade, Bronze @ Zebulon
* The Dead @ Nassau Coliseum
* Earth Day @ Grand Central Terminal
* Terry Riley's In C @ Carnegie Hall
* Julie Doiron, Katie Stelmanis @ Cake Shop
* Fischerspooner @ the Performing Garage
* Teddy Thompson, Alex Battles @ Maxwell's
* Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens @ Fat Cat
* Tinariwen, Hassan Hakmoun @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* Lou Reed + Metal Machine Trio @ Gramercy Theatre
* Rare Form, Cheeky, Stupid Party, Uzi Rash @ Cake Shop
* Blank Dogs, Cold Cave, Mazing Vids @ Secret Project Robot
* Jeremy Jay, Illuminations, James William Hindle @ Union Hall
* Headlights, The Love Language, Modern Skirts @ The Bell House
* Quintron, Psychedelic Horseshit, Wizzard Sleeve @ Market Hotel
* Kevin Devine, New Numbers, Brian Bonz & The Dot Hongs @ Bowery Ballroom
* Greg Ashley, Box Elders, The Beets, German Measles, Dame Satan @ Bruar Falls
* Fiasco, Daniel Francis Doyle, Black Feelings, M BROSCO, Ilyaxia @ Silent Barn
* Sub City Sessions w/ The Glitch Mob, Lazer Sword, Sub Swara, Ana Sia @ LPR
* Christmas Lights, Invisible Hands, Bridges and Powerlines, Katie Stelmanis @ DBA
* Wolff, Gary War, Men & Women, Sore Eros, Florida, The Foundry Field Recordings, Medium Cool @ Pianos

Paul Weller is not playing Nokia Theatre tonight.

Lemonade is at Zebulon tonight and Bruar Falls tomorrow.

The Roadburn Festival is happening in Holland.

Central Park Summerstage announced their 2009 lineup.

Did you get any WAVVES/Crystal Stilts tickets?

Handsome Furs' new video for "I'm Confused" below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday?"

Handsome Furs - Friday @ Mercury Lounge (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

today in NYC
* DANCE
* Les Paul @ Iridium
* Mountains @ Chelsea Market
* Hall & Oates @ Irving Plaza
* Kristen Schaal @ Pianos (free)
* The Allman Brothers Band @ Beacon Theatre
* The King Left, Peasant & Cursive @ MHOW
* Field Music Presents The Week That Was @ Mercury Lounge
* Sons of Tonatiuh, Black Anvil & Unearthly Trance @ The Charleston
* John Wesley Harding, Bobby Tisdale, Eugene Mirman, Pete Homes & more @ UCB
* Black Lips, Gentleman Jesse & His Men & Georgiana Starlington @ Bowery Ballroom

Handsome Furs played a NYC show over the weekend. Check out their new sexy and/or gross video, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

DOWNLOAD: Handsome Furs - I'm Confused (MP3)

The Handsome Furs played to an enthusiastic, sold-out crowd at the Mercury Lounge on Friday. Dancing and even trivia were on order as the Montreal, husband and wife duo of Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry played in support of their upcoming record Face Control (Sub Pop). Boeckner explained that certain label and publicity folks were uneasy with the band selling copies of their new record in advance (it hits streets on March 10.) So, Boeckner and Perry held rounds of trivia between songs to win a copy of the new cd. Question: Who is Wayne Coyne's favorite Montreal band? Correct answer... Arcade Fire.

The Hundred in the Hands and a Kyp Malone-less Iran opened the show. More pictures below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs, Iran & The Hundred in the Hands @ Mercury Lounge, NYC - pics"

Handsome Furs

Handsome Furs (the band featuring Dan from Wolf Parade) is playing a show with Iran (the band featuring Kyp from TV on the Radio) and The Hundred in the Hands (the band featuring Jason from the Boggs) at Mercury Lounge in NYC on Friday March 6th. Tickets for the small-Manhattan-venue show go on Am Ex presale Wednesday at noon, and regular sale on Friday.

Like the Handsome Furs, The Hundred in the Hands is a male/female duo. The female part of the latter is Eleanore Everdel whose credits include vocals on 'Lover's Day' off TV on the Radio's Dear Science, and vocals on Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's album Summer Of Fear. They (THITH) also have a show scheduled for this Friday, January 30th, at Union Pool in Brooklyn. One of their videos is below.

The new Handsome Furs date comes four days before the release of their new album on Sub Pop, and is currently their only NYC show. All dates below...

Continue reading "Handsome Furs - 2009 Tour Dates (now w/ Mercury Lounge, Iran & The Hundred in the Hands)"

DOWNLOAD: Handsome Furs - I'm Confused (MP3 from Face Control)

Getting a good night's sleep may be one of the best ways to prevent the common cold.

A new study shows that people who sleep less than seven hours per night are three times more likely than those who sleep at least eight hours to catch a common cold after being exposed to a cold-causing virus.

Researchers say it's been commonly thought that poor sleep increases your chances of coming down with the common cold, but until now there has been little scientific evidence to support that notion.
Sleep Fights Colds

In the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers studied 153 healthy men and women. Each of the participants kept track of their sleeping habits for 14 days, noting how long and how well they slept the previous night as well as whether they felt rested.

After 14 days, the participants were quarantined, given nasal drops containing a cold-causing virus (rhinovirus), and monitored for five days for signs of a common cold.

The results showed that those who slept an average of less than seven hours per night were nearly three times more likely to develop a common cold than those who reported eight or more hours per night in the weeks leading up to the experiment.
[Web MD]

DOWNLOAD: Handsome Furs - What We Had (old MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Handsome Furs - Cannot Get, Started (old MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Swan Lake - All Fires (old MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Swan Lake - The Freedom (old MP3)

FACE CONTROL is the second album by Montreal's Handsome Furs, 2007's Plague Park was their first. Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner wrote the songs on FACE CONTROL together. The album was recorded and mixed by Arlen Thompson at Mount Zoomer. It was mastered by Harris Newman at Hotel2Tango. It will be released on March 10th, 2009 [by Sub Pop].

That makes two-upcoming Wolf Parade-related albums in March....

The release of SWAN LAKE's new album is imminent! It is called "Enemy Mine", to be released on Jagjaguwar on March 24th, 2009 (March 23rd in the UK).

For those unfamiliar, SWAN LAKE is the musical group featuring celebrated songwriter-mystics Daniel Bejar (of Destroyer and New Pornographers), Spencer Krug (of Sunset Rubdown and Wolf Parade) and Carey Mercer (of Frog Eyes and Blackout Beach).

Together they recorded Enemy Mine, their nine-song second album, in Victoria, British Columbia, in early 2008, a little more than a year after the release of their well-received debut collaboration, "Beast Moans", also on Jagjaguwar.

While their debut album was a beautifully-weaved mash-up of their disparate song-writing styles, often with layer upon layer of various melodies and stylistics thrown into a collaborative cauldron to magical, and at times discordant effect, their second album "Enemy Mine" reflects a more stripped-down, more deliberate approach to collaboration. It's as if they really tried to just make nice songs together. To quote Krug, "There's architecture here." Not that the lyric is about collaboration--it fits nicely though.

It is the band's contention that this is the first known use of a "court painting" as a record cover used in popular music. As a result of this enthusiasm, the band had planned on calling the album "Before the Law", a beloved Kafka parable and a reference to this court painting. However, the band is tired of being tagged as "literary", so they dubbed the record "Enemy Mine", a beloved movie from Bejar's youth, and a good metaphor for collaboration.

Continue reading "new Handsome Furs & Swan Lake albums, MP3 & tour dates"

Wolf Parade @ T5, NYC (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Check out our recent interview with Dan if you haven't already. Check out all of the updated Wolf Parade family tour dates below....

Continue reading "Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown & Handsome Furs - tour dates"

by BrooklynVegan Mike

"For me the most depressing, the worse thing, that has happened with Wolf Parade, is how the media pit me and Spencer against each other."

Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade) @ Terminal 5 (more by Kyle Reinford)

We first spoke with Dan Boeckner from Wolf Parade two years ago. He had just had a rough set and a kerfuffle with a mid-90s college act. Last year we caught up with him again - that time with Alexei Perry and we talked Handsome Furs. Another year has passed and the ever prolific Boeckner (and the rest of Wolf Parade) are back with a new record called At Mount Zoomer. We spoke with Dan AGAIN - this time after Wolf Parade's biggest Montreal (August 3rd) show to date (a show that was still smaller than the two NYC shows they played a few days earlier). We talked about the NYC shows, the record, the upcoming Furs record, Fine Young Cannibals, and those persistent Dan/Spencer rivalry questions.

--

Before we talk Wolf Parade, I just read online that there is already a title for the new Handsome Furs record?

Continue reading "another interview w/ Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs"