DOWNLOAD: The Myrnabirds - Numbers Don't Lie (MP3)

The Mynabirds

The Saddle Creek / Wichita CMJ showcase will take place at the Delancey in NYC on October 21st, and it looks something like this:

?? pm Sky Larkin
8:30 pm Old Canes
9:30 pm Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
10:15 pm First Aid Kit
11:00 pm The Mynabirds
11:45 pm Frankie and the Heartstrings
12:30 Adam Haworth Stephens (of Two Gallants)

It's an exciting lineup for multiple reasons, but right now I just want to focus on The Mynabirds, aka Omaha singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn (and friends). You might remember her as 1/2 of Georgie James. The other half of that indie pop group was John Davis of Q and not U, and they were also a Saddle Creek signing.

Now she's (dropped the indie pop and is) collaborating with Richard Swift (on record), and "live in the flesh by a great collective of artists and musicians that include: Johnny Kotchian (drums), Dan McCarthy (bass & vocals), Pearl Lovejoy Boyd (vocals & percussion), Susan Sanchez (vocals), Ben Brodin (guitars & vocals), Alex McManus (guitars, horns & vocals), Rebecca Marie Miller (vocals & percussion), Nicole Childrey (drums), Patrick Damphier (bass), and Nate Walcott (horns)."

Her album What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood was released earlier this year by Saddle Creek, and can best be described, as it has by many, as country and soul. She has a great voice. Get a taste via the MP3 (above) and video (below) for "Numbers Don't Lie", and from the Daytrotter session that was posted earlier this month.

Get a live taste, way before CMJ, tonight/Friday, September 24th at Brooklyn Bowl when The Mynabirds open for David Bazan. The two groups are on tour together (and it's their only NYC show). $5.00 tickets are still on sale.

Speaking of David Bazan, Feltheart Filmworks recently put together a 3-part documentary about the ex-Pedro the Lion member. You can watch that in full, with all dates and stuff, below...

Continue reading "The Mynabirds on tour w/ David Bazan (Brooklyn Bowl Friday), playing Saddle Creek CMJ showcase (dates)"

DOWNLOAD: TRAA - Don't Haunt This Place (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Orenda Fink - Bloodline (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Orenda Fink - No Evolution (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Old Canes - Taxi On Vermont (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: UUVVWWZ - Shark Suit (MP3)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson @ Union Hall 10/1 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson's Summer of Fear, the follow-up to his 2008 self-titled debut, is set for an October 20th release on Saddle Creek. The label, which recently signed the songwriter, tells the TVotR/Grizzly Bear-littered story of the new record...

TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone--a close friend since the pair met en route to a Grizzly Bear show in 2005--helped bottle Robinson's bruised hymns last winter, ramping up the tension in such standout tracks as "Death by Dust," "Summer of Fear pt. 2," "The Sound," and the 11-and-a-half draining minutes of "More Than a Mess," a haunting epic that deserves its own short film. (Or more than half of Side D; Summer of Fear is spread across two LPs like one of Robinson's favorite records, Tusk.) Since they both "have a tendency toward a generally and hilariously doom stricken worldview," Malone also understood what Robinson was going for with his redemption songs. After all, he was there that summer. He saw it all go down, and now that he's heard the whole thing told through Summer of Fear's relentless and raw tone poems, he can't wait to see what Robinson comes up with next. (Robinson is desperate to record his third record--yes, already. Written last year in the midst of touring to support his unexpected self-titled debut, he describes the disc as containing,"actual songs...as opposed to vaguely melodic litanies of grievance.")

Robinson recently made a video for the song "Woodfriend," which is posted below.

October 20th will be a big day for Saddle Creek (home of Tokyo Police Club, Cursive and Land of Talk). It's also the release date for the latest by new signees Old Canes. The record, Feral Harmonic, is the Lawrence, KS band's second.

Old Canes architect Chris Crisci (also known as half of Appleseed Cast) constructed Feral Harmonic largely alone in his basement studio. He played the majority of the instrumentation himself with additional help from a cast of musician friends contributing various parts, including trumpet, harmophone, cello, and hammer dulcimer, among other instruments. As recording was regularly interrupted by touring, work, other projects, and life in general, production on the album took nearly three and a half years to complete.

Tracklist and album art are below.

The label will also be dropping a new album from Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, Art In Manila, O+S), titled Ask The Night, on October 6th.

Ask The Night was primarily recorded live to 8-track by Stephen Bartolomei (Mal Madrigal) in Orenda's former Omaha, NE, basement (she is now based in Los Angeles, CA), as well as by Andy LeMaster (Now It's Overhead; production on Bright Eyes, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Azure Ray) in his Athens, GA, living room.

The album features a wide variety of players and singers, including producers Stephen Bartolomei and Andy LeMaster, Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching), and Adrianne Verhoeven (Dri, The Anniversary, Art In Manila), among others. Four songs on Ask The Night are collaborations with Birmingham, AL-based artist and poet Chris Lawson...

Lawson also provided the album's art, which, with the tracklist, is below.

The Rural Alberta Advantage's previously-self-released debut came out on Saddle Creek on July 7th. The band was featured on ABC's Amplified on August 17th, and they have shows coming up. Those include the Positive Jam with the Hold Steady in Ithaca on September 6th, and a show at the Bowery Ballroom on October 7th. Tickets for that go on sale Friday, August 21st at noon.

UUVVWWZ also released an album on Saddle Creek on July 7th, and they'll also be in NYC in October (for CMJ). In fact, they'll be playing what looks like an extremely sick bill at Union Pool on October 24th with An Albatross, Dark Meat, Lovvers, Flexions, ZzZ, and JEFF The Brotherhood.

For a taste of what Saddle Creek has been up to over the past year (before any of the new bands mentioned above), check out the free sampler they're giving away on Amazon. All upcoming TRAA and UUVVWWZ tour dates, and above-mentioned things, are below...

Continue reading "Saddle Creek: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Old Canes & Orenda Fink ++ Rural Alberta Advantage & UUVVWWZ dates"