words & photos by Dominick Mastrangelo

A few songs into Land Of Talk's set at Mercury Lounge on Saturday night the sold out audience began asking for more vocals. "I think all of your bodies are absorbing my vocals," said frontwoman, Elizabeth Powell.

Things are different than when last Powell played New York. It's been a rough year since her voice gave out and forced the band off tour from support of last year's excellent Some Are Lakes (which included dates with Broken Social Scene). Powell, who was singing with BSS in addition to her own band, had surgery to correct damage to her vocal chords, she took voice lessons, wrote several songs which make up their new Fun and Laughter EP as well as the forthcoming album which the band began recording last month. She wears an in-ear monitor in concert now and everything is clearly in place to protect her distinctive voice that used to go head-to-head with her razor-sharp guitar playing. Now her voice has acquiesced, it's a bit softer though she did let it go a few times, especially during "All My Friends" and the line "Hustling leaves me white hot / blue in the face / eyes blood shot." But despite her subdued vocals the packed crowd was still riveted; her guitar playing, the drumming of Andrew Barr and multi-insturmental duties of Joe Yarmush all outstanding through a set that didn't end until half past 1am.

The show was one of a few dates with Surprise Me Mr. Davis (Marco Benevento & members of The Slip). More pictures from the NYC show below...

Continue reading "Land of Talk played Mercury Lounge in NYC w/ Surprise Me Mr Davis & North Highlands - pics & setlist"

DOWNLOAD: Land of Talk - May You Never (MP3)

Land of Talk @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple in October (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Land of Talk's Fun and Laughter EP, the follow-up release to their 2008 full-length, Some Are Lakes, is set to come out October 20th on Saddle Creek. It'll be a busy week for the label - they have a handful of other records coming out around the same time.

An MP3 from the new EP is re-posted above.

Following the release, the band (led by frontwoman Elizabeth Powell) will do a brief West Coast tour. After that,the band will go on a short East Coast tour with Surprise Me Mr. Davis which is a band consisting of Nathan Moore and members of The Slip. One of those Slip members is Andrew Barr who also plays/played with Land of Talk. We don't know all the dates, but at least one of them is November 21st show at Mercury Lounge in NYC. Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday, September 16th at noon. General sale starts September 28th at noon.

All currently known tour dates and the video for "The Man Who Breaks Things (Dark Shuffle)," which is on the new EP, are below...

Continue reading "Land of Talk playing NYC, shows w/ Surprise Me Mr. Davis"