They've sort of missed the year of high male harmonies (that was 2008 with Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear etc...) but Eau Claire's the Daredevil Christopher Wright is worth a listen even in periods when indie barber shop is out. Their second album The Nature of Things is out now on File Under, and you can listen to the whole thing here, if you like.
There's also a video
Daredevil Christopher Wright is pretty great live, too...saw them a couple of years ago in Keene of all places, and they had everyone singing in three parts.
Here are dates:
Aug 01 Subterranean Chicago, IL
Aug 02 The Mill Iowa City, IA
Aug 03 Motr Pub Cincinnati, OH
Aug 04 Mahall's Lakewood, OH Tickets
Aug 07 The Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, Canada
Aug 09 Dooryard Arts Festival Woodstock, Canada
Aug 10 The Capital Bar Fredericton, Canada \
Aug 11 MESStival 5 West Salisbury, Canada
Aug 12 The Bus Stop Theatre Halifax, Canada
Aug 14 Knitting Factory Brooklyn, NY Tickets
Aug 15 Great Scott Boston, MA Tickets
Aug 16 The Oak and the Ax Biddeford, ME
Aug 17 Local 121 Providence, RI
Aug 18 Billsville House Concert Williamstown, MA
Aug 19 The Thought Lot Shippensburg, PA
Aug 23 The Old Dog Tavern Kalamazoo, MI Tickets
Aug 24 The Bird House (house show) Grand Rapids, MI
Aug 25 The Brass Rail Fort Wayne, IN
Sep 13 The Park Theatre Hayward, WI
Sep 14 Rock The Cause Kimberly, WI
Sep 15 Radio Radio Indianapolis, IN
Oct 31 V1 Backstage Concert Series Eau Claire, WI
Nov 02 Der Rathskeller Madison, WI
Nov 16 Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church:
Showing posts with label Daredevil Christopher Wright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daredevil Christopher Wright. Show all posts
Monday, July 23, 2012
Friday, February 12, 2010
Scout Niblett’s latest…and I get out of the house again
I have a review of Scout Niblett’s most recent album, The Calcination of Scout Niblett up today at Blurt. I can recommend it for early hours soul searching, though maybe not for putting the warpaint on for Friday night. It’s very stark and very powerful. From my Blurt review, up yesterday:
The songs on Calcination are deceptively simple sounding, constructed out of repetitive, minimal melodic lines and impressionistic images, but that simplicity is where they get their power. "Lucy Lucifer", accompanied just with drums, has the primitive clarity of a hex laid down by firelight, while the wonderfully uneasy "I.B.D." follows a thread of Appalachian picking through the darkest thickets of self-doubt. There's something ritual about these songs, an aura of hard, necessary healing through pain. It's not an easy listen, but Calcination will stay with you for a long time.
More
Also, I went to a show last night in Keene, which is remarkable because a) Keene is only 10 miles away b) nobody ever plays there and c) this show was damned good.
The 1,2,3s
Openers 1,2,3s were local, I think, breaking in a new drummer and having a bit of trouble with vocal levels but not bad, not bad at all. The first song was kind of a mathy, funky jam with fast pick-less bass and hard drumming (it was in 5/4). Later efforts skirted baroque pop, with waltz-time pop melodies ornamented tonight only by trombone, but possibly at other times by strings and all many of instruments. (“Carousel” said the singer, was named for its endless repetition of a theme and its campy instrumentation.)
The Daredevil Christopher Wright
Pretty enjoyable, but I had really come for the Daredevil Christopher Wright, a threesome out of Wisconsin, two brothers and an unrelated drummer. One of the cool things about this band is that they sing pretty elaborate three part harmonies and the two brothers – John and Jason Sunday – have voices that are eerily similar, so that it sounds like one voice doubled, except it’s not. They really nail those harmonies, and on very minimal sound equipment and a space like someone’s living room, the instruments sounded unusually balanced and good. Those were mostly guitar, bass and drums, with the principals switching around a bit, but also some xylophone.
Lyrics were unusually good, acerbic and occasionally pretty funny. Probably the biggest romp was a song called “Conversation about Cancer” all one-two, up-and-down slashing and gleeful, giddy harmonies.
Towards the end, they attempted to teach the crowd the art of multi-part singing, dividing the audience into three groups for “The East Coast” and leading us in singing fairly complicated counterpoints. I sucked, personally, but it was kind of fun trying and anyway, as bandleader John said, “it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
So anyway, this is good stuff and if they’re touring Keene, they’re touring everywhere. Why not check them out. Dates:
Feb 12th - Providence, RI - AS220
Feb13th - Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands
Feb15th - Baltimore, MD - Golden West Cafe
Feb16th - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
Feb17th - Columbus, OH - Wholly Craft
Feb19th - Indianapolis, IN - Planet Home
Feb 20th - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
Mar 4th - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
Mar 5th - Champaign/Urbana, IL- Mike ’n Molly’s
Mar 6th - St. Louis, MO- Lemp Arts Cente
Mar 7th - Lexington, KY - Natasha’s Bistro
Mar 8th - Nashville, TN - The Basement
Mar 10th - Asheville, NC - Bobo Gallery
Myspace
The songs on Calcination are deceptively simple sounding, constructed out of repetitive, minimal melodic lines and impressionistic images, but that simplicity is where they get their power. "Lucy Lucifer", accompanied just with drums, has the primitive clarity of a hex laid down by firelight, while the wonderfully uneasy "I.B.D." follows a thread of Appalachian picking through the darkest thickets of self-doubt. There's something ritual about these songs, an aura of hard, necessary healing through pain. It's not an easy listen, but Calcination will stay with you for a long time.
More
Also, I went to a show last night in Keene, which is remarkable because a) Keene is only 10 miles away b) nobody ever plays there and c) this show was damned good.
The 1,2,3s
Openers 1,2,3s were local, I think, breaking in a new drummer and having a bit of trouble with vocal levels but not bad, not bad at all. The first song was kind of a mathy, funky jam with fast pick-less bass and hard drumming (it was in 5/4). Later efforts skirted baroque pop, with waltz-time pop melodies ornamented tonight only by trombone, but possibly at other times by strings and all many of instruments. (“Carousel” said the singer, was named for its endless repetition of a theme and its campy instrumentation.)
The Daredevil Christopher Wright
Pretty enjoyable, but I had really come for the Daredevil Christopher Wright, a threesome out of Wisconsin, two brothers and an unrelated drummer. One of the cool things about this band is that they sing pretty elaborate three part harmonies and the two brothers – John and Jason Sunday – have voices that are eerily similar, so that it sounds like one voice doubled, except it’s not. They really nail those harmonies, and on very minimal sound equipment and a space like someone’s living room, the instruments sounded unusually balanced and good. Those were mostly guitar, bass and drums, with the principals switching around a bit, but also some xylophone.
Lyrics were unusually good, acerbic and occasionally pretty funny. Probably the biggest romp was a song called “Conversation about Cancer” all one-two, up-and-down slashing and gleeful, giddy harmonies.
Towards the end, they attempted to teach the crowd the art of multi-part singing, dividing the audience into three groups for “The East Coast” and leading us in singing fairly complicated counterpoints. I sucked, personally, but it was kind of fun trying and anyway, as bandleader John said, “it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
So anyway, this is good stuff and if they’re touring Keene, they’re touring everywhere. Why not check them out. Dates:
Feb 12th - Providence, RI - AS220
Feb13th - Brooklyn, NY - Glasslands
Feb15th - Baltimore, MD - Golden West Cafe
Feb16th - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
Feb17th - Columbus, OH - Wholly Craft
Feb19th - Indianapolis, IN - Planet Home
Feb 20th - Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
Mar 4th - Madison, WI - High Noon Saloon
Mar 5th - Champaign/Urbana, IL- Mike ’n Molly’s
Mar 6th - St. Louis, MO- Lemp Arts Cente
Mar 7th - Lexington, KY - Natasha’s Bistro
Mar 8th - Nashville, TN - The Basement
Mar 10th - Asheville, NC - Bobo Gallery
Myspace
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