GIANT SAND MARKS 30th ANNIVERSARY SINCE DEBUT WITH EXCITING
NEW ALBUM, HEARTBREAK PASS, OUT MAY 5, 2015 ON NEW WEST RECORDS
LISTEN: "TRANSPONDER" FEATURING JASON LYTLE OF GRANDADDY
https://soundcloud.com/newwestrecords/giant-sand-transponder
http://press.newwestrecords.com/giant-sand/giantsandcover-72dpi.jpg
FEATURES PAST AND PRESENT MEMBERS AND FRIENDS JASON LYTLE OF GRANDADDY, STEVE SHELLEY OF SONIC YOUTH, GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS, JOHN PARISH, MAGGIE BJORKLUND, THE COMMON LINNETS, LOVELY QUINCES
BAND CONFIRMED FOR SXSW, PRIMAVERA SOUND AND
UK's END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL
LOS ANGELES, CA, March 13, 2015 - Giant Sand, the iconic and influential band fronted by luminary Howe Gelb, celebrates 30 years of freewheeling and ever-evolving music making on new album, Heartbreak Pass, due May 5, 2015 on New West Records. The album spans founder Gelb's far-reaching career and mixes the rollicking nature of the band's 1985 debut, Valley of Rain, with the dusty alt-folk, desert-rock and jazzy lounge-piano explorations of his most recent releases. "There are 3 volumes of 15 songs here representing living 2 lives for 30 years. Don't do the math. It doesn't figure," explains Gelb. "The 1st volume is a loud and lucky abandon, as if there's no choice. The 2nd volume is more heady, steady and direct, what they call Americana these days. The 3rd volume is the heart in constant turmoil from the effect of crossing the pond way too often, the blessed curse of the indie transponder."
Giant Sand will unveil the new songs at SXSW in Austin next week at two special shows - the New West day party at Threadgills on Thursday, March 19 and the label's official showcase at the Continental Club Friday, March 20 alongside label mates The Deslondes, Daniel Romano, Buxton, New Madrid and Luther Dickinson. They will then follow with a European tour this spring including appearances at both Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Optimus Primavera Sound Porto in Portugal, This Is Not A Love Song Festival in Nimes, France and several shows throughout the UK including Union Chapel in London and St. George's Hall in Liverpool as well as the End of the Road Festival. When not touring with the band, Gelb will reunite with friend Grant-Lee Phillips for another co-headline tour together. A Spanish tour co-headlining with M. Ward is in the works for September.
Self-produced by Gelb (producing credits include KT Tunstall and Sylvie Simmons) the album was truly a global undertaking and made all across the world in between his ping-ponging from the desert to Europe, where he does most of his touring these days. "It first sprouted in Brussels," Gelb reveals. "Some strings attached in Crete... a choir acquired in Canada... a wall of sound in Berlin... then a little noodling in Italy... and a dash in Nashville... a vocal quotient in Croatia... a couple linnets in it in Holland ... Jason's portal in Portland ... the rest slowly simmered in Tucson... and the whole thing was mixed in one place... bristling in Bristol."
Heartbreak Pass features the current Giant Sand lineup of Thøger Lund, Gabriel Sullivan, Brian Lopez, Jon Villa, Peter Dombernowsky, Nikolaj Heyman, Anders Pedersen, Iris Jakobsen and Asger Christiansen who trade off on instruments from song to song like a game of musical chairs. Frequent collaborators Maggie Bjorklund plays pedal steel on several tracks while Lonna Beth Kelley offers a smoldering counterpoint to Gelb's gravelly warble on a couple of tunes.
The album also features Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, Grant-Lee Phillips, Croatian indie folk singer Lovely Quinces, Ilse DeLange & JB Meijers of Dutch Americana band The Common Linnets, treasured alumni Paula Jean Brown and frequent PJ Harvey collaborator, John Parish, who also mixed the record. Original Giant Sand drummer, Winston Watson, who went on to play with Bob Dylan, guests on the album and brings things full circle.
"Heaventually" opens the album with Gelb's characteristic clever wordplay and Italian singer Vinicio Capossela's Waitsian recitation and from there moves to the upbeat indie rock of "Texting Feist" and garagey "Hurtin' Habit." "Transponder," a collaboration produced by Jason Lytle, has all of the signatures of his former band Grandaddy - spacey synths, unsettling noise and vocal chorales, and features former Giant Sand member and ex-member of The Go-Gos, Paula Jean Brown, on bass.
The pedal steel of "Song So Wrong" signals both the start of volume 2 and the rootsier side of the album but as with most Gelb records his creative restlessness kicks in and it's followed with "Every Now And Then." What starts with just Gelb and guitar builds to a climax of Mariachi horns, Spanish guitar and the Voices of Praise gospel choir. On "Home Sweat Home," he wrestles with the push and pull of being a touring musician and constantly having to leave family, delivering the genius lyric: "Get that terminal feeling/And they upgrade me to seat 2 B/For too many miles flown/ But 2 B or not 2 B, ain't home." The final third of the record, made for "late night musings," is hushed and plaintive and sees Gelb tickling the ivories like some kind of cosmic lounge singer. The album comes to a close with the touching "Forever and Always," a song written by and featuring Gelb's 12-year-old daughter.
Called "the scruffy master of alt-country eclecticism" by NPR, Gelb has been making music since 1980 and has a long run of indefinable and influential recordings ranging from punk and roots-rock to psych, jazz, gospel and even traditional Spanish music. Since his early lo-fi envelope-pushing recordings with renowned slide guitarist Rainer Ptacek as Giant Sandworms, Gelb has remained one of the most inventive and unique American musicians of the last three decades and has created a body of work that The Guardian hailed as "equal parts dazzling, intriguing, beautiful, maddening, musical and perverse." Guest artists over the last three decades have included Victoria Williams, Neko Case, Juliana Hatfield, PJ Harvey, Vic Chesnutt, Steve Wynn, Vicki Peterson, M. Ward and Isobel Campbell. Giant Sand's incarnation in the '90s included Joey Burns and John Convertino, who went on to form the acclaimed Latinesque unit Calexico. In addition to bestowing the world his own sun-warped music, whether as Howe Gelb or Giant Sand, or one of his other projects like the Band... of Blacky Ranchette, Arizona Amp & Alternator, 'Sno Angel or OP8, he also discovered M. Ward and Grandaddy; he released the former's debut on his own label and helped get the latter signed to V2.
GIANT SAND ON TOUR
March 19 - Austin, TX @ SXSW - Threadgills (New West Records Day Party)
(email for info)
March 20 - Austin, TX @ SXSW - Continental Club - 8 pm (New West Showcase)
May 14 - Lucerne, CH @ Südpol
May 15 - Florence, IT @ Viper Club
May 16 - Rimini, IT @ Velvet Club
May 17 - Munich, DE @ Feierwerk
May 18 - Heidelberg, DE @ Karlstorbahnhof
May 19 - Nürnberg, DE @ Hirsch
May 20 - Düsseldorf, DE @ Zakk
May 21 - Leuven @ BEL @ Het Depot
May 22 - Utrecht @ Netherlands @ Cloud 9, TivoliVredenburg
May 23 - Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
May 24 - Bern, CH @ Dachstock
May 25 - Basel, CH @ Kaserne
May 26 - Aschaffenburg, DE @ Colos-Saa
May 28 - Barcelona, ESP @ Primavera Sound Barcelona
May 30 - Nimes, FRA @ This Is Not A Love Song Festival
June 1 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
June 2 - London, UK @ Union Chapel
June 3 - Liverpool, UK @ St. George's Hall
June 5 - Porto, PRT @ Optimus Primavera Sound Porto
September 4-6 - Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Giant Sand on tour will consist of various clustering: Thøger Lund, Gabriel Sullivan and/or Brian Lopez, Peter Dombernowsky and/or Winston Watson with logistical incarnations that include Nikolaj Heyman, Anders Pedersen, Jon Villa, Iris Jakobsen, Asger Christiansen + Lonna Kelley
HOWE GELB SOLO SHOWS
March 24 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vera *
March 25 - Hamburg, DE @ Knust *
March 26 - Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club *
March 27 - Reutlingen, DE @ Franz K *
March 29 - Freiburg, DE @ Cafe Atlantik *
March 30 - Zurich, CH @ El Lokal *
March 31 - Lausanne, CH @ Le Romandie Club *
April 1 - Cantu, IT @ All'Una e Trentacinque Circa *
April 2 - Bologna, IT @ Bravo Caffe *
April 3 - Turin, IT @ Spazio 211 *
April 4 - Brescia, IT @ Latteria Artigianale Molloy *
April 8 - Bristol, UK @ St. George's Church
(preview of Giant Giant Sand tour movie "Out of the Desert)
* With Grant-Lee Phillips
Heartbreak Pass Tracklisting
1. Heaventually
2. Texting Feist
3. Hurtin' Habit
4. Transponder (stream)
5. Song So Wrong
6. Every Now And Then
7. Man On A String
8. Home Sweat Home
9. Eye Opening
10. Pen To Paper
11. Bitter Suite
12. House In Order
13. Gypsy Candle
14. Done
15. Forever And Always
― dow, Friday, 13 March 2015 22:33 (nine years ago) link
two weeks pass...
five months pass...
four weeks pass...
two years pass...
But this is what I meant to post:
alley of Rain was Tucson’s Giant Sand’s debut album recorded in 1983, and eventually released by 1985. It included Howe Gelb on vocals, guitar and Winston Watson on drums for most of it, Tommy Larkins on drums for some of it and Scott Garber on fretless bass for all of it.
Now some 30 years later, This new re-recording of that first album will be toured by the band this summer, playing only those Valley of Rain songs. GIANT SAND RETURNS TO VALLEY OF RAIN.
Live Dates
04 May: Mercado Block Party Concert @MSA Annex, Tucson, AZ, United States
24 May: Tower Musikclub, Bremen, HB, Germany
25 May: Batschkapp, Frankfurt On Main, Germany
26 May: Rätschenmühle e.V. Geislingen, Geislingen An Der Steige, Germany
27 May: Dachstock, Berne, Switzerland
28 May: Feierwerk / Hansa 39, Munich, Germany
29 May: Kulturladen Konstanz, Constance, Germany
30 May: Druckluft, Oberhausen, Germany
31 May: Musik & Frieden, Berlin, Germany
02 Jun: Vega (Small Hall), Copenhagen, DK
04 Jun: Parkteateret, Oslo, NO
05 Jun: Under the Bridge, London, UK
06 Jun: Concorde 2, Brighton, UK
07 Jun: The Fleece, Bristol, UK
09 Jun: Whelans, Dublin, IE
10 Jun: The Oran Mor Glasgow, UK
11 Jun: The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, UK
02 Oct: Roots On The Rails, Chicago, IL, United States
(Sorry, would have posted sooner if I'd thought to check for it.)
releases October 8, 2018
Only one track streaming on this Bandcamp page so far, but whole thing's already on Spotify.
― dow, Tuesday, 2 October 2018 23:36 (five years ago) link
two years pass...
one year passes...
eleven months pass...