Deep Dark Woods
Luluc, Wailin Storms
Tue, July 31, 2012
Doors: 7:30 pm
Mercury Lounge
New York, NY
$10 advance / $12 day of show
Tickets
This event is 21 and over
http://www.mercuryloungenyc.com/event/118921/
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Deep Dark Woods - (Set time: 9:30 PM)
Chills climb spines when sound is given room to unfurl. The Deep Dark Woods’ unflinching pursuit of steadiness between decadence and minimalism is guided at every turn by their intuitive ability to balance grit, clarity, drive and restraint with a sure focus on experimentation.
Winter Hours (2009), caught critics’ ears across the country. The album, a solemn ode to darker themes of seclusion and d…etachment, could yet warm even the bottomless, frozen nights of hometown Saskatoon, SK. With Winter Hours, The Deep Dark Woods won Best Roots Group at the 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards, and Ensemble of the Year at the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards. The band also had the runaway winner in CBC’s Great Canadian Songquest with “Charlie’s (Is Coming Down)”, a song about Good Time Charlie’s in Regina.
The Deep Dark Woods frame their music with subtle orchestration; songs are trimmed with minimal embellishments of banjo, piano, with subtle mellotron flutters. Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Lucas Goetz’s layers heartbreaking arches of pedal steel under the clarity and warmth of Ryan Boldt’s voice. Newest member, organ-player Geoff Hilhorst furnishes the songs’ edges with slurred polyphonies, while surefooted, danceable basslines and rich second vocals belong to Chris Mason. Burke Barlow’s clarion guitar tone and lead lines are focused and impeccable.
Their new album, The Place I Left Behind, finds continuity in themes of temporal and geographic alienation, neglected inward trails, and the scars of abandoned intimacies. The album opens with a song about Saskatoon’s rougher edges. “West Side Street” is a study in contrasts – finespun vocals and a gently rolling melody cushion the gloomy story. “The Place I Left Behind” is loosely based on an old folk standard. Gorgeously morose, the title track confirms that The Deep Dark Woods capture lonesome yearning at its loveliest. “Sugar Mama” is a sweet and lively invitation to tap toes and shake off the blues; a seeming coming-of-age story is treated with playful banjo and an airy gait.
A rainstorm over the desert of modern music, The Place I Left Behind offers murder ballads alongside scrappy rockers, lovesick hymnals and slow-dance waltzes. The album illuminates folk traditions without stripping the shadows of roots music history – The Deep Dark Woods wake the ghosts of Appalachia with their prairie gothic pyre-side tales. The Place I Left Behind echoes with traces of time and space that are never fully abandoned or forgotten.
Winter Hours (2009), caught critics’ ears across the country. The album, a solemn ode to darker themes of seclusion and d…etachment, could yet warm even the bottomless, frozen nights of hometown Saskatoon, SK. With Winter Hours, The Deep Dark Woods won Best Roots Group at the 2009 Western Canadian Music Awards, and Ensemble of the Year at the 2009 Canadian Folk Music Awards. The band also had the runaway winner in CBC’s Great Canadian Songquest with “Charlie’s (Is Coming Down)”, a song about Good Time Charlie’s in Regina.
The Deep Dark Woods frame their music with subtle orchestration; songs are trimmed with minimal embellishments of banjo, piano, with subtle mellotron flutters. Drummer and multi-instrumentalist Lucas Goetz’s layers heartbreaking arches of pedal steel under the clarity and warmth of Ryan Boldt’s voice. Newest member, organ-player Geoff Hilhorst furnishes the songs’ edges with slurred polyphonies, while surefooted, danceable basslines and rich second vocals belong to Chris Mason. Burke Barlow’s clarion guitar tone and lead lines are focused and impeccable.
Their new album, The Place I Left Behind, finds continuity in themes of temporal and geographic alienation, neglected inward trails, and the scars of abandoned intimacies. The album opens with a song about Saskatoon’s rougher edges. “West Side Street” is a study in contrasts – finespun vocals and a gently rolling melody cushion the gloomy story. “The Place I Left Behind” is loosely based on an old folk standard. Gorgeously morose, the title track confirms that The Deep Dark Woods capture lonesome yearning at its loveliest. “Sugar Mama” is a sweet and lively invitation to tap toes and shake off the blues; a seeming coming-of-age story is treated with playful banjo and an airy gait.
A rainstorm over the desert of modern music, The Place I Left Behind offers murder ballads alongside scrappy rockers, lovesick hymnals and slow-dance waltzes. The album illuminates folk traditions without stripping the shadows of roots music history – The Deep Dark Woods wake the ghosts of Appalachia with their prairie gothic pyre-side tales. The Place I Left Behind echoes with traces of time and space that are never fully abandoned or forgotten.
Luluc - (Set time: 8:30 PM)
Luluc are an Australian duo (Zoe Randell and Steve Hassett) who split their time between Melbourne, Australia and Brooklyn, New York. She has a low voice, his is high, he’s tall, she’s not so, and they harmonize – with their voices, their guitars and in their creative vision. They produced their first album, Dear Hamlyn, on their own and its release saw them tour with the Fleet Foxes, Jose Gonzales & Lucinda Williams, among other tours & festivals. Their music has also reached a wide audience featuring in TV series ABC's Grey’s Anatomy. Word of their unique music has spread over time, recently legendary producer Joe Boyd invited them to tour in his Nick Drake tribute concert series 'Way to Blue'. Currently living in Brooklyn, the band are in the final stages of production of their second album, but this time with the help of The National's Aaron Dessner.
'The most beautiful album I've heard in 10 years.'
- Peter Blackstock, co-founder/editor 'No Depression' Magazine
"I get sent a lot of records… I played it in my bedroom one night when I was reading and I thought, ‘oh that’s nice’, and I played it again the next night, then I played it again the next night, and finally I was like ‘who the hell is this person?"
- Joe Boyd, producer Nick Drake & many others, talking about Luluc's Dear Hamlyn on BBC Radio.
'The most beautiful album I've heard in 10 years.'
- Peter Blackstock, co-founder/editor 'No Depression' Magazine
"I get sent a lot of records… I played it in my bedroom one night when I was reading and I thought, ‘oh that’s nice’, and I played it again the next night, then I played it again the next night, and finally I was like ‘who the hell is this person?"
- Joe Boyd, producer Nick Drake & many others, talking about Luluc's Dear Hamlyn on BBC Radio.
Wailin Storms - (Set time: 7:30 PM)
What started as a solo project for visual artist Justin Storms in the humid subtropical climate of Corpus Christi, Texas has evolved into a four piece doom punk blues band called "Wailin Storms." On their recently recorded EP called "Bone Colored Moon," the track "Asleep in the belly of a tree" ranges from depression era gospel mixed with surrealism, dessert rock, and even has a hint of Roy Orbison in there. With lyrics like: "I fall asleep in the hollow belly of that bone white weeping willow tree and i'm cradled by the colors from the setting suns we see..." Storms' drifts in and out of dreamscapes, anthropomorphism, and southern myth like someone taking a stroll on a warm summer night.
On a newer track called "Howl, Howl, Howl" he takes us through the tragic folk tale of "La Llorna" or the "Weeping Woman." In short, a woman falls in love, drowns her children for her lover, and then takes her own life after she realizes she made a mistake. After she is turned away by heaven and sentenced to find her children's bones along the coast of Texas, she continues to look for anyone who can take the place of her children and to get her into heaven. There's a real melancholic and lyrical quality to the Storms' writing that for the most part is ineffable although one thing's for certain, the stories sung are as genuine as a blind bluesman.
On a newer track called "Howl, Howl, Howl" he takes us through the tragic folk tale of "La Llorna" or the "Weeping Woman." In short, a woman falls in love, drowns her children for her lover, and then takes her own life after she realizes she made a mistake. After she is turned away by heaven and sentenced to find her children's bones along the coast of Texas, she continues to look for anyone who can take the place of her children and to get her into heaven. There's a real melancholic and lyrical quality to the Storms' writing that for the most part is ineffable although one thing's for certain, the stories sung are as genuine as a blind bluesman.
