The Bowery Presents

The Mercury Lounge upcoming shows

CMJ - Paradigm!

Sean Bones
1:00
Local Natives
12:00
Hockey
11:00
Ambulance LTD
10:00
Alec Ounsworth (of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
9:00
Patrick Watson
8:00
JBM
7:00

Dave Godowsky to perform between sets!
Venue:
The Mercury Lounge
Date:
Thu 10/22
Notes:
21+
Doors: 6:30 PM / Show: 6:30 PM
$12 / Free after 12:30am!
Dave Godowsky
official website
myspace
Sean Bones
official website
myspace
Canvas shorts and reggae music sound like summer spent by the water being lazy. Sean Bones is not lazy. Aside from holding down bass duties in indie sons Sam Champion, he designs and runs S/S Friends, Ltd.--a line of limited edition canvas shorts, zines, and vinyl based in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn--and cuts old-school reggae tracks under his own name. "Easy Street" is basically a classic pop joint with some give, all swelling B3 stabs, doo-wop harmonies, and Sean's wandering drawl over it all. For those that think Vampire Weekend too obviously cop African sounds, scope this track's perfect marriage of reggae rhythms and pop structure, the chord change on the chorus really pushes it next level.
Local Natives
official website
myspace
Local Natives make soaring, sky-scraping harmonies, dreamy orchestral melodies, and throbbing tribal beats that bash their way into your soul. Theirs are songs you can dance to almost as well as you can swoon to them. Drawing a line from the vocal stylings of Crosby Stills Nash & Young and the Zombies through the more esoteric edges of post-punk and Afro-beat, this California five piece have communally crafted a brand of indie rock all their own.

For Local Natives everything is a collaboration, from song writing duties to the band’s self produced artwork. The three part harmonies come courtesy of keyboardist Kelcey Ayer, guitarists Ryan Hahn and Taylor Rice. Then there’s Matt Frazier on drums and Andy Hamm on bass, who look after the band’s equally impressive graphics and artwork.

One of SXSW 2009’s biggest success stories, the band drove for two days to get from Los Angeles to Austin in order to play nine spectacular shows that saw them sprinting, instruments in hand, from one gig to the next. Their hectic schedule paid off as Local Natives left Austin with the attention of the UK music Industry.

Based in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, three of the five-piece originally hail from Orange County. Kelcey, Ryan and Taylor attended neighbouring high schools and hooked up with bassist Andy a year after they graduated, later meeting drummer Matt. They’ve been playing – and evolving - together for three years. Last year, however, the band realized that the new songs they were writing were the sounds of a new project entirely.

It was in December 2008 that the band decamped to Silver Lake, where they all live in the same house. But the Silver Lake digs isn’t the first house the band have shared. They lived together in Orange County too, in a place affectionately known as Gorilla Manor. “It was insanely messy and there were always friends over knocking around on guitars or our thrift store piano,” says Ryan, “it was an incredible experience and I’ll never forget that time.” The original Gorilla Manor, where the band wrote the majority of their record, had such an impact that the band has paid tribute to the house by naming their debut album in its honour.

The self-funded ‘Gorilla Manor’ was recorded by Raymond Richards in West Los Angeles. Chosen because he was “super talented and super affordable,” Richards co-produced the record with Local Natives in his own Red Rockets Glare studio.

Featuring twelve sumptuous slices of dappled California sunlight and beguiling percussive rhythms, the album kicks off with the moody, driving, ‘Wide Eyes’. Says Ryan, “It’s about people’s obsession with the miraculous and disastrous…with witnessing extraordinary events”. The effervescent, mandolin boasting ‘Airplanes’ follows, which Kelcey explains is about “longing to have met my grandfather, a great man and pilot, who died before I was born.” Also included is the glorious ‘Sun Hands’, which was released as a limited edition single on Chess Club back in July. According to Taylor, the lyrics describe “that all too familiar feeling of wanting what you can’t have – especially when you once had it.” There’s a cover version in the mix too, a barely recognisable version of Talking Heads’ ‘Warning Sign’. “We’ve basically flipped the song on its head,” says Matt, explaining how they switched David Byrne’s original yelped vocals into a beautiful three-part harmony.

Local Natives’ debut album ‘Gorilla Manor’ comes out on November 2nd in the UK through Infectious Music.
Hockey
myspace
Hockey are individually from all over the United States, via band stints in Los Angeles, Spokane and Portland – To quote a line from I Wanna Be Black – all the band’s witty, biting lyrics are written by Ben – “everyone’s making dance music now true, but we started in 2002”.

‘When we started making music’ says Ben, ‘we wanted to make music that people could have fun to at the parties we played.’

‘We wanted to make dance music that was infectious,’ says Jerm. ‘Almost like: this is a band but it might as well be a DJ.’

‘We didn’t want to just get up and do our thing,’ says Ben.

‘We want people to react. That was our deal.’
Ambulance LTD
official website
myspace
Rising out of the New York City indie underground 5 years ago, Ambulance Ltd have received international acclaim for their music and live shows. Their self titled 5 song debut ep was released in 2003, followed a year later by their debut album, "LP" and a new 6 song ep "EP" in 2006. They have toured the US, UK & Europe extensively headlining their own dates and touring with great bands such as R.E.M., The Killers, Placebo, and Guided By Voices. They have also played iconic festivals such as Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Austin City Limits and Coachella. The band has made an indelible impact on the rock scene with their lush soundscapes and classic melodies.
Alec Ounsworth
myspace
Anti-Records is excited to announce the upcoming release of Mo Beauty from celebrated singer/songwriter Alec Ounsworth. The Philadelphia native, who earned acclaim with his band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, recently recorded his debut solo record in the music-steeped metropolis of New Orleans at the famed Piety St. recording studio.



For Mo Beauty, Ounsworth was backed by George Porter, Jr. on bass, Stanton Moore on drums, Robert Walter on keys, and Matt Sutton on baritone and pedal-steel guitars, with additional help from some members of the diversely talented New Orleans community such as Mark Mullins, Craig Klein, Greg Hicks, Washboard Chaz, Shannon Powell, John Boute, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, and Meschiya Lake. The album was produced by veteran musician/producer and fellow Philadelphian Steve Berlin (Los Lobos, Blasters, John Lee Hooker, The Replacements), who initially suggested the New Orleans setting.



"I met Steve while I was in New Orleans," Ounsworth says. "He said, 'do you want to make a record?' And I said 'maybe.' You see, I was just starting to work on the Flashy Python record, and was working on other projects as well. Nevertheless, it seemed I had some songs ready to be put forward (most old, some new) and so 'maybe' became 'yes' in relatively short order. . . New Orleans informed the spirit of the record, as it should. It’s not a 'New Orleans record,' though, because, besides "Holy, Holy, Holy Moses," most of the songs weren't written specifically for New Orleans . . . Any record can be influenced by its location aesthetically, and some are more than others. So it was with this record . . . it is New Orleans, after all."
Patrick Watson
official website
myspace
Patrick Watson (born 1979) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, whose blend of cabaret pop and classical music influences with indie rock has been compared to Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley, and Andrew Bird.

Born in California but raised in Hudson, Quebec, Watson began his musical career in high school as a member of the ska band Gangster Politics. He subsequently left the band, and released his own solo debut, Waterproof9, in 2001.

2003 saw the release of ‘Just Another Ordinary Day (Canada Counsil For The Arts).
On September 26, 2006, Watson released his second CD entitled “Close to Paradise”. Early in 2007, Watson was nominated for a Juno Canada’s music award in the New Artist of the Year category.

His band’s song “The Great Escape” was featured on a third-season episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

He co-wrote and performed on several songs on The Cinematic Orchestra’s 2007 album Ma Fleur including the opening track “To Build a Home”. His “Missing You” remix of Champion’s “Guy Doune”, from Champion’s 2006 album The Remix Album, reached #1 on CBC Radio 3’s R3-30 chart in early 2007.

Patrick Watson (the band) also won the prestigeous Polaris Music Prize (Canada) in 2007.
JBM
official website
myspace
Not Even in July is the kind of record you have to live before you can write. The album is an exquisitely crafted and painfully human collection of songs that exhibit the measured persistence and spectral beauty of a breaking dawn. It feels as weathered and wise as an old home— alive, lived-in and loved. Like the family cabin in the Adirondacks where he writes, Not Even in July is Marchant’s safe and solitary haven— his place of emotional harborage.

Jesse Marchant, who records under his initials, JBM, was born and raised in his family’s homes in the Adirondacks and Montreal. Classically trained on guitar from the age of 7, he had always written instrumental songs as a means of expression, but it wasn’t until recent years that he began writing lyrics, singing and recording. After a decision to withdraw, he retreated to his family’s home in the mountains, to live in seclusion and fully realize songs that he’d written while living in Los Angeles, in what he’s described as a somewhat strange and solitary three-year existence.

After shaping and working an album’s worth of music, Jesse got in contact with Henry Hirsch who took instantly to the demos and the two, with a few visiting musicians, made the record in just two short weeks at Hirsch’s 19th Century church studio in Hudson, NY.

Not Even In July is a mostly acoustic venture, textured thoughtfully by Marchant’s atmospheric arrangements, lyrical purity and unaffected baritone— that is as grand in its haunting restraint as it is in its emotional vitality. “Years,” a lulling, finger-picked instrumental slips into “Cleo’s Song,” a ghostly reverie on loneliness and despair, while “Ambitions & War” targets Los Angeles, in a shuffling indictment of greed and inhumanity. “July on the Sound” crashes delicately and darkly through scenes of death, love and life; “From Me to You and You to Me” weaves a lazy, spiraling plea; and the resolute beat of “Friends For Fireworks” swings from the optimism and beauty of sunset to the dark finality of night. The album closes with “Red October” and its piano-drenched memories of a love lost, and “Swallowing Daggers”, a hopeless declaration of concern for a loved one gone off the rails.

Not Even In July is an improbably stunning feat from a man who, until this point in his life, had never considered being a musician or playing his songs live until this year (he’s now shared the stage with St. Vincent, Elvis Perkins, Tallest Man on Earth). It plays out like a painstakingly elegant, yet brutally honest break-up letter written by Marchant and addressed to many: a lover, a dying friend, a piece of himself and a passing phase of life. But it’s also a love letter— to what comes next, and to finally coming home.
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