Longwave’ is out now on Woodsist Records
Catch Bonny Doon on their US tour this summer with Snail Mail and Band of Horses
Watch : “A Lotta Things”
Youtube
Photo Credit : Chloe Sells
Bonny Doon is back with a new music video “A Lotta Things” off their recently released album Longwave. Longwave is out now on Woodsist Records. Order it in physical and digital formats.
About Bonny Doon :
Arriving in the early months of 2017, Bonny Doon’s self-titled debut was a warm introduction to the band for many. Hazy and bright, the album’s woozy melodies and swirling webs of summery guitar textures were easily ingested as low-key slacker pop, blissfully awash in lo-fi sensibilities and dreamy ambiance. But the nonchalant breeziness belied a serious attention to songcraft that beckoned careful listening, and hinted at depths yet unexplored. Lo and behold, before the ink was even dry on the first record, work had already begun on its follow-up Longwave, a conscious about-face from the sonic experimentation of the first album, and a journey inward.
In the spring of 2017 Bonny Doon decamped to a remote part of Michigan, nesting near the evocatively named Mystic Lake, and spent a week uprooting former approaches and reinventing their sound anew. Moving into more improvisational territory, the band wrote quickly and from the hip, using repetitive chord structures to aid in spontaneous generation. Attracted to the session’s spacious arrangements and unaffected sounds, they went immediately into Key Club studio to capture the new material in much the same way. Working for the first time outside of home recording settings with engineer Bill Skibbe and longtime friend and collaborator Shelley Salant, the experience allowed for a focused concentration on bringing the intrinsic spirit of the group to the surface.
Opting for spontaneity and simplicity over the exploration of layers and textures that defined the first record, the band architected an incredibly intimate sound for these new songs. The album was tracked with minimal overdubs or production flourishes, constructing a frame that is spare and understated in the same way as the twilight-tinted third Velvet Underground album or the rusty glow of Bill Fay’s Time of Last Persecution. Several songs were approached as meditations on subtlety, shifting only between two or three chords without deviation, dynamically expanding and contracting without ever actually changing. Other songs were born from complete improvisation, and it’s in these moments that the radically organic approach to Longwave truly comes into focus. The session aimed to capture the band at their essence. With the superfluous stripped away, a gentle but steadfast spiritual core is revealed as the backbone of Bonny Doon’s cosmic American music.
While the spartan production centers the collection’s delicate beauty, it is unified thematically by its interiority. The album unfolds almost as one uninterrupted conversation with self. Sometimes the discourse is earnest and compassionate, as on the approximate title track “Long Wave,” other times it is laced with self-aware whimsy to lighten the load, as with the wandering “I Am Here (I Am Alive)”. The songs on Longwave amble through moonlit fields of melancholy guitar leads and self-reflection, but in characteristic fashion, Bonny Doon never lose sight of the potency of humor to carry the water. The familiar crooked smile looms lovingly throughout the churning lope of “A Lotta Things”, as well as on “Saved”, a playful yet pointed critique of the savior narratives connected to the redevelopment of the band’s hometown Detroit, artfully assimilated into the record’s spiritual vocabulary. Midway through “Saved” you can hear the band stumble and then decide to keep playing, a candid moment that encapsulates the spirit of Longwave. It isn’t time for another take, or to douse the song in a new idea or effect, but rather to continue observing the moment at hand and follow wherever it leads.
TOUR DATES
06/12 – Washington, DC – The Black Cat +
06/13 – Pittsburgh, PA – Cattivo +
06/14 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground +
06/15 – Detroit, MI – Deluxx Fluxx +
06/16 – Chicago, IL – Subterranean +
06/17 – Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street +
06/18 – Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews +
06/20 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge +
06/22 – Boise, ID – Funky Taco +
06/23 – Seattle, WA – Crocodile +
06/24 – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore +
06/25 – Portland, OR – Holocene +
06/27 – Oakland, CA – Starline +
06/28 – San Francisco, CA – Swedish American +
06/29 – Visalia, CA – Cellar Door +
06/30 – Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater +
07/03 – Scottsdale, AZ – Pub Rock Live +
07/05 – Austin, TX – Barracuda +
07/06 – Dallas, TX – Three Links +
07/07 – Fayetteville, AR – George’s +
07/08 – Nashville, TN – The High Watt +
07/09 – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn +
07/10 – Durham, NC – Pinhook +
07/11 – Richmond, VA – Strange Matter +
07/12 – Baltimore, MD – Parkway Theater +
07/14 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer +
07/15 – Boston, MA – Sinclair +
07/16 – Montreal, QC – l’Escogriffe Bar Spectacle +
07/17 – Burlington, VT – Arts Riot +
07/26 – Indianapolis, IN – State Street Pub
07/27 – St. Louis, MO – Foam
07/28 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom $
07/29 – Wichita, KS – Cotillion Ballroom $
07/31 – Springfield, MO – Gillioz Theater $
08/01 – Kansas City, MO – Crossroads KC $
08/02 – Bloomington, IN – The Bishop
08/03 – Madison, WI – Communication
08/04 – Peoria, IL – Peoria Riverfront CEFCU Stage $
08/05 – Memphis, TN – Orpheum Theater $
08/07 – Cincinnati, OH – Bogart’s $
08/08 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom $
08/09 – Kingston, NY – BSP Kingston
08/10 – Port Chester, NY – Capitol Theater $
08/11 – Portsmouth, NH – Prescott Park $
08/12 – Providence, RI – The Strand Theater $
08/13 – New York, NY – Elsewhere
08/14 – Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summer Stage $
08/15 – Richmond, VA – The National $
08/17 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz $
08/18 – Asheville, NC – Highland Brewery $
+ = w/ Snail Mail
$ = w/ Band of Horses
Bonny Doon
Longwave
Woodsist Records
[Order Digital / Physical]
Street Date: March 23, 2018
1. Long Wave
2. A Lotta Things
3. I Am Here (I Am Alive)
4. Take Me Away
5. Where Do You Go
6. Saved
7. Saw a Light
8. Try to Be
9. Part of Me
10. Walkdown
BONNY DOON LINKS:
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