Galloping in to the final furlong of her hit US headline tour, catch Cate Le Bon on the West Coast this week.
Having ended 2011 supporting St Vincent on a solo coast to coast tour of the USA, Cate is now back with her full band. Catch her playing tunes from her recently released and highly acclaimed second album CYRK. Expect extended solos and mind-bending outros as Cate journeys through the States leaving a trail of ragged rugs and broken hearts in her wake.
What the press is saying about Cate Le Bon:
“There is nobody quite like (Cate Le Bon) and, for me, this is the current show to beat for 2012.” – Brooklyn Vegan
“..the music she creates under her own name more closely resembles The Velvet Underground & Nico relocated from Warhol’s Factory to a Welsh farmhouse, displaying an equal affinity for narcotic melodies and jangle-riff repetition, but with the East Village grime replaced by a certain lambswool coziness.” – Pitchfork
“The earliest contender for album of the year 2012 is the next level second release from one of the most original new voices to emerge in years.”
– Chris Douridas, KCRW-fm / eclectic24
“(Cate)’s of her time, but not content to nibble on the leaves of alternative rock: she follows it right down to the root.” – NY Times
“(Cate) filled her second effort with folk-pop gems that sound like they were recorded on the road during a Barnum and Bailey tour. And with her signature intricate melodies and moods that shift from gloomy to playful, you can bet she keeps us on our toes.” – NYLON
“(Cate) has all the ingredients for what it takes to be the next big thing in female art-pop: a strong persona, a unique voice, and a confident songwriting craft.” – PASTE
Bio:
A highly successful 2010 was spent touring her debut LP Me Oh My described by Word magazine “As cymbals clash and keyboards whirl, imagine PJ Harvey’s rawness tangling with Super Furry Animals’ prog and a vocalist who forgoes folk soft asides for delicious black humor”. Cate then ended the year contemplating and conjuring up her sophomore release.
Cate entered the studio with the nucleus of a record existing in her head, lyrical ideas swam in ether as did fully formed arrangements, but it wasn’t until she began recording that these disparate ideas were drawn together and her circus tent of a record rose from the gravel ground.
Drawing on her experiences from that heady 12 months, Cate created a collection of pop nuggets that sounded like they’d fallen off the back of a broken carousel, imbued with the playfulness of Faust, Syd Barrett and the tropical melodies of Os Mutantes and stitched together with a foreboding silken lyrical thread.
Existential word play abounds and fuzz fused guitar lines tear through like an angry bee in a CAN as Cate muses on matters of the heart and the magnetic pull of the ocean.
How would you describe the album, CYRK?
Cut a remote island in two and place one half to your ear
What’s a song on your new album, CYRK, you really want people to hear?
‘The Man I Wanted’ because I have finally put down a wooden recorder track that I have not been ridiculed for… as of yet. Also, if you’re listening to it, you’re well into side 2 of the album which means there’s hope you’ll make it to the end.
What’s a lyric you’re particularly proud of on the album?
“On the worst day of his life, he’d still love more things than I like” has been misconstrued as being a melancholic lyric about how miserable I am when actually it was written as a testament to how wonderful and positive the ‘he’ in the song is (its not God, for the record).
Tour Dates
02/22 Seattle, WA Crocodile
02/23 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
02/25 San Francisco, CA The Independent (Noise Pop) *
02/26 Santa Monica, CA McCabe’s Guitar Shop
02/27 Los Angeles, CA Live on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic
02/27 Los Angeles, CA Bardot Hollywood (“School Night”)
02/28 Los Angeles, CA Amoeba Live In-Store 7pm
* = w/ Surfer Blood
Cate Le Bon
CYRK
(The Control Group)
Street Date: Jan. 17, 2012
1. Falcon Eyed
2. Puts Me To Work
3. CYRK
4. Julia
5. Greta
6. Fold The Cloth
7. The Man I Wanted
8. Through The Mill
9. Ploughing Out Part 1
10. Ploughing Out Part 2
Links: Facebook//Twitter//Official Site//Label