Pages tagged “band of horses”

Click above to watch "No One's Gonna Love You" from Band of Horses' new album Cease to Begin, out now on Sub Pop Records.

Related Links:
News: Band of Horses prep for international tour
News: Band of Horses kicks off tour, performs with Sufjan
News: Band of Horses, Cass McCombs to play Halfway to Forecastle

In November, we brought you a brilliantly titled news story that reported on Band of Horses’ then-upcoming tour, and in December, we gave you a generically titled story about a particularly notable date in Louisville. Well, the future is now, the tour is underway, and there are some more dates to add. The band will be playing with Cass McCombs until Feb. 12, and on the following day, it will perform at the Tibet House Benefit in New York with Sufjan Stevens and Philip Glass, amongst others.

After its inevitably meditative performance at Carnegie Hall, the band will head to Europe for a month, before returning for a couple more dates in Florida. Wherever you see Band of Horses perform, be sure to congratulate the boys on their Top 10 placement in Paste’s 100 Best Albums of 2007.

Band of Horses on tour:

January
23 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise Rock Club *
24 - State College, Pa. @ State Theatre *
25 - Cleveland, Ohio @ Beachland Ballroom *
26 - Louisville, Ky. @ Headliner's (Halfway to Forecastle) *
27 - Newport, Ky. @ Southgate House *
29 - Nashville, Tenn. @ Exit/In *
30 - Memphis, Tenn. @ Hi Tone Café *
31 - St. Louis, Mo. @ Gargoyle *

February
1 - Norman, Okla. @ Meacham Auditorium (U. of Oklahoma) *
2 - Dallas, Texas @ Palladium Ballroom *
3 - Austin, Texas @ La Zona Rosa *
4 - Baton Rouge, La. @ Spanish Moon *
6 - Birmingham, Ala. @ Bottle Tree *
7 - Tallahassee, Fla. @ Beta Bar *
9 - Orlando, Fla. @ Social *
10 - Orlando, Fla. @ Social *
12 - Mt. Pleasant, S.C. @ Village Tavern *
13 - New York, N.Y. @ Carnegie Hall (Tibet House Benefit) #
20 - Dublin, Ireland @ Button Factory
21 - Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
23 - Birmingham, England @ Academy
24 - Manchester, England @ Academy
25 - Bristol, England @ Thekla Social
28 - Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
29 - Cologne, Germany @ Gebäude 9

March
1 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
2 - Hamburg, Germany @ Knust
4 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
5 - Gothenburg, Sweden @ Sticky Fingers
6 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Debaser
7 - Oslo, Norway @ Rockefeller
8 - Stavanger, Norway @ Folken
10 - Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Club
11 - Frankfurt, Germany @ Mousonturm
12 - Milan, Italy @ Garage
13 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Abart
14 - Lausanne, Switzerland @ Le Romandie
15 - Brussels, Belgium @ Botanique
21 - Orlando, Fla. @ The Social
22 - Tampa, Fla. @ The Cuban Room

* w/ Cass McCombs
# w/ Sufjan Stevens, Philip Glass, and others

Related links:
BandOfHorses.com
Band of Horses on MySpace
YouTube: Band of Horses - "Is There A Ghost"

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Festivals just aren’t as impressive as they used to be. Once, the word would conjure up images of revelry, rock, and fires started by Limp Bizkit fans, but somehow, the thrill is gone. That is, of course, unless said festival is Louisville’s Forecastle Festival. Why single out this particular event? Because it’s the only festival that holds a concert to celebrate the fact that it’s still six months away.

Yes, essentially Forecastle is holding a pre-festival festival, which is obviously amazing. Maybe more amazing than burning pyres of portable bathrooms. But what really propels Halfway To Forecastle to stratospheric levels of amazingdom is that it’s all for a good cause. The concert, which will take place on Jan. 26 at Louisville’s Headliners Music Hall, will benefit Jimmy Levan, a Louisville BMX legend who recently sustained a serious head injury. Band of Horses, Cass McCombs, and many others will be there to do their part and to start the six month countdown.

Related links:
ForecastleFest.com
BandofHorses.com
CassMcCombs.com

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Although the term “Southern rock” has traditionally evoked muttonchop sideburns and the devil going down to Georgia, the genre's tapestry also includes the kaleidoscopic psychedelia of early R.E.M. and the reverb-limned keening of My Morning Jacket.

Perhaps it's time to add Band of Horses to this list. The rootsy sextet-firmly aligned with the latter camp, but born of Seattle's omnipresent rainstorms and attendant coffeehouse culture-is led by singer/guitarist Ben Bridwell, a born Southerner who recently convinced his bandmates to return to his native South Carolina, a place he fled several years ago after finding himself in a “whole bunch of trouble.” He admits that the group's recent expansion to a three-guitar “Skynyrd Formation” marks them as part of a long musical lineage. “Sometimes I’ll pick up a banjo or slide guitar, but for the most part, it’s a little more rockin’ now,” Bridwell laughs, his vowels softly curling like a Gulf breeze. “We don’t really have our own Steve Gaines, though."

Band of Horses' sophomore release, the Churchillian-titled Cease to Begin (Sub Pop), marks a new chapter in the group’s development—an end of the beginning—as well as a shift in Bridwell’s writing. After parting ways last year with co-founder Mat Brooke (who went on to form fellow Sub Pop band Grand Archives), Bridwell’s compositions have veered from the soft-focus impressionism of 2006 debut Everything All the Time and toward a more narrative-driven style.

“That’s what the addition of a great piano player and livin’ in the South again will do,” Bridwell explains. “This album is about celebrating the homecoming. I wrote ‘The General Specific’ [one of the new album’s most affecting tracks, a lo-fi, high-energy jig that wouldn’t feel out of place on The Band’s Music From Big Pink] as a straightforward pop song, but thought it sounded a whole lot cooler as a honky-tonk stomper."

More than anything, Cease to Begin represents the sound of a talented writer growing more comfortable in his skin, unafraid to name a new song after ex-Seattle Supersonic Detlef Schrempf despite its elegiac, unrelated subject matter. “Before, I purposely masked my lyrics—you couldn’t tell exactly where I was coming from. This time, I realized that if a song is trying to be written, don’t shy away from it. Don’t be a pussy—just write the goddamned song.”

Having bucked off the oppressive yolk of Wal-Mart sponsorship and hopped into a Ford instead, Band of Horses is set to travel cross-country. The band's latest tour starts off in Atlanta for a sold-out trio of gigs at The Earl, followed by a spate of gigs across the East Coast, Midwest, the South and Florida. Once this tour concludes, the group will leap the pond for a 19-date European journey.

Here are those North American dates:

December
28 - Atlanta, Ga. @ The Earl (sold out)
29 - Atlanta, Ga. @ The Earl (sold out)
31 - Atlanta, Ga. @ The Earl (sold out)

January
20 - Charleston, S.C. @ Music Farm
21 - Norfolk, Va. @ The Norva
22 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ The Fillmore at the TLA
23 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise Rock Club
24 - State College, Pa. @ State Theatre
25 - Cleveland, Ohio @ Beachland Ballroom
26 - Louisville, Ky. @ Headliner's Music Hall
27 - Newport, Ky. @ Southgate House
29 - Nashville, Tenn. @ Exit/In
30 - Memphis, Tenn. @ Hi Tone Cafe
31 - St. Louis, Mo. @ Gargoyle

February
1 - Norman, Okla. @ Meacham Auditorium (U. of Oklahoma)
2 - Dallas, Texas @ Palladium Ballroom
3 - Austin, Texas @ La Zona Rosa
4 - Baton Rouge, La. @ Spanish Moon
6 - Birmingham, Ala. @ Bottle Tree
7 - Tallahassee, Flas. @ Beta Bar
9 - Orlando, Fla. @ Social
10 - Orlando, Fla. @ Social
12 - Mt. Pleasant, S.C. @ Village Tavern

One last bit of good news for Band of Horses fans: the group's new effort Cease To Begin finished in the Top 10 of Paste's 100 Best Albums of 2007. The album also topped Paste editor-in-chief Josh Jackson's individual album list for the year.

Related links:
BandOfHorses.com
Band of Horses on MySpace
YouTube: Band of Horses - "Is There A Ghost"

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Ever since Of Montreal landed a medium-rare wad of cash from Outback Steakhouse, things have gotten a bit weird in the world of indie sponsorships. Wilco teamed with Volkswagen, the Go! Team abandoned its previous policy of no music for ads, and then Band of Horses dropped a bombshell on us: using material from Everything All The Time to shill for Wal-Mart? The world's 19th largest economy? Whoa, guys... isn't that crossing some sort of line? Apparently, lead Horse Ben Bridwell agrees.

In a phone interview with In-Forum.com, Bridwell announced that his band was pulling out of its deal with Wal-Mart, which called for a TV commercial featuring a Band of Horses song after a trial run on the web. Here's Bridwell's reaction to the deal and its backlash, as published on In-Forum:

"I called my family, talked to my girlfriend about it, talked to the guys in the band and decided it’s no big deal,” [Bridwell] said. “We tested it with that Web site thing that I figured nobody would really even see. But in the Internet age, you can’t do anything without someone catching wind of it.”

“Some fans, they don’t even give a crap. They’re like, ‘Whatever, bands got to get paid.’ But at the same time, I was reluctant to do it in the back of my mind, and some fans reminded me there is a reason to feel that way about it,” Bridwell said. “So once I saw our fans were let down by it, I nixed the TV commercial, and said, ‘You know what, this isn’t for me. Keep your money.’”

Although some had labeled this move a sort of Faustian deal with the devil, Wal-Mart (thankfully) possesses no supernatural powers and should allow the band to walk without a scratch.

Up next for the band? A deal with Ford trucks, which will feature the group's "Is There A Ghost" in an upcoming TV spot. Sound hypocritical? Sorry, naysayers: Bridwell is actually a proud owner of a Ford vehicle. Support what you love, we say.

Thanks to The Daily Swarm for hipping us to this update.

Related links
BandofHorses.com
Paste: Band of Horses trot on November tour
YouTube: Band of Horses - "The Great Salt Lake"
Pitchfork: Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes talks selling out

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

Fresh off a round of stellar gigs at CMJ Music Marathon, Band of Horses, those aptly-bearded Pacific Northwesterners-turned-bona-fide Southerners, (they drive a beat-up Ford F-150 just like your grandpa) are headed back on tour.

When they aren’t burning up the charts, um, well, the alternative specialty radio charts, listen for Ben Bridwell and Co. at your local Wal-Mart.

Enough links; tour, tour, tour:

November:
1 - Raleigh, N.C. @ Lincoln Theatre *
2 - Washington, D.C. @ 9:30 Club *
3 - Providence, R.I. @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel *
4 - New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5 *
6 - New Haven, Conn. @ Toad's Place *
7 - Northampton, Mass. @ Pearl Street *
8 - Montreal, Quebec @ La Tulipe *
9 - Toronto, Ontario @ Phoenix Concert Theatre *
10 - Pontiac, Mich. @ Crofoot Ballroom *
11 - Chicago, Ill. @ Metro *
12 - Chicago, Ill. @ Metro *
14 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ First Avenue *
15 - Fargo, N.D. @ Aquarium (Dempsey's Upstairs) *
17 - Bozeman, Mont. @ Filling Station *
18- Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux/Crazy *
19 - Seattle, Wash.@ Showbox *
20 - Seattle, Wash. @ Showbox *
21 - Portland, Ore. @ Crystal Ballroom *
23 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Mezzanine *
24 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ Avalon *
26 - Pomona, Calif. @ Glass House *
29 - London, England - Bush Hall

* with the Drones, Tyler Ramsey

Related links:
BandOfHorses.com
Ctrl+V: Band of Awesome
Band of Horses on MySpace

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

In a short video posted online by Wal-Mart, Band of Horses provide the music with "Everything All the Time." The song seems to fit perfectly with the theme of the company, a be-all, end-all haven for all of your consumer needs (I'm not a spokesman, trust me). Check it out at SaveMoneyLiveBetter.com

Not that we blame them, per se - the stallions started small (as all indie rock groups do), garnering attention from their current label, Sub Pop, by opening Seattle-area shows for Iron and Wine. And hey, on the upside, maybe the guys won't be hurting for money or exposure anytime soon.

Related links:
BandOfHorses.com
Band of Horses on MySpace
Paste's piece on Grizzly Bear covering Band of Horses

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.