Pages tagged “patrick wolf”

Patrick Wolf, the 23-year-old British folk-pop artist whose penchant for shocking red hair and heavily layered clothing of opposing patterns makes him look a bit like a Final Fantasy character, will once again thrill and trill U.S. audiences with his melodic warbles on a short tour that begins in mere weeks. Wolf's latest release, The Magic Position, came about earlier this year on Low Altitude and was followed by a titular single and music video with enough primary colors, costumes and loosely coordinated dancing to fuel a hip children's show.

Furthermore, Wolf's video podcasts are nominated for what else but "Best Podcast" in this year's Digital Music Awards. You can download the episodes on iCast, comb YouTube for snippets and participate in the democratic process here by throwing your vote in the web-hat.

Otherwise, catch him in Burberry fashion advertisements or on the following dates:

September
30 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Fillmore

October
1 - Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
3 - New York, N.Y. @ Webster Hall
4 - Boston, Mass. @ Paradise
5 - Montreal, Quebec @ Cabaret du Musee Juste Pour Rire
6 - Toronto, Ontario @Lee's Palace
8 - Detroit, Mich. @ Saint Andrew's Hall
9 - Chicago, Ill. @ Metro
11 - Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom
12 - Vancouver, B.C. @ The Plaza
13 - Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos
15 - San Francisco, Calif. @ Mezzanine (21+, much to Wolf's dismay)
16 - Los Angeles, Calif. @ El Rey

Related links:
PatrickWolf.com
Patrick Wolf on MySpace
Paste review: Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

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

Patrick Wolf is from an alternate universe where Scott Walker became a genre-busting pop star instead of sliding down the rabbit hole. Wolf’s dramatic crooning and outré sound sources are of a piece with Walker’s, but he couches them in some of the most sumptuous pop appointments this side of a Gwen Stefani song. His third LP reconciles the far-out experimentation of his early work with conservatory-trained finesse, yielding a sort of buttoned-down anarchy that sounds like nothing else.

Wolf frontloads The Magic Position with some of his wildest ideas. After a winning opener with ceremonially pounding percussion and an overclocked hook, the title track sneaks in a brief kiddie chant and the bonging tone you hear when you finish downloading an mp3, before sprightly keys and strings start to churn over exuberant handclaps. “Accident & Emergency” verges on pop-rap parody, with its glitchy sample beds, thick bass throb and strobe-light vocals.

After a jaunty beginning, the album gets moodier, placing more emphasis on Wolf’s voice. The atmospheric dirges retain a sense of dark propulsion, and amid all the haunting chimes, sawing strings and depressive piano fugues, strange sounds proliferate. “Bluebells” is flecked with eerie twitters and distant firework screams; “(Let’s Go) Get Lost” uses a phone-off-the-hook tone as its foundation; and “Secret Garden,” an experimental piece for muffled voice, cyclical piano, textural rhythms and incidental strings, veers from noisy pop into abstract realms of pure noise. Complex yet catchy, lush yet groomed, and organically digital, The Magic Position is how pop radio must sound to the brutally insane.

As reported by Stereogum, Brit sensation Patrick Wolf, at the young age of 23, has had enough of pop stardom.

In a post on a fan message board, he wrote “my final concert will be this November, a retrospective with an orchestra in London.” To read the full post, click here.

Prior to this as-yet-unannounced London show, Wolf has 13 dates scheduled, but only eight of them are here in the States. Be sure to check out Paste's review of Wolf's The Magic Position in Issue 31, out on newsstands now.

Tour dates include:

April
30 - New York, N.Y. @ Virgin Records Union Square

May
2 - Minneapolis, Minn. @ Varsity Theater
3 - Chicago, Ill. @ Vic Theatre
5 - Philadelphia, Pa. @ Electric Factory
7 - Boston, Mass. @ Avalon Ballroom
9 - New York, N.Y. @ The Highline Ballroom
12 - Toronto, Ontario @ Mod Club
13 - Toronto, Ontario @ Mod Club

Related links:
Stereogum’s story on Wolf
Patrick Wolf’s homepage
Patrick Wolf on MySpace

A sudden eruption of profuse body hair. Violent outbursts, followed by gut-wrenching remorse. Wild, unpredictable mood swings. Symptoms indicating the subject is morphing into a werewolf? Or merely the onset of an equally hideous transformation: Human adolescence? In the case of Patrick Wolf’s Lycanthropy, trying to distinguish between the two can prove a challenge, but certainly a rewarding one, as the 21-year-old’s debut unleashes an artistic howl almost as powerful and eccentric as Allen Ginsberg’s.

Born in 1983 in County Cork, Ireland, and raised in London, Wolf began studying violin and viola at the age of six; by 11, he’d built a theremin and begun writing original songs. At 12, he was performing with Minty, the outrageous U.K. performance-art band fronted by drag queen Leigh Bowery. (For want of a U.S. reference point of how unconventional this affiliation was for a youngster, imagine telling Grandma back in 1990 that you planned to let performance artist Karen “yams-up-the-wazoo” Finley, of the infamous NEA Four, baby-sit the kids.) In the ensuing years, he’s shuttled between London and Paris, fronted a punk band, and learned how to compose on everything from the harpsichord and accordion to a laptop computer.

Written and recorded between 1994 and 2002, the 14 tracks of Lycanthropy distill Wolf’s manifold talents and singular aesthetic into an odd-yet-gripping document. His music doesn’t defy description, just categorization. On “Wolf Song,” stuttering electronic beats a la Aphex Twin conclude a jig of jaunty pennywhistles and fiddles sure to appeal to the Ye Olde Renaissance Faire set. “Paris” opens with strings sawing away at eighth notes, then erupts into an industrial dance furor. And with its throbbing 4/4 beat, snap-crackle-pop electronics and Wolf theatrically belting “I want to run! / I want to scream!,” “Bloodbeat” suggests what might have happened if the zombie jamboree from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video carried its act into the 21st century.

“A boy like me is told he is both nine and ninety,” admits Wolf on the penultimate number, “A Boy Like Me.” No wonder he speaks so frankly—and poetically—in his lyrics. Particularly harrowing is “The Childcatcher,” in which the young narrator is coerced into sexual acts (“I was still a child when you caught me and tied me to your bed … ‘Just a rite of passage,’ you held me down and said”) which he or she may or may not abhor; between the blunt words, distorted vocals and bass-clarinet drone, all married to a gleeful pastiche of the chant from the nursery story “The Gingerbread Man,” the evidence is inconclusive.

With Lycanthropy, Patrick Wolf becomes the youngest inductee of the Lupine Hall of Fame, alongside luminaries including Lon Chaney, Jr. (The Wolfman), Virginia Woolf, and Romulus and Remus. Following such a distinctive debut, it will be curious to observe what lengths Wolf’s muse leads him to next. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day … but it was founded by a wolf.