Pages tagged “romantica”

Once upon a time, a moderately well-known band named Luna released a moderately well-received album entitled Romantica. The album was released back in 2002, and happened to hit stores the same year that the best damn music magazine out there began publication.

Two years later, the gorgeously named album inspired singer/songwriter Ben Kyle, an Irishman-cum-Midwesterner, to name his just-formed band Romantica. Three years later, Paste, the magazine birthed the same year as Romantica the album, named the band Romantica's sophomore effort America as number 58 of its Top 100 Albums of 2007.

Was it fate that things came in a full circle as they did? Was it happenstance? Regardless of whether coincidence or predestined, Paste and Romantica found each other last year, and it was love at first sight.

Now, Paste proudly presents a spring tour with our new music loves Romantica, along with Nashville, Tenn., folk-rock band The Bittersweets. Although it's already obvious that we love both of these bands (we are endorsing their tour), we're here to encourage our loyal readers to check them both out, and, if you happen to be in the Southeast this April, check them out at one of the venues listed below.

Take a peek at the video below to get a hint of how amazing Romantica sound live.

April:
10 - Nashville, Tenn. @ 3rd and Lindsley
11 - Spartanburg, S.C. @ The Show Room at Hub-Bub
13 - Mt. Pleasant, S.C. @ The Village Tavern
15 - Winston-Salem, N.C. @ The Garage
16 - Decatur, Ga. @ Eddie's Attic
17 - Charlotte, N.C. @ The Evening Muse
18 - Knoxville, Tenn. @ Manhattan's
19 - Greenwood, S.C. @ Music on Maxwell
20 - Raleigh, N.C. @ Berkeley Cafe

Related links:
RomanticaMusic.com
The Bittersweets on MySpace
Paste: Romantica: America review

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Band of Brits salvage American music... again

For anyone worrying that the Americana genre has become a repository of the bad irony of hipsters and has-been quacks, fear not: Romantica is here to save the day. Singer/songwriter Ben Kyle is the latest in a long line of European exports to reinvigorate a genre by reclaiming it as his own—“God walks on the water, I walk through the rain,” he sings. With one foot still in his home country, and one taking a tentative step into the mess of promises and disappointments on the other side of the pond, Kyle and his bandmates dust off the brilliance at the heart of America. Most albums with such ambitious titles fall flat in their attempt; Kyle—in songs and voice that sit comfortably between Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams—dwells comfortably in the long shadows cast by his forefathers while leaving his own undeniable stamp on the proceedings.

This Minnesota band upholds the tradition of earnest, sweet Heartland rock with better-than-average melodic sense, plus effective use of varied instruments (with help from part-time Wilco violinist Jessy Greene). Lead singer and songwriter Ben Kyle, a Minnesotan-by-way-of-Ireland, opens up his Americana with some of the wistful tinge of classic Irish rock. Like such apparent inspirations as Elvis Costello and Ryan Adams, he’s got a talent for analyzing relationships (“Oscar Wilde” is both clever and gorgeous), though his attempts at Costello’s sincerity-within-jaundice sit somewhat awkwardly. When he sings about politics and God—as he does on “Hold On,” “Belfast” and “Vacant Light,” among others—he can come off as banal as Lenny Kravitz and as dead-on as Vigilantes of Love, an unevenness that portends better things.