News

February 22, 2013

Brassland @ Adelaide Festival, the label curates a festival Down Under

Hi Australia! Here's a cool thing! A half-dozen artists on Brassland's roster (along with a handful of our peers, mentors and friends) are heading Down Under in the first week of March, under the aegis of the Adelaide Festival. The shows are an outgrowth of a long-running conversation between David Sefton, Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival, and Alec Hanley Bemis, co-founder of Brassland. Blurring the lines between composed music, art-rock, and the indie scene, the boundary-crossing program we've created is in the tradition of the LA Phil’s upcoming Brooklyn Festival (2013), BAM’s second annual Crossing Brooklyn Ferry event curated by Bryce and Aaron Dessner, and Les Nuits de Fourvière’s 2010 Nuit Brooklyn concerts. Usually we use this space to blah blah blah blah and be generally sarcastic about the amazing things our artists have devoted their lives to, but this time, we'll just throw down with an alphabetical list of artists participating over these four days of wonder. Our excitement should be self explanatory:

- Bryce Dessner (from The National, also Brassland's beloved co-founder)
- Buke and Gase (also doing a full Australian tour)
- Clogs (original line-up! Performing Stick Music!)
- Deerhoof (their drummer Greg Saunier wrote two new songs to be performed by an orchestra)
- Doveman (aka Thomas Bartlett, music directing one of his Burgundy Stain Sessions for the first time outside New York City)
- Jherek Bischoff (performing with orchestra!)
- Julia Stone
- Kronos Quartet
- Robert Forster (from The Go-Betweens! We freaking love the Go-Betweens)
- Sally Seltmann (she co-wrote Feist's "1-2-3-4" and that is only the most famous of her songs, but not the best)
- Sam Amidon
- This is the Kit

Holy heck! You can stream or download a selection of music you'll hear at the fest right here.



And that's not all. Adelaide Festival have put the Adelaide Art Orchestra at our disposal. In addition to accompanying Clogs, Deerhoof and Jherek, they will perform a program curated by Bryce including music by by BD himself, Sufjan Stevens, Padma Newsome, and David Lang (co-founder of Bang on a Can and winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music among other achievements). Also joining the funhouse ride on Kronos's night will be Zephyr Quartet and JG Thirwell’s Manorexia who we'll meet for the very first time. Finally, one of our other co-founders Alec Hanley Bemis will be wandering around trying to convince people to buy Compact Discs for their iPhones.

Here's where you can get tickets. Note that for a limited time, ticket buyers can use the promotion code “BRASSLAND” for discount pricing on these shows, including a sweet 2-for-1 ticket offer. Just mention "BRASSLAND" when you buy your tix by phone or internet.

Here's details on the shows with direct ticket links to the gigs.

MARCH 4th @ Thebarton Theatre:
Kronos Quartet featuring the works of Bryce Dessner
and JG Thirwell’s Manorexia w/ Zephyr Quartet

TICKETS from phone (08) 8225 8888
or venuetix.com.au/efs.php?v=8551

Kronos Quartet playing Bryce Dessner's "Aheym"


MARCH 5th @ Dunstan Playhouse - Adelaide Festival Center:
Doveman's Burgundy Stain Sessions feat. Sally Seltmann, Robert Forster and Julia Stone
w/ sets by Sam Amidon and This is the Kit

TICKETS from phone 131 246
or bass.net.au/events/dovemans-burgundy-stain-sessions.aspx

Robert Forster's "Dive For Your Memory"


MARCH 6th @ Thebarton Theatre:
Deerhoof w/ special guests Buke & Gase and Jherek Bischoff
featuring Adelaide Art Orchestra

TICKETS from phone (08) 8225 8888
or venuetix.com.au/efs.php?v=8552

Deerhoof Classical Music Announcement 2013


MARCH 7th @ Adelaide Town Hall:
Bryce Dessner curates the Adelaide Art Orchestra
w/ set by Clogs (featuring Padma Newsome's Stick Music & other selections)

TICKETS from phone 131 246
or bass.net.au/events/clogs.aspx2

David Lang's "Wed"


This year’s Adelaide Festival line-up also features Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Neil Finn, Paul Kelly, Van Dyke Parks, Glen Hansard, Laurie Anderson and Toro y Moi alongside a full program of dance and theater events.

I mean, really, wow.

Here's a more intelligible day-by-day accounting of the festivities written in a way that might be understood by less clued-in people than yourselves. But, first, a word from Adelaide Festival's audiences about why they like it so much.



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT: BRASSLAND @ ADELAIDE FESTIVAL, MARCH 4-7, 2013


A half-dozen artists signed to eclectic New York label Brassland will touch down in Australia during the first week of March, under the aegis of the world-renowned Adelaide Festival. Bryce Dessner (The National) and New York-based Buke and Gase and Doveman will join recent signings Jherek Bischoff (Seattle WA) and This is the Kit (Paris via Brighton, England) for a series of highly collaborative concerts. Core label artist Clogs will reassemble their original line-up for the first time in two years to tackle new work and selections from their rarely performed 2004 album Stick Music.

Joining the line-up is a curated selection of friends, peers, and mentors to the Brassland stable. On March 4th Kronos Quartet will perform a set mostly comprised of pieces written by Bryce Dessner with additional contributions from JG Thirwell’s Manorexia and Zephyr Quartet. On March 5th, Thomas Bartlett aka Doveman will debut his Burgundy Stain sessions outside of New York City for the first time, inviting esteemed Australian songwriters Robert Forster (The Go-Betweens), Sally Seltmann (co-writer of Feist’s hit “1-2-3-4”) and Julia Stone, whose 2012 solo album By the Horns he produced – along with opening sets by This is the Kit and Bartlett’s most regular collaborator Sam Amidon.

In a pair of shows also featuring the Adelaide Art Orchestra, the band Deerhoof will headline March 6th with special guests Jherek Bischoff and Buke and Gase, including two new songs Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier has composed for orchestra and the band’s singer Satomi Matsuzaki. Finally on March 7th under the direction of conductor Tim Sexton, the orchestra will play a set curated by Bryce Dessner, including pieces by Dessner himself, Sufjan Stevens, Clogs’ Padma Newsome, and Bang on a Can co-founder and Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang. The show will open with the rare performance by Clogs’ original line-up. The group will celebrate the release of a new EP, The Sundown Song, which focuses on Newsome’s relationship with his home in Mallacoota, one of the most isolated towns in the Australian state of Victoria.

The shows are an outgrowth of a long-running conversation between David Sefton, Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival, and Alec Hanley Bemis, co-founder of Brassland. The label that The Guardian has called “a focus for some of the city’s most intriguing creative musicians” blurs the lines between the composed music, art-rock, and indie scenes.


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