News

March 3, 2014

This is the Kit record with Aaron Dessner, release EP, tour Europe

This is the Kit are gigging again in Europe, revisiting many of the same cities they hit while opening The National’s autumn 2013 tour of the continent. Stops include capitals such as Paris, Berlin and a sold out date in London. (They've also added a May follow-up gig due to the demand.) Here are the dates:

MARCH
15 Reutlinger, Germany - Burning Eagle Festival Warm-Up
17 Metz, France - La Chaouée
18 Beauvais France - La Maladrerie Saint-lazare (w/ Melissa Laveaux)
21 London, UK - The Lexington SOLD OUT
22 Manchester, UK - Gullivers
24 Rees-Haldern, Germany - Haldern Pop Bar
25 Hamburg, Germany - Nachtasyl
26 Berlin, Germany - Berghain Kantine

MAY
21 London, UK – Scala (w/ La Femme)

Speaking of The National, the tour follows close after a January recording sessions in the Brooklyn studio of Aaron Dessner. (Just in case you're new around here, Aaron is the label's co-founder & a member of The National.) There's a picture from the sessions at the top of this news story. Dessner and This is the Kit frontperson Kate Stables worked with a who’s who of American indie musicians, including Aaron’s brother Bryce Dessner, Thomas “Doveman” Bartlett (producer for The Gloaming, Glen Hansard) and Matt Barrick (drummer for currently on-hiatus The Walkmen). We expect to release the results of these sessions in autumn 2014 on This is the Kit’s third full-length, an LP consisting of the Dessner-produced tracks. (We said expect so no promises on the release date -- patience is a virtue!)

To commemorate the new activity, however, the band are releasing an untraditional EP called Wriggle Out the Remakes just before their March tour. Billed as “remixes” the EP actually includes only minimal traces of its primary source material, that source being This is the Kit’s recently reissued underground masterpiece Wriggle Out the Restless. Meant as a showcase for the durability of Kate Stables’ songs, the EP release features covers, reinterpretation & reimagining of her songs by frequent PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, Francophone Domino Records signee François of the Atlas Mountains and Bristol pals Rachael Dadd, Ichi and Elliot E & the Ritournelles. Leading off the EP is a new song “Magic Spell,” chopped & diced into unrecognizability by Tythe aka Julian Peck. (Note that this recording of "Magic Spell" is not drawn from Aaron's sessions - rather it's the result of some studio tinkering the band has been doing on the side. The home for the original version of this song is yet-uncertain...)

Order your copy of Wriggle Out the Remakes here:
- BANDCAMP

In other "content" news, the band have a trove of videos in the works. First they've released a homespun music video for “Magic Spell” (Tythe remix) which you can see below. Next up are a dozen tour diary-style clips from the autumn gigs with The National. These will be released throughout the month of March, three new videos each week. Subscribe to Brassland's YouTube channel to catch them all. The tour diaries were shot by TiTK tour manager Rasha Shaheen. Thanks Rasha!



For the detail-oriented amongst you, for their March tour This is the Kit will consist of Kate (singing/guitar/banjo) , Rozi Plain (vocals/bass) and Jamie Whitby-Coles (drums), pictured below.




We are also expecting guest appearances by Vincent Mougel (kidsaredead) and Neil Smith (The Liftmen) at some shows along the routing. And how do you ask did Kate enjoy her trip to New York City? Well, due to poor documentation of the Brooklyn recording sessions, we don't have too much to show you - though we did make her take this tough looking New York-ish selfie.




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