Bon Iver
Anais Mitchell
Thu, September 20, 2012
Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
Radio City Music Hall
New York, NY
$50, $40
Tickets
This event is all ages
http://www.bowerypresents.com/event/120503/
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Bon Iver
Justin Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. Tailing from the swirling breakup of his long time band, he escaped to the property and surrounded himself with simple work, quiet, and space. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This special time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus.
This slowly evolved into days filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song. The end result is, For Emma, Forever Ago, a nine-song album comprised of what's been dubbed a striking debut by critics and fans alike.
Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for "good winter" and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. It is a new statement of an artist moving on and establishing the groundwork for a lasting career. For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut of this lineage of songs. As a whole, the record is entirely cohesive throughout and remains centered around a particular aesthetic, prompted by the time and place for which it was recorded. Vernon seems to have tested his boundaries to the utmost, and in doing so has managed to break free form any pre-cursing or finished forms.
This slowly evolved into days filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song. The end result is, For Emma, Forever Ago, a nine-song album comprised of what's been dubbed a striking debut by critics and fans alike.
Bon Iver (pronounced: bohn eevair; French for "good winter" and spelled wrong on purpose) is a greeting, a celebration and a sentiment. It is a new statement of an artist moving on and establishing the groundwork for a lasting career. For Emma, Forever Ago is the debut of this lineage of songs. As a whole, the record is entirely cohesive throughout and remains centered around a particular aesthetic, prompted by the time and place for which it was recorded. Vernon seems to have tested his boundaries to the utmost, and in doing so has managed to break free form any pre-cursing or finished forms.
Anais Mitchell
In case you haven't met her, Anaïs Mitchell is not a man. She's a woman, quick to laugh and to cry, a fan of Jane Austen and miniskirts. She came of age reading the diaries of Anaïs Nin and blasting early Ani Difranco records. So it may catch a few listeners off-guard when Mitchell cries out, in the opening sequence of her latest album, "I'm a young man!" And it may come as a surprise when, over the course of eleven songs, she seems to be channeling spirits from the Old Testament to modern America—but mostly, well, from the Y chromosome.
Taking on voices other than her own is not exactly new for Mitchell, though. In 2010 Righteous Babe Records released the recorded version of her folk opera Hadestown, a modern retelling of the Orpheus myth, featuring guest singers Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Ani Difranco and Greg Brown. The album became something of a critical phenomenon in the UK, making "Best of 2010" lists in the Guardian, Sunday Times and Observer.
Young Man in America received similar acclaim, and saw Mitchell take to the road for six months across the US and Europe with a four-piece band, culminating in an opening tour for Bon Iver that wound up in Radio City Music Hall, NYC.
“Terrific….Mitchell is a skilled storyteller..and her delivery gives an emotional complexity that welcomes and even demands repeated listens.” Pitchfork
“A remarkable, genre-defying album” 4* Uncut
“The startling imagery and dramatic musical sweep of the title track’s cradle to grave odyssey marks her out as a true American original” 4* Q Magazine
“Music of rare boldness and reach. A sensational album” CD of the Week, The Sunday Times
“A fierce, melodic affirmation of sadness and grief, love and lust, attachments formed both strong and precarious, Young Man in America is a marvel of a record from start to finish”. BBC Music
Taking on voices other than her own is not exactly new for Mitchell, though. In 2010 Righteous Babe Records released the recorded version of her folk opera Hadestown, a modern retelling of the Orpheus myth, featuring guest singers Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Ani Difranco and Greg Brown. The album became something of a critical phenomenon in the UK, making "Best of 2010" lists in the Guardian, Sunday Times and Observer.
Young Man in America received similar acclaim, and saw Mitchell take to the road for six months across the US and Europe with a four-piece band, culminating in an opening tour for Bon Iver that wound up in Radio City Music Hall, NYC.
“Terrific….Mitchell is a skilled storyteller..and her delivery gives an emotional complexity that welcomes and even demands repeated listens.” Pitchfork
“A remarkable, genre-defying album” 4* Uncut
“The startling imagery and dramatic musical sweep of the title track’s cradle to grave odyssey marks her out as a true American original” 4* Q Magazine
“Music of rare boldness and reach. A sensational album” CD of the Week, The Sunday Times
“A fierce, melodic affirmation of sadness and grief, love and lust, attachments formed both strong and precarious, Young Man in America is a marvel of a record from start to finish”. BBC Music
