The Bowery Presents

The Bowery Presents upcoming shows

The xx

Warpaint / Zola Jesus

Venue:
United Palace
Date:
Sat 10/02
Notes:
all ages
Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM
$35, $25
Tickets
The xx
official website
myspace
The xx arrive with their brilliant debut single ‘Crystalised’ – released on 20th April 2009 on Young Turks.

The xx are a London quartet, featuring the dual lead vocals of Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim (who also play lead and bass guitar respectively), Baria Quereshi (keyboards and guitar) and Jamie Smith (beats, MPC sampler).

All 19 years old, The xx are childhood friends who formed while attending the Elliot School – the south west London comp whose alumni also includes such acclaimed boundary-pushers as Burial, Four Tet and Hot Chip.

Bonding over a shared love of stripped back anti-folk and mid-90s R&B, The xx’s unique sound befits a wide range of influences that include everything from Aaliyaah to Cocorosie, Rhianna to The Cure, Missy Elliot to the Chromatics, The Kills to Ginuwine, The Pixies to Mariah Carey and Justin Timberlake to Tracey & The Plastics.

These influences combine via beautiful, hushed vocal duets and a brilliantly inventive use of samplers and low-end frequencies to produce the stark, sweet melancholic pop of this debut single. Available on 7” vinyl, ‘Crystalised’ also features a cover of band favourite Aaliyah’s ‘Hot Like Fire’ on the b-side that further expands The xx’s hauntingly soulful sound. Both tracks are produced by the band themselves and engineered by Cocadisco’s Rodaidh McDonald.

Meanwhile, The xx are currently putting the finishing touches to their debut album, due for release later in 2009. Due for release on XL Recordings imprint Young Turks (Holy Fuck, Young Turks), this will be the first ever album to be recorded in XL’s in house studio.
Warpaint
myspace
LA’s Warpaint weaves majestic guitars, hypnotic vocals, and driving post-punk rhythms into gorgeous, sprawling songs that skirt the line between the soundscapes of psychedelia/shoegaze, the haunting intimacy of folk, and rock’s primal heaviness.

Playing to many captivated audiences in LA, Warpaint has opened for Flea, The Black Heart Procession, and The Slits to name a few. In early 2009, their self-released debut EP Exquisite Corpse soared straight to #1 on the Amoeba local artists chart. This September, Manimal Vinyl (Bat For Lashes) will reissue Exquisite Corpse on CD and vinyl, complete with a new bonus track. Mixed by John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), the EP successfully captures the band’s sonic textures and playful dynamism that they’re notorious for creating in a live setting. With a buzz already in the LA air, Warpaint is now beginning to stir the masses with praise in the US and abroad. Dazed and Confused calls Exquisite Corpse “a collection of magical psychedelia drifting over sublime moments of raw melody courtesy of the three free ethereal vocalists,” while London’s The Independent adds “they make a quite lovely sound with dreamy vocals, off-kilter hazy guitars.”

Recently, Warpaint solidified their live lineup with drummer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer now in tow. Onstage, Warpaint’s disarmingly authentic package can shake a room into a dance frenzy, while simultaneously holding it in a trance-like dreamworld. With tour plans in the works, Warpaint is poised to win over those willing to join them on their complex, melodic, dark odyssey.
Zola Jesus
official website
myspace
Zola Jesus is the endeavor of a solitary girl named Nika to simultaneously combat and invoke the approaching apocalypse using the only weapon/offering she has: her voice. After a decade of opera study and a musical awakening involving such varied inspirations as Billboard bubblegum, classical aria's, no-wave, and noise, she was able to thread her influences into a sound uniquely her own. Her passionate, soulful melodies are carried by cold waves of haunted dissonance that conjure the tenuous relationship between emptiness and life in each of us. It is this willingness to embrace seemingly disparate styles and philosophies that infuses each song with an electric soul and howling fervor. Zola Jesus is the whisper and wail of impending doom finally rendered audible in all its conflicting intimacy.
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