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Originally Posted by offramp

and at the Lemon Tree last year with Vince from The Elysian Quartet...

There's a youtube clip of that...

I'll go look shall I...?

OK...

here it is!

YouTube - Adrian Crowley - Long Distance Swimmer (Live @ Lemon Tree)

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Four out of five stars in the Independent for the new Vetiver album...

Album: Vetiver, Thing Of The Past (Fat Cat) - Album Previews, Music Magazine - The Independent

This follow-up to the 2006 album To Find Me Gone is a covers album featuring tracks originally recorded by some of Vetiver leader Andy Cabic’s favourite artists.

The songs originate from the dustier corners of pop history, particularly the late- Sixties/early-Seventies era of obscure singer-songwriters such as Michael Hurley and Biff Rose. Hurley puts in an appearance on his own jolly truck-driving song “Blue Driver”, and Vashti Bunyan does likewise on “Sleep A Million Years”.

Elsewhere, the general tone of songs such as “Hook & Ladder” and Townes Van Zandt's “Standin’” is akin to The Grateful Dead in their countrified American Beauty phase. By comparison, Hawkwind's "Hurry On Sundown" comes back down to earth with a jolt, re-imagined as a lolloping folk-blues boogie.

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Free Vetiver download from their new album, courtesy of DiS...

Drowned in Sound - News - Vetiver roll out on UK tour tomorrow ahead of new album

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Boomkat review of the new Vetiver album

VETIVER, Thing Of The Past - Boomkat

A new Vetiver album should ordinarily be considered cause for excitement, but this new offering is a collection of covers, which frankly, is bound to stifle interest somewhat. There just seems to be a lot of this sort of thing around at the moment, with Adem having pulled a Ronson as recently as last week. You'd have reason to expect Thing Of The Past to be markedly more interesting than the usual covers record, and it absolutely is.

Frontman Andy Cabic has selected songs culled from sources spanning obscure country records to better known material by Townes Van Zandt and Loudon Wainwright III, calling upon the assistance of Vashti Bunyan (who contributes vocals to 'Sleep A Million Years' (penned by Dia Joyce) and Michael Hurley, whose own 'Blue Driver' gets a rendition towards the end of the LP.

Something that defines Thing Of The Past - and for that matter Vetiver in general - is the kind of dedicated authenticity and old-fashioned craftsmanship that you just don't tend to encounter very often. Thom Monahan's wonderful production is a big factor in achieving that, avoiding the trap of trying to sound retro, and instead casting an inconspicuously classic, vintage finish over the band's expertly rendered interpretations. Vetiver have always existed in a bit of a time capsule, sounding and dressing like they might have been in attendance at The Last Waltz, and their song choices on Thing Of The Past really play to their strengths. Plus, for the most part the selections are sufficiently unheard of to sound fresh and intriguing, forming a perfectly coherent album regardless of the different writers. Recommended.

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new live Vetiver footage from Hollywood, plus interview with Andy Cabic...

Naturalismo Presents: Vetiver live @ Troubadour naturalismo

[chilli]

i'm really hoping they play the Hawkwind cover to see how it is compared to the original

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Originally Posted by chilli

i'm really hoping they play the Hawkwind cover to see how it is compared to the original

I'm looking forward to absolutely everything about this gig!

Adrian Crowley with string player and guest percussion from Otto (Espers, Vetiver), plus old, new and old/new material from Vetiver.

This will be mindbending and mindblowing.

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Amoeba Records interview with Andy Cabic (Amoeba is probably the best record shop I've ever been in, ever! - go if you get the chance...)

Amoeblog > 2008-05 > Andy Cabic of Vetiver Chats

[chilli]

Also worth a chunk of the admission price is Adrian Crowley who is doing most the UK dates with Vetiver, has toured with lots of great artists like LOW, Damon & Naomi The Fence Collective, has just played solo @ London's wonderful Union Chapel & is by IMP concensus fxxxxxg brilliant



if you havn't caught him live yet, do so this time

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latest album press...

Vetiver’s misty 2006 album To Find Me Gone rightfully won acclaim from many quarters, elevating the quintet from status as mere Devendra Banhart playthings (he appeared throughout the album) to a genuine alt-folk talent. However, instead of further consolidating their potential by releasing another set of beguiling originals, Andy Cabic and co deliver what most artists usually wait until at least album five to do: release an album of reverential cover versions. [Music Week]

The title’s a clue. Andy Cabic’s band of Californian longhairs are the latest to indulge in the artistic endeavour du jour, the covers album. While he’s not been too obvious in selecting the source material, neither has Cabic been to radical, refusing – against prevailing fashion – to tackle the songbooks of the stylistically contrary. The criteria were songs from between 1967 and ’73 and, while the combine spirits of Gram parsons and CSNY hang heavy in the air exhaled by Vetiver’s easy country / folk-rock, no short cuts are taken across familiar ground – Loudon Wainwright’s The Swimming Song and Hawkwind’s Hurry On Sundown are probably the best-known choices. Glowing in nostalgia, the band are so pitch-perfectly faithful to the period that Thing Of The Past could confidently pass itself off as a product of Laurel Canyon’s glory years. Indeed, when the ghostly voice of Vashti Bunyan duets with Cabic on Sleep A Million Years, it really does feel like the dust’s just been blown off some long-forgotten treasure. [The Word]

The follow up to the 2006 album To Find Me Gone is a covers album featuring tracks originally recorded by some of Vetiver leader Andy Cabic’s favourite artists. The songs originate from the dustier corners of pop history, particularly the late-Sixties / early-Seventies era of obscure singer-songwriters such as Michael Hurley and Biff Rose. Hurley puts in an appearance on his own jolly truck-driving song Blue River, and Vashti Bunyan does likewise on Sleep A Million Years. Elsewhere, the general tone of songs such as Hook & Ladder and Townes Van Zandt’s Standin is akin to The Grateful Dead in their countrified American Beauty phase. By comparison, Hawkwind’s Hurry On Sundown comes back down to earth with a jolt, re-imagined as a lolloping folk-blues boogie. [The Independent]

Vetiver dispense with the futuristic ‘freak folk’ tag for album number three by looking backwards: Thing Of The Past is a collection of folk covers from ’67 to ’73. The Syd Barrett-influenced psych-hop that informed last album To Find Me Gone has been replaced by sonics akin to Ryan Adams re-imagining of the Eagles’ sound of the mid ‘70s, and with sometime member Devendra Banhart notably absent, leader Andy Cabic does his best to keep it authentic. He’s helped by Vashti Bunyan on Sleep A Million Years but, while the band’s six minute take on Hawkwind’s Hurry On Sundown feels drenched in sunshine, as with the rest of the album, there’s a soft-rock loveliness, but somehow, not enough bite. [NME]