offramp Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 interesting music promotions presentJEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARD + DONT MOVE + REVEREND SHEPHERDSaturday 2nd May 2009The Tunnels, Carnegies Brae, Aberdeen, AB10 1BF. Phone 01224 211121Doors 7.30pmTickets 6+bf in adv / 8 on doorAvailable from One-Up Records, Belmont Street, Aberdeen. Phone 01224 642662 or http://www.ticketweb.co.ukhttp://www.myspace.com/interestingmusichttp://www.thetunnels.co.ukJEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARDJeffrey Lewis was raised in New York City and is a maker of comic books, tragi-comic folk narratives, and lysergic garage rock. With brother Jack on bass and David Beauchamp on drums, the Jeffrey Lewis Band mixes 60s acoustic psychedelia like Pearls Before Swine with the experimental art-punk of the Fall and the urban lyricism of Lou Reed, sounding a bit like if Woody Guthrie fronted Sonic Youth. Live shows often also incorporate "low budget videos", Jeffs large illustrations displayed to accompany certain songs. In 2001 Jeffrey Lewis signed to Rough Trade Records and has since released four albums.The Jeffrey Lewis Band has toured the US, UK and Europe, sharing bills with Steven Malkmus & the Jicks, Devendra Banhart, Black Dice, Thurston Moore, the Fall, Beth Orton, Frank Black, the Fiery Furnaces, Daniel Johnston, Scout Niblett, the Mountain Goats, the Moldy Peaches, Cornershop, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Wooden Wand, the Cribs, the Danielson Famile, Dr. Dog and others. The album Jeffrey Lewis: 12 Crass Songs, released by Rough Trade in late 2007, is a collection of songs by the legendary anarchist punk band Crass, reworked by Jeffrey into glorious folk, rock, psychedelic, orchestral and electronica productions which dazzle the ear while losing none of the political power of the originals. For the recording of 12 Crass Songs Lewis was joined by Helen Schreiner on back up vocals. 12 Crass Songs follows in the footsteps of the critically acclaimed Jeffrey & Jack Lewis: City & Eastern Songs, which was produced by Kramer (Galaxie 500, Butthole Surfers, Low, Daniel Johnston, etc) and was selected as one of 2006's best albums in Time Out NY, the Boston Globe, CMJ Monthly and elsewhere. http://www.myspace.com/jefflewisbandDONT MOVEDon't Move! is comprised of Jo Carvell and Mason la Long, a Midlands UK based songwriting duo who have been writing and playing music together for the past three years. Don't Move! is a pop band. Don't Move! write some of the most memorable songs you will ever be lucky enough to hear.The New Pop Sound of: Don't Move! will be their first release on Tin Angel Records. Recorded and mixed between Midlands venue/studio Taylor Johns House and the sunny climes of Charlottsville, Virginia by esteemed labelmate Paul Curreri, The New Pop Sound positively buzzes from open to close.http://www.myspace.com/dontmoveREVEREND SHEPHERDAberdeen's only psych-folk band containing genuine Reverends. Think less 'Reverend and the Makers' and more 'Robbie Shepherd! http://www.myspace.com/reverendshepherd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirsten Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Damn, I love Jeffrey Lewis so hard. I'll be there. Possibly with bells on, but that depends how I'm feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 2, 2009 Report Share Posted April 2, 2009 Thumbs up from me, too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2009 It's another one of those 4 Star album reviews courtesy of The Skinny Jeffrey Lewis - 'Em Are I :: The Skinny Written by: Jamie ScottPublished: Tue 07 Apr 2009****New York's renaissance slacker Jeffrey Lewis cultivates a prolific lifestyle, cramming the recording of this new album somewhere into a hectic touring, lecturing and comic-creating schedule. His last longplayer, 12 Crass Songs, a reworking of tracks by the seminal English punk band (funnily enough), allowed Lewis a different set of colours to work with. As a result, he appears to have discovered freedom in musical interpretation and applied this liberation to a set of unpredictably ramshackle tunes. His dexterous, almost improvised lyricism is strong here, despite the abashed remark "it's easier said than done/and it's not even easy to say." Heart-split renderings of his Year in Pictures mix with zombie-death musings, bluegrass escapism and abundant humorous observations. Lewis' biggest strength, however, is an ability to soak up the culture around him, and channel it through his own friendly storytelling and mannerisms, making him a profound and original voice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2009 Album review gets 8/10 at Drowned in SoundReview / Jeffrey Lewis - 'Em Are I / Releases / Releases // Drowned In SoundWe all know everything about Jeffrey Lewis. Its all there in his music no stone left unturned in his relentless quest to be completely open and honest about every aspect of his life. Artistic insecurity? Check (the inimitable Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror). Sexual insecurity? Check (The East River and many more). Erm, everything insecurity? Check (Anxiety Attack). Lewiss attempts to excavate and explore his neuroses are so startlingly lucid and hyperactive that its easy to caricature him as a kind of blend of Woody Guthrie and Woody Allen, a travelling poet dedicating paeans to pattern baldness rather than dust bowls.Yet for all the partial accuracy of such a comparison, it overlooks the rest of Lewiss output - he is, of course, as much comic-book writer as song-smith, his music existing in tandem with his drawings. Thus, just as his Fuff comic-strips contain short self-deprecating tales of private misery, so these little stories are part of a wider tapestry, sitting alongside b-movie zombie flicks, travelogues, and general existential musings. For every Anxiety Attack theres an Alphabet: like any great storyteller, Lewis is intent on focusing on the bigger picture, on giving both sides of the story. So his music can both break down into nervous exhaustion and philosophically proclaim: were all parts of an alphabetweve all got good things to do and its good when we do them. Indeed, as Lewis himself explains here in a Newsnight interview regarding Watchmen, part of the appeal of comics themselves is their ability to cram detail and information, to document a wider spectrum of emotion and thought than other mediums.Still, if Lewiss last record of original material, City & Eastern Songs, was drenched in a manic urban claustrophobia (the title itself an appropriative reversal of country & western) that almost bordered on the cynical, 'Em Are I, despite many of its songs dating back to the same period, has a different feel. From the off, the record lunges straight into positive, humanist poetry, opener Slogans a glorious, passionate Richard Hell-esque exploration of coping with the confusion of modern living, a world with The StonesThe BeatlesShoguns and Hulk Hogans. The detail keeps coming thick and fast, Roll Bus Roll depicting with delicate accuracy the life of the travelling musician, Lewis describing the scenes through his bus window (old bodegas and old street lights / Harlem looks so warm tonight) as well as their accompanying thoughts (the sun setting on my youth makes that old shadow get taller / but its fine as long as the bus makes the city behind me get smaller and smaller).If perhaps before Lewiss music had a tendency to be swamped by small-print, here the songs know when to step back, to give way to a catchy chorus or a hummable riff. Broken Broken Broken Heart is the closest Lewis has come to writing a pop song, complete with sing-a-long chorus and handclaps; he sounds like a frailer Lou Reed, stripped of mystery, appreciating hurt (thank you pain) rather than revelling in it. Moreover, Em Are I comes closer than any of Lewiss previous albums to capturing the simple charm of the low-budget films that light up his live sets. Characters like the pet pig in Good Old Pig, Gone To Avlon are imbued with a clarity of purpose that Lewiss image of himself clearly lacks; the closing track Mini-Moocher, with its swirling, Yo La Tengo psychedelia, directly compares the Lewis-narrator, surrounded by New Yorks bodies whose names I dont know and who just keeps falling further, with Mini The Moocher from the future who could turn space into whatever kind of face would suit ya.Theres undeniably something tragic about the disparity between Lewiss fantasy world, where the restraints of time and space vanish, and his metropolitan reality, where they affect everything. Yet on Em Are I, maybe more so than before, Lewis is able to reconcile the two If Life Exists? posits death as a mystery box: its our inability to know the future, to really control our destiny that makes life exciting. Moreover, he explains, its art that both best captures this dizzying uncertainty (its hard to get too bored / when you pick the right two chords / and you keep on strumming / as if you dont know whats coming), and helps us deal with it. On Slogans were told that now that Ive got it all on tape / I can really figure out its shape. Em Are I explains that its all relative, neither the cartoon character nor the philosopher has the answer; to quote Woody Allen: I read Socrates. This guy knocked off little Greek boys. The beauty is that there is no real answer, you just do the best you can. * Jeffrey Lewis 8 / 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Preview courtesy of The Kiosque Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard, Don't Move, Reverend Shepherd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest idol_wild Posted April 27, 2009 Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 This will be sexy. It feels like it's been a while since IMP did a Saturday gig. Can we have approximate stage times at this stage please? I will be coming back up from Glasgow that day and I may time it so I roll of the train then head along to the gig pretty much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 This will be sexy. It feels like it's been a while since IMP did a Saturday gig. Can we have approximate stage times at this stage please? I will be coming back up from Glasgow that day and I may time it so I roll of the train then head along to the gig pretty much.Well. yeah, it's kinda difficult to get the use of The Tunnels for Fridays / Saturdays, as you well know, due to club nights and the like. Guess work at this point...Doors 7.30pmRS 8.00DM 8.45JL 9.30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest idol_wild Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 I'll endeavour for an early enough return for Reverand Shepherd then. I have heard good things and Reverand Shepherd rarely seems to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Milne Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Reverend Shepherd are magic!The myspace music makes me feel safe and calm -- its catchy too.and they are actual reverends.plus Mr Lewis - looking forward to this a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 and they are actual reverends..Damn!!! I thought they were actual shepherds.Flocks sake! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Damn!!! I thought they were actual shepherds.Flocks sake!Ewe are well funny, Alan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Remember that night you had with Flossie, offramp?It had strange ramifications! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 hoofuckin told you that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Why, yow did!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 Stop pulling the wool over everyone's eyes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 I'd never try that...it'd be shear folly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 If you did, you'd be lambasted for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 29, 2009 Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 No kidding, you've really got my goat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 You baaaastard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Milne Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 this has made me laugh a lot, ewe fawny people!(that was awful) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Cynic Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 Butt out, Milne!!!! Or I'll set my mutt on ewe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 I herd this gig is only 6 in advance.That is an absolute bargain compared to other JL shows on this tour. imp are certainly not fleecing anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offramp Posted April 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 In non-pun news, there's a large piece on this gig in today's EE. I'll see if I can scan it in or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmd040 Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 Only two days to go!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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