Japandroids [02/24/17]

Japandroids / Craig Finn & The Uptown Controllers at Union Transfer

***TWO NIGHTS***

After three years out of the spotlight, Japandroids announced their new album last week. Near To The Wild Heart Of Life is due out January 27, 2017 on Anti- Records, with a special early release for vinyl on January 24th. Additionally, they released the first single of the same name, prompting Pitchfork to say “...a new Japandroids record feels like hero’s return,” and Noisey concurred, “thank the good lord for Japandroids.” A pre-order for the album is up now at www.japandroids.com, with the option to buy the special 7” edition of the single featuring a b-side cover of Talking Heads’ “Love → Building on Fire.”

Today, the band announces their first world tour in three years. Starting in Madison, WI on February 13th at the Majestic Theatre, taking them to their biggest show in NYC to date at Terminal 5 on February 23rd and a night at LA’s Henry Fonda on March 10th, finally winding up in their hometown of Vancouver on March 20th at the Commodore. A European tour will follow in April. See all dates below. Tickets will be on sale this Friday, November 11th at 10am local time.

Near To The Wild Heart Of Life, was written clandestinely throughout 2014 and 2015 in Vancouver, Toronto, New Orleans, and Mexico City. It was (mostly) recorded by Jesse Gander (who had previously recorded both Post-Nothing and Celebration Rock) at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver, BC (September-November, 2015). One song, True Love And A Free Life Of Free Will, was recorded by Damian Taylor during an exploratory recording session at Golden Ratio in Montreal, QC (February, 2015). The album was mixed by Peter Katis at Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT (May, 2016) and mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in New York, NY (July, 2016).

Like Post-Nothing and Celebration Rock, the album is 8 songs. This is because 8 songs is the standard template for a great rock n roll album: Raw Power by The Stooges, Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen, Marquee Moon by Television, IV by Led Zeppelin, Horses by Patti Smith, Paranoid by Black Sabbath, Remain In Light by Talking Heads, Master Of Puppets by Metallica, etc.

Like Post-Nothing and Celebration Rock, the album was sequenced specifically for the LP. On Near To The Wild Heart Of Life, side A (songs 1-4) and side B (songs 5-7) each follow their own loose narrative. Taken together as one, they form an even looser narrative, with the final song on side B (song 8) acting as an epilogue.

Craig Finn & The Uptown Controllers

"A poetic storyteller and portraitist of people adrift and clawing their way forward in a depressed American landscape.” - NY Times��"

Craig Finn has created a universe as big as America, a stage that stretches from Minneapolis to Ybor City, from the bars of Chicago to behind bars in Memphis"�- Pitchfork

�Perhaps best known as the singer of The Hold Steady, Craig Finn is a Minnesota-bred singer/songwriter and guitarist based in New York City. Finn's highly descriptive lyrical style has a focus on narrative, crafting whole worlds for the people in his songs to exist within. In 1994, he helped form Lifter Puller, refining his craft over the course of their three albums before the band called it quits in 2000. At this point, Finn relocated to New York and reunited with Lifter Puller bassist Tad Kubler to form The Hold Steady in 2003. While the band's whiskey-fueled bar rock sound was a departure from the angular, synth-filled sounds of Lifter Puller, Finn's lyrically dense storytelling style remained intact, making The Hold Steady the thinking man's bar band. After five critically acclaimed albums with the band, 2012 saw Finn release his first solo album Clear Heart Full Eyes. In 2014, The Hold Steady released its sixth album, and in 2015, Finn released his second solo album, Faith in the Future. FITF is drawn from a set of songs inspired by themes of loss and survival that Finn wrote in the wake of his mother's death. In its 4-star review of Faith in the Future, Rolling Stone said, “The arrangements trump Finn's 2011 solo debut, upscaling that album's roots rock with choral backdrops and horn charts that recall the Van Morrison gestures of The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle. It's a good call for a literary songwriter who deserves, and earns, a broad canvas.” FITF ranked #8 on American Songwriter magazine's Best Of...2015. For his dates supporting Japandroids, Finn will be joined by The Uptown Controllers to a create a straight up four piece rock experience that amplifies his unique storytelling. Finn is currently preparing his third solo album, which will see a release in early 2017.

VENUE INFORMATION:
Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia, PA, 19123

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