June 26, 2009

New Megafaun - "Kaufman's Ballad"

thubmnail icon: New Megafaun - "Kaufman's Ballad"

Megafaun's Bury The Square was an invigorating mix of folk harmonies, spaced-out explorations, and noisy/spliced experimentation. Tellingly, the Raleigh-via-Eau Claire trio's comfortable playing (or collaborating) with Akron/Family, the Rosebuds, and/or Arnold Dreyblatt: Their unique, refined cut-and-pasting earned them a BTW stamp and had us curious enough to look into their day jobs. Megafaun's second album Gather, Form & Fly finds brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund in a similarly natural state of unbounded eclecticism. Drones follow pristine ballads. Plucky bar hops are stormed by free noise howls. Water drips over hand drum circles. Pastorals implode. And, of course, there are those three-part Crosby, Stills and Nash harmonies. Take a listen to the dusky "Kaufman's Ballad," which goes out to Gram Parsons' manager, Phil, who stole Parsons' post-funeral body and cremated it in Joshua Tree desert with gasoline, per Parsons' request. Something very comforting about that.

Megafaun - "Kaufman's Ballad"

Gather, Form & Fly is out 7/21 via Hometapes. They have a lengthy summer tour with their pals Bowerbirds, who if you recall, put out their debut on Brad's Burlytime label.

07/06 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
07/07 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's
07/08 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
07/09 - Brooklyn, NY @ Monkeytown
07/10 - Providence, RI @ Club Hell
07/11 - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall
07/12 - Cambridge, MA @ TT The Bear's Place
07/13 - Montreal QC, Canada @ La Sala Rossa
07/14 - Toronto ON, Canada @ Sneaky Dees
07/15 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
07/16 - Pontiac, MI @ The Pike Room at The Crofoot
07/17 - Indianapolis, IN @ Vollrath Tavern
07/18 - Chicago, IL @ TBA
07/19 - St. Louis. MO @ LEMP Neighborhood Art Center *
07/20 - Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
07/21 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
07/22 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
07/24 - Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge *
07/26 - Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
07/27 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
07/29 - Vancouver BC, Canada @ The Biltmore Cabaret
07/30 - Seattle, WA @ Triple Door
07/31 - Anacortes, WA @ Department of Safety
08/01 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
08/03 - San Francisco, CA @ Cafe du Nord
08/04 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
08/05 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
08/06 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
08/10 - Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
08/12 - Denton, TX @ Hailey's
08/13 - Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
08/14 - Houston, TX @ Walter's On Washington
08/15 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
08/16 - Birmingham, AL @ The Bottletree
08/17 - Atlanta, GA @ The Earl