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| The Old Ceremony's Yep Roc debut After a couple of years spent working on two books and taking part in a series of international Big Star tribute concerts, Django Haskins has re-convened his band The Old Ceremony to record the best album of their career and debut for Yep Roc Records Fairytales and Other Forms of Suicide out August 21. The 10 songs on Fairytales were inspired by topics ranging from the Republican Primary debates to the mysterious deaths of 5, 000 blackbirds in the small town of Beebe, AR, all of them written in the darkly theatrical style for which the Old Ceremony is known and loved. More than any of the band's previous albums, Fairytales coheres around a central theme: awakening to the world as it is and learning to see the beauty in its harshness. Hailed by Pitchfork as "quietly devastating" and "slightly disorienting" The Old Ceremony's epic live performances have at times swelled to include a dozen or more musicians, but the group's core five members include Haskins (voice/guitar), Mark Simonsen (vibraphone, organ), Gabriele Pelli (violin/keys), Dan Hall (drums), and Jeff Crawford (bass). The band will tour extensively in North America and Europe this year with dates to be announced soon. Haskins' recent work outside the band includes emceeing and performing in a series of concerts produced and organized by Chris Stamey (The Dbs) paying tribute to Big Star1s 'Third1 album, during which he collaborated with musical luminaries such as Ray Davies, Jeff Tweedy, Sharon Von Etten, Robyn Hitchcock, Mike Mills, Mitch Easter and Ira Kaplan. He is also currently writing two books of non-fiction, one about his great grandfather, a survivor of the Titanic, and another on the history of four American cities New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta. write your comments about the article :: © 2012 Jazz News :: home page |