Update- tickets selling really fast

So a good friend of mine wrote me today and said she got a ticket for our show at Carnegie Hall w Band Of Horses (June 11th) and they didn't seem to have many left. Not sure how tickets for the other shows are doing, but in general it seems like time is of the essence....

Ticketing Info for shows with Band of Horses

We'd love to get as many Arbouretum fans as we can at these shows! They're all pretty likely to sell out, so it's probably best to buy tickets in advance.

Please click here for Ticket info. Most shows have either just started selling tickets, or are about to.

June shows with Band of Horses

We're happy to announce the following shows, where we will open for Band of Horses:

6/10 Norva- Norkolk VA
6/11 Carnegie Hall- NY, NY
6/12 Ram's Head Live- Baltimore, MD
6/16 Orange Peel- Asheville, NC
6/17 Neighborhood Theater- Charlotte, NC
6/18 House of Blues- Myrtle Beach, SC

Carnegie Hall is going to be an acoustic show. We're particularly excited about this because it will allow us to experiment with a new format. And it's at Carnegie Hall.

New Moon

Now everyone go out and make a wish.

Human Bell on the Oscars

So apparently Human Bell was played on the Oscars last night for like three seconds. Daniel from Arbouretum texted me about it, then just to make sure, I emailed Dave at Thrill Jockey, who wrote back and told me that Jamie from Thrill Jockey had texted him about it. I wasn't watching it myself, but it does sort of make sense, because we had a song used in a documentary short that was played on HBO. So I guess this documentary short was nominated for an Oscar...or some shit to that effect.
Pretty sweet.

Splice Folk Mix

This just went up. It features that version of "Two Soldiers" I posted the other day, a song by Arbouretum guitarist Steven Strohmeier, Walker & Jay, Phosphorescent, Noble Lake, Wye Oak, and a lot more. It's all old folk tunes and free to download. I haven't heard most of it yet myself, but am eagerly looking forward to it. Check it here.

False Spring

The first song from our forthcoming release Song of the Pearl has been posted today on Stereogum. You can listen/download here.

Two Soldiers

RCRDBL just put this track up- it's an old folk song I recorded for a splicetoday.com comp called "two soldiers". Listen and/or download here.

Panoramic Insanity

This damn near gave me vertigo at first. You will not be disappointed if you click on any of these images, but of course I'm drawing attention to it because he did a panorama of Arbouretum.

Sri Aurobindo

I just listened to the new self-released cdr by these Baltimore psychedelic freaksters. Holy shit is it good. Even the packaging, which has this hexagonal sleeve over a really cool-looking cdr that doesn't look like a cdr inside a recycled cardboard folding thing upon which things are written in this trippy font that I'd never before seen else we prolly woulda used it on our record, is great. There's no pretense or forced-sounding bullshit here, just a sense of absolute enthusiasm for all that is awesome. You should: a) listen to the first two songs on their myspace(the other ones are rad too, but aren't on the album) b) message them and see if they'll send you one...I'm not sure how much they're selling it for. c) when it arrives, open it immediately, do whatever it takes to get you feeling it, and proceed directly to rocking-out mode.

Southern Skies

On our shows to and from America's southeast, we will be joined by Love as Laughter.
Details and confirmations will be posted soon, but until then please check out this video directed by Jessica Lauretti, who also directed the video for our song "Mohommed's Hex and Bounty". I love this song, and the video just plain feels good to watch. Youtube doesn't allow embeds for this one, but you can see it here.

Vice Magazine Review

Vice, a magazine notorious for not only its complete and utter wrongness, but also the extreme (though often amusing) cruelty their writers are capable of dishing out to unfortunate recording artists, has given Song of the Pearl a really good review. Thanks guys!

"Imagine the manic ur-song of fellow Baltimoreans Lungfish welded to the flannel-shirt muscle of Creedence and Crazy Horse played with the fervour of folk rock. This time around, they've unfurrowed their brows a little and turned up the joy. The closing Dylan cover "Tomorrow is a Long Time" sounds as good as anything Richard Thompson recorded in the early 70's. -Tony Molester

she moved through the fair

Something to listen to- a live version of this quite old song performed by us in the fall of '07 at De Kreun in Kortrijk, Belgium. Thanks to Ayco and Frank for (simultaneously)sending me the files, and to Nathalie Deschacht for hooking me up with their contact info. The band at the time featured Emmett Kelly on guitar, but otherwise was the same lineup as what we have now. I've actually got another version of this song, an acoustic version I did with Walker Teret, that'll come out on a 7" as soon as I can get my shit together and do a photoshoot for the cover. This awesome English dude who runs a small trippy folk label will be doing that one.

You can hear the band's version here.

Also there is a live version of Pale Rider Blues from that show that went up last week on our myspace

early review of "song of the pearl" on uncut.co.uk

Inneresting how the guy references Bob Mould. I never really heard his post-Husker Du stuff, but maybe that'll be something to check out. He always struck me as this rather "serious songwriter" type, one that someone listens to when they really need some songs that feed the intellect. I could be completely off-base there, but that's at least the impression that I got when I was a kid working at a bland corporate record store and Sugar was in the "featured hit zone", or whatever they were calling it.

Also, I should point out that we won't, in fact, be in London for the show the review references. See the earlier entry "re-adjusting the flow" for reasons why.

art show featuring photo by david heumann

down by the fall line

video by Joseph Cashiola to come soon.

readjusting the flow

Thanks for everyone who came out to and took part in the Aural States Fest the other night. There was a lot of really good music happening, and it was nice to see so many people enjoying it.

So it turns out we won't be going to Europe as soon as we'd hoped. The financial aspects of the trip were looking pretty bleak on our end, so we decided we'd best wait a couple months and hope for more and better offers. I know some people in Europe and the UK have really been looking forward to our coming over there this spring, but it's looking like it'll now be re-scheduled for June.

So seeing as we had this hole in our schedule, we thought it would be a good idea to do a quick trip to Florida and back, in early April. Should be fun, and the band hasn't played there since 2005.
That stuff I wrote in the last post about doing 2 weeks of shows in May in our country's eastern half still stands...right now it's looking like it'll be starting in the Northeast and moving south and west from there.

Also, we've got some new confirmations regionally. On March 2nd, we're playing in Philly at Kung Fu Necktie with James Blackshaw and Meg Baird, the night before our Baltimore show as part of the same bill. That Friday, March 6th we'll be in Brooklyn at Union Pool with Pissed Jeans and Bogan Dust.

These March shows will be the first ones where we'll be selling our new record, Song of the Pearl. The record comes out March 10th, so those at the shows will get a crack at buying it before just about anyone else.

We should have more updates soon, as things are happening quickly in our sphere these days. Keep checking back.