Friday, July 25, 2008

Violens Add New Dates With MGMT & Grizzly Bear For An Extensive Summer Tour

Look For For More Summer & Fall Dates With Both Bands
New Single “Trance–Like Turn” Out Now On Green Owl Comp

Pitchfork Media : "Violens, a new project featuring Lansing-Dreiden members, may be less than a year old, but they are already the best discovery of this collection. Their stoned, sweet "Trance Like Turn" features sunny, vintage harmonies that peek through the gray clouds of their steely, post-punk beats and synthesized aggression."

Spin Magazine (July 08 )"Songs You Need To Download Now! ”: “Since these New Yorkers former band, Lansing-Drieden, was too inscrutable by half, this immaculate organ-weezing 60’s-pop nugget is a Zombies level revelation

Time-Out NY : "Most bands will never write a song so flawless as Violens’ “Violent Sensation Descends.” ... Your ears are broken if you don’t play it several times over before you can do anything else...Violens clearly draws from the mid-’80s U.K. indie scene (Aztec Camera, the Pale Fountains, Prefab Sprout) but doesn’t sound derivative of anyone; the group’s evocation of that era’s internationalist style and wit comes wrapped in a cool emotionalism that also characterizes Violens’ onstage vibe. The only issue with their shows is that we can’t get them to play a song more than once."

RCRD LBL.COM : "Violens ...make hallucinatory, '60s inspired pop records akin to Of Montreal imagining kicking it with the Zombies and Joe Meek back in the day. We're releasing their first RCRD LBL single today, the bouncy "Violent Sensation Descends". We've been listening to it all morning and we feel as if a void has been filled"
Following their sold-out mercury lounge show in June, Violens add dates More summer tour dates with indie rock faves Grizzly Bear, and 2008 break out band MGMT. Following the release of singer/producer Jorge Elbrecht's remix of their single "Time to Pretend", MGMT asked Violens to join them on dates between a busy schedule of summer festivals. The band will then join Grizzly Bear as sole support on their shows between dates with Radiohead.

Violens recently released their critically acclaimed new single "Trance-Like Turn" on The Green Owl Records Comp: A Benefit for the Energy Action Coalition. Their contribution is featured among tracks by other notable artists such as Feist, Muse, Deerhoof, Bloc Party, A Place To Bury Strangers, and many more. 100% of profits from the album sales will be donated to the EAC, to support their efforts to raise environmental awareness in our community.

The band was recently named one of 8 bands to watch in 2008 by The L Magazine. Follow the link below to their feature, alongside Brooklyn's High Places:

Violens (pronounced "vy-lenz") are a New York-via-Miami four-piece formed in the fall of 2007, featuring members Iddo Arad (synths/vocals), Ben Brantley (bass), Jorge Elbrecht (lead vocals/guitar) and Kris King (drums). Their music imagines a place where The Zombies & The Byrds meet Wire & The Violent Femmes, and Crass meets Angelo Badalamenti & Prefab Sprout.

Violens songs conjure descriptions of nightmares, the passing of time, speculations on spiritual messages, and accounts of psychedelic hallucinations. Even their most frenetic guitar work and aggressive rhythms are draped in a gauze of reverberant, harmonized vocals and synths which create a sense of creepy, artificial comfort. A fitting characterization, lyrically and musically, for a group whose name sounds like a melding of the words "violence" and "violins".

Summer Tour

Fri Jul 25 First Unitarian Church (w/MGMT) Philadelphia, PA
Mon Jul 28 9:30 Club (w/MGMT) Washington, DC
Tue Jul 29 The National (w/MGMT) Richmond, VA
Thu Jul 31 Schubas (Amplify New Music Series) Chicago, IL
Fri Aug 1 Hideout Chicago, IL
Sat Aug 2 930 Listening Room (w/Grizzly Bear) Louisville, KY
Mon Aug 11 Sixth & I Historic Synagogue (w/Grizzly Bear) Washington, DC
Thu Aug 14 Museum of Fine Arts (w/Grizzly Bear) Boston, MA

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