Charlene Kaye announces a string of summer tour dates with Jay Stolar and Julian Velard supporting her iTunes Pop Charting LP Animal Love.

Charlene spent much of the spring crossing the nation with the Team StarKid Apocalyptour, playing a full-band opening set and then joining the StarKid band on guitar.  VH1 praised that "she held a tight grip on the cr owd. Her set ended with “Animal Love I,” an electrifying anthem (and the best song of the entire evening) that seemed fitting for a theater of people who had been told to expect end of the world."

For a preview of what to expect from Charlene Kaye's Animal Love LP and live show, check out the dance-tastic video for "Animal Love I" and the new video for LP track "Hummingbird Heart."

More music, tour dates and info below!

Charlene Kaye Tour Dates

Aug 6 - North Star Bar - Philadelphia, PA *
Aug 8 - Jammin' Java - Vienna, VA *
Aug 9 - Shadow Lounge - Pittsburgh, PA *
Aug 11 - Blind Pig - Ann Arbor, MI *
Aug 12 - Beat Kitchen - Chicago, IL *
Aug 13 - The Frequency - Madison, WI *
Aug 14 - TBA - Toronto, ON *

Aug 23 - Gramercy Theater - New York, NY *
"Forever is a Long Time" music video release show
Sept 26 - Tin Angel - Philadelphia, PA &

Sept 27 - Joe's Pub- New York, NY &

w/ Jay Stolar *

w/ Julian Velard &

After an overwhelming outpouring of support from fans via Kickstarter, Animal Love was recorded in Brooklyn with Charlene Kaye's band mate and producer Tomek Miernowski [The Pierces].   Grab LP tracks "Animal Love I," and   "Hummingbird Heart" and for more of what to expect from Animal Love, check out live performances of album tracks "Animal Love I,""Animal Love II," and "Hummingbird Heart."

It's been all systems go for Charlene Kaye since releasing her sophomore album Animal Love, which reached #15 on the iTunes pop charts upon its release this May. In addition to touring relentlessly and playing CMJ and SXSW festivals, the ambitious musician/performer has earned enthusiastic reviews for her commanding voice, deft guitar playing and electrifying live shows. She has over a million views on her YouTube channel and has shared a bill with the likes of Big Boi, Minus the Bear and Holly Miranda. This past November and again in May, she went on two national tours supporting musical theater/internet sensati on Team StarKid, gaining her thousands of new fans. Her single "Dress and Tie" featuring good friend Darren Criss of Glee was featured in a promo for NBC's Chuck, had extensive play on radio stations nationwide, and was selected as official boarding music for Delta Airlines.

With a sound that fuses the grandiose pomp of Queen, the grittiness of Joan Jett, and the sentimentality of Rufus Wainwright, Charlene Kaye is a force whose music is at once classic and contemporary, of the times yet unmistakably timeless. With a rapidly growing fan base and more touring on the horizon, Kaye shows no signs of slowing down, picking up steam even before she leaves the ground. 

Press Praise for Charlene Kaye

25-year-old Charlene Kaye is one to watch. Out with a new risk-taking pop album Animal Love this May, her voice seems to just melt into your soul (seriously). It's nearly impossible not to smile while listening to the catchy tune, ogle over the creative, futuristic costumes, and those dance moves are pretty awesome, too.

Glamour

  

Charlene Kaye is, quite frankly, an animal. The 25-year-old New York transplant can move seamlessly from heart-wrenching, operatic piano ballads to toe-tapping dance tunes, commanding the stage with her soaring voice and a smattering of feathers and glitter.

Idolator

When I first heard Charlene Kaye, for the first time I heard the sound of a pop musician whose music’s excellence matches her theatrical personality. Kaye excels in a diverse brand of pop; throughout Animal Love, she goes from radio-friendly fare to a capella to blues, all without sounding like she’s forcing it.

Pop Matters

Animal Love is a tour de force of Kaye’s songwriting talents and her voice. In a world with overblown American Idol nonsense Charlene Kaye could very well be America’s Best Kept Secret.

The POP! Stereo

A few minutes of listening to Kaye’s jazzy vocals, poetic lyrics, and strong song arrangements will convince anyone that she’s chosen exactly the right profession. Her exotic beauty and effortless confidence onstage present a singer/songwriter who seems primed for success…

Original Hipster

“Animal Love I" kicks off the album…a sassy R&B number before plummeting into something resembling the peppiest of 1960s girl groups, with Charlene proclaiming “Let your bones show, let your bones show.”  The second of these eponymous tracks - “Animal Love II” - is an epic exercise in vintage soul, gloriously scoring a heartbreak in a manner somehow uplifting.

Philthy

Animal Love is a crisply produced and catchy pop album. Charlene’s strength as a songwriter hasn’t been muted by the production quality of the album….The album is diverse in tone and style as she allows gritty rock sounds into songs like “Poison Apple” and “Forever Is A Long Time…”

Sour Grapes Winery

More on Charlene Kaye 

"I just want a little bit of your ecstasy," sings Charlene Kaye on the opening track of her second full-length album, Animal Love. Such electric, exultant energy courses through the 10-song disc, out now.

Born in Hawaii and raised in Hong Kong, Singapore and Arizona, Charlene's love of music started with classical piano training at age five. At 13, she began teaching herself punk songs on her mom's nylon guitar and was further influenced by her sister's love of classic rock bands such as Queen and Led Zeppelin. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in English, she moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. Things have been nonstop for the ambitious songwriter-performer ever since.

Her 2011 single "Dress and Tie"—featuring longtime friend and Glee star Darren Criss—was featured in a promo for NBC's Chuck, was selected as official boarding music for Delta Airlines, and has amassed over 20,400 downloads on iTunes to date. Last November, she opened for internet sensation Team StarKid and played guitar in their backing band on a sold-out national tour. Charlene has shared a bill with Big Boi, Minus the Bear and Holly Miranda, and her music has been featured on mtvU, The Atlantic Magazine online and The Huffington Post. Last summer, she launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Animal Love, setting a goal of $20,000. Enthusiastic fans netted her upwards of $33,000.

Produced and engineered by Brooklyn's Tomek Miernowski (The Pierces, The Madison Square Gardeners), Animal Love explodes from the first hook of opener "Animal Love I."  "The song was inspired by that reckless, rapturous feeling of meeting someone who you think could be a very big deal, and what that sonic equivalent might be," Charlene says. The song is anthemic and catchy, starting out with a simple kick-snare beat and building with lush synthesizers and euphoric gang vocals chanting "Let your bones show, let your bones show / won't have to hide, have to hide anymore."

        

While her first record, 2008's Things I Will Need in the Past, primarily employed acoustic guitars, piano and strings in an avant-folk vein,Animal Love has greater emphasis on pop production, with drum samples, synthesizers and electric guitars populating the soundscape. Despite this new machinery, Charlene says that this album feels more raw and more human in ways the first one does not.

"With Things, I feel like my classical background compelled me to arrange everything precisely, right down to the vocal melody—I sang everything very cleanly and evenly, but I never 'let go.' With Animal Love, the process was much more intuitive, and I took risks I normally wouldn't have in the past," she says. "I did a lot of new things with my voice—there are some songs where I'm just screaming. I think ultimately, that feeling is what I wanted to capture the most on this record: complete catharsis, going from the sensible to the sublime."

Though the record has its playful moments (the Beyoncé-inflected pop gem "Woman Up"), there is a drama and intensity that runs throughout. "Forever is a Long Time," a song about the inability to commit to a lover for eternity, features a tight disco groove, roiling guitars, and strings that soar with cinematic urgency. "Don't Make Me Believe" is perhaps the closest Charlene gets to arena rock, with a slamming wall of guitars and her voice hitting a show-stopping high note at the song's apex. "Animal Love II," the sister title track and album closer, is a cosmic, soul-infused number that explores the idea of romantic love as a physical entity. Charlene sings, backed by rich harmonies, "What am I gonna do with this love for you? Can't throw it out the window / Can't poison it out."

With the record clocking in at 37 minutes, one might expect the album to fly by, but its grand nature compels the listener to feel as if he or she has gone on a journey with her, to that place reaching the edge of the ecstatic and back.