Bowery Ballroom

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Rachael Yamagata

Meiko / Thao Nguyen / Samantha Crain / Emily Wells / TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE FOR 11/1 AT THE MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG!!

Thu 10/30

18+

Doors 7pm

$22 adv / $25 day of

Rachel Yamagata

http://www.myspace.com/rachaelyamagata
http://www.rachaelyamagata.com/
A few rounds of heartbreak … a broken wrist … eight stitches … a blown-out eardrum … and label realignment.

It wasn’t easy getting here for Rachael Yamagata. Three years after she began to appear on the public’s radar with her self-titled debut EP and full-length album Happenstance, Rachael will release Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart, a single record in two parts, on October 7th, 2008.

“I didn’t set out to make a two part album,” Yamagata says. “We just followed the songs’ lyrical lead and built them up with textures and sounds that served the story. The beautiful ones were darker and worked with lush arrangements. We used the sounds of rain, tree branches falling on the roof — whatever kept the mood true to this haunted studio in the first stormy days of spring. The second part became more anthemic, like a reclaiming of personal power. There’s something raw about it. To me it sounds weathered, but not broken or cynical.”

Meiko

http://www.myspace.com/meiko
independently released a self-titled album on September 1, 2007 -- without the help of a record label, her album reached #35 on the iTunes Top 100 Albums chart. It was also iTunes’ #1 Folk album for over a month and in under nine months, over 200,000 singles had been downloaded from iTunes. In June 2008 Meiko signed a recording deal with MySpace Records/DGC, who will release her album in partnership with Lucky Ear Music (Meiko's own indie label).

Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=320109371
http://www.thaomusic.com/
According to Thao Nguyen, she has two talents: her first is she has a knack for beat-boxing and humming at the same time and her second, and in her opinion finest, is that she had a capacity to watch so much TV as a kid, she's convinced her personality is made up of several different sitcom characters. Of course Thao, the 23 year Virginia-bred songwriter, is forgetting her unique voice, natural sense for a good melody, and striking lyrics, skilful guitar plucking and her deadly dry sense of humour. Thao's debut for Kill Rock Stars, showcases all these talents and more, proving she's a star in the making.

With her perky strumming guitar, bluegrass tinged banjo, giddy sense of self and uninhibited vulnerability, Thao manages that rare combination of songs that sound happy but are, at times so sad. Whether using an acoustic guitar strummed with a toothbrush or a sharpie pen, or employing keyboards, horns and a full rhythm section with her band The Get Down Stay Down, her songs are always buoyant, littered with catchy riffs and lyrics gripped with intimate details juxtaposed with her cheeky humour. My songs reflect my personality as far as shirking the seriousness of thingsÂ says Thao.

Samantha Crain

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=29161143
Sometimes music is a collision of opposites. Realities clash and coexist, and the tension that results is scary and strange, but undeniably beautiful. Maybe that's why Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers embody so many conflicting unities and clashing identities. With a blow-your-hair-back vocal presence that occasionally yields to whisper-soft vulnerability, Samantha Crain unites the sounds of confidence and desperation. Traditional folk arrangements tremble beneath the tasteful drumming of Jacob Edwards, the twangy guitars of Stephen Sebastian, and the heart-beating bass lines from Andrew Tanz. Lyrics about disaster and despair peacefully coexist with anthems of community and reconciliation. Here are darkness and light; here are life and death.

These colliding realities stem most notably from Crain's unlikely artistic heritage, which she wears on her sleeve but just as readily transcends. Hailing from the state that birthed both The Flaming Lips and Woody Guthrie, Samantha Crain writes with both the brazen conviction of the latter and the unflinching creative ambition of the former. Hers is a folk tradition indebted to Radiohead as much as Bob Dylan. Her shadowy arrangements and razor-sharp lyrics blur whatever superficial lines of genre or aesthetic may seem to separate these influences. It seems whatever the ingredients, she has a place for them in her inexplicable artistic recipe. Her sound is deeply rural and southern, but also itinerant and urban. Like Jack Kerouac before her, Crain is lost on the subway, sleeping in boxcars, leaving lovers behind, and dining in small town obscurity all within a few short days.

Emily Wells

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=24842802
http://www.emilywellsmusic.com/
Emily Wells is an anomaly among musicians most of whom spend their careers striving for a major label deal. Before she was old enough to vote, a major label was courting Wells, two music-publishing companies were competing for the rights to her songs and she was recording with award winning producers. By the time she was legally buying her first drink, however, Emily had chosen a different path. With true indie ethos, she moved from New York, leaving in her wake a lucrative deal from a major label, the renowned producers, recording studios, and a manager. During that period of her life, Emily had been offered everything that most musicians want. Everything except what she, as an artist, needed most: creative control. Attaining the ever-elusive artist’s dream of creative control, as Wells would soon learn, comes only at a price. Wells’ cost was the thousands of miles logged, traipsing across country, playing in and outside of bars, pubs, and juke joints. She traveled in a tiny car, dragging along guitars, a tiny bass, a giant old Linn 9000 drum machine, and a four track. When flush, Emily would spend the occasional night in a seedy motel room where she would tirelessly record with her archaic four-track and dirty old instruments. Emily didn’t look back to her swank days as a would-be priority artist on a major label and regret any of her choices; she saw each obstacle in her path as a challenge. Eventually landing in Los Angeles, Wells finally learned through recording and performing, how to have the creative control she craved. Slowly building her own studio, she taught herself how to record and produce. This is the studio in which she would create, record, mix, and produce “The Symphonies: Dreams Memories & Parties” her latest release. To get the sound of a full orchestra, Emily didn’t take the easy way out and simply loop the layers of violins; instead, she played up to 21 separate tracks of violin on each symphony, often using an octave pedal to create the tones of an underwater cello or viola. In addition to the strings, there is a plethora of other sounds, electronic and organic alike. Two years ago, Wells found a bassist, Joey Reina, and a drummer, Sam Halterman, who add a richness to both the live show and the recordings. Their contributions to “The Symphonies” give the compositions more depth as well as a little junk in the trunk.

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Box Office Info

Mercury Lounge

217 E. Houston St. (corner Ave A & Houston)

New York, NY map & directions

212–260–4700

Hours: Mon–Sat, Noon–7 pm

Music Hall of Williamsburg

66 N. 6th St. (b/w Wythe & Kent)

Brooklyn, NY map & directions

718–486–5400

Hours: Saturday 11am–6pm

Contact Info: General Info: info@bowerypresents.com; Room Rentals: privateevents@bowerypresents.com; Media Inquiries: bpmedia@bowerypresents.com

Bowery Ballroom

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