Ravens and Chimes recently played at the Red and The Black but we didn’t get the listening party posted till right before the show. Since they’re coming back tomorrow to play The Rock and Roll Hotel, we decided to run her again. It’s gonna be a pretty slick lineup.
Mobius Band
Middle Distance Runner
The Epochs
Ravens and Chimes
Doors | 830pm
Show | 9pm
$10/$12
http://www.rockandrollhoteldc.com
Oh, and you can also win tickets here if you hurry.
Four Fun Facts about Ravens & Chimes:
1) They recorded their album in Montreal at the same studio where the Arcade Fire recorded Funeral with the their former drummer/famed recording engineer Howard Bilerman
2) Singer Asher Lack used to intern for director Wes Anderson while in college
3) When they started recording bassist Abe Pollack, synth player Avery Brooks and Brittany Anjou were all homeless
4) Asher and Avery composed and recorded the score to an exercise video in between recording sessions for the Ravens and Chimes album
From Brooklyn NY, this group of classically trained musicians released their debut album, Reichenbach Falls earlier this month on Better Looking Records. Here are some streams + commentary from the band.
Saint Jude In The Village Voice
Asher: When Rich was done recording his drum parts he got drunk in the studio. Then someone suggested we put a tambourine on the song so he went in and tried to play it but he was too fucked up so he came back in, and was like “This thing is broken!”
Also I recorded the vocals with no pants on. I think Abe has a picture of it.
Avery: Asher wrote this song and showed it to me and was like “I don’t think it fits for how the record should sound” so I said “I will quit this band if we don’t put this on the record!” so he agreed to put it onthere.
For m
Asher: The funny thing about this song was that no one in the band had heard it before the record because I was a bit embarrassed about how odd some of the lyrics were. The night we tracked guitars I had a talkback mic and so at the end of the session I said to Howard, “Hey can I record a solo song while everything is set up”
When I was done playing it everyone in the room was just staring through the window looking at me with their mouths open like “did you really just say that?”
I think it really impressed Howard that we had it in us to surprise him.
Avery: I believe our mouths were open because you had just plunged us into a Freudian nightmare
General Lafayette! You Are Not Alone
Download MP3 @ http://www.betterlookingrecords.com/downloads.php
Brittany: When we recorded drums for this I went into the studio and did an interpretive dance to help Rich feel the beat.
Eleventh St.
Asher: This was the second or third song I ever wrote and I was so proud of myself that I walked across the hall of my dorm to my friend’s room and was like “Check out what I did!” He called me up after hearing the record and was said; “I can’t believe I was the first person to hear this six years ago”
Nora: This was the first song of the band’s that I heard before I joined. I think it’s a good introduction to the music.
Abe: We were constantly reminded that America circa 2006 was a very foreign country to the Canadian’s, and not just geographically. We were stopped on the street a number of times by ex-hockey stars and asked if we liked George Bush, followed of course by toothless giggling. I think this sense of being unaware of the changing world around us came out in the recording, especially in songs like “Eleventh St.”
Archways
Avery: This song was originally supposed to be for my industrial project. While we were recording it I wrote the arrangement down on a piece of paper that Efrim from Godspeed You! Black Emperor had left a note for Howard on.
This is Where We Are
Brittany: I loved singing this song from the get go. Arrangement wise it was all about fitting around Avery’s synth parts and everything else, which is nerve racking for any musician – when it’s not written down so you can’t see it and understand it better. It’s like trying to memorize complex directions to a place you don’t know anything about and have no map or compass.
The House Where You Were Born
Asher: When I wrote this song my old band had just broken up and I wasn’t sure in what capacity I was going to continue making music. This song was a real turning point for me where I felt like the music demanded that I keep going. Even though it’s not the oldest song that ended up on the record I feel like this was the first song we ever did as a band.
Abe: We’re all big fans of Wolf Parade and every time I would leave the studio or come back to New York early, one of them would miraculously meet one of the other Ravens. Towards the end of mixing the record I had to leave Montreal a couple of days early and I jokingly said to Avery, “If you tell me that you all met Wolf Parade again I’m going to cry.” An hour after I was in midtown I got a call from the rest of the band that they just ran into Spencer Krug at a coffee shop. I almost quit music.
