The Musee Mecanique

Like every other person in the audience at Laura Gibson’s show last week, I was enraptured by her stunning performance. This is art, this is magic, I knew. Laura herself is a work of art, but, the rest of the band (drummer Micah Rabwin and electric organist Sean Ogilvie) were equally – uniquely – mesmerizing. Rabwin and Ogilvie share their own band, Musee Mecanique, pictured left. Musee is a collective dedicated to producing pure voodoo. Prepare to fall under their spell.

Sean Ogilvie’s voice is as soft and sleepy as Read more

Laura Gibson Pablo Trucker Jenna Conrad Show poster

Poster by David Dalbey.

 

Laura GibsonLaura Gibson very kindly risked carsickness and the bleary-eyed, sleepless rigors of living in a tour vehicle while en route to a several-show stint at SXSW to answer some questions we posed to her in anticipation of her upcoming show here this Friday. Laura, touring in support of her much-beloved by Stereopathic record, Beasts of Seasons, alights upon Moscow alongside Seattle’s Pablo Trucker and Troubletown (also known as Jenna Conrad). An elegant and deliberate record, Beasts of Seasons piqued our curiosity not just about Laura’s songwriting and recording processes, but also about the Read more

Laura Gibson
NPR’s All Songs Considered loves Laura Gibson (as do we). They’ve done one of their Tiny Desk Concerts with her, they chose a collaboration she did with The Portland Cello Project as Song of the Day back in January, she’s been featured on the podcast, and now they’ve selected the first track off of Beasts of Seasons as Song of the Day today. “Shadows on Parade” hints at noise and dissonance, but nothing overwhelms the deftness of the song. Listen there or here, after the jump. Read more

Laura Gibson's Beasts of Seasons reviewed on Pitchfork.com.

Laura Gibson's Beasts of Seasons reviewed on Pitchfork.com.

First, check out the Pitchfork review of Laura Gibson’s Beasts of Seasons. In light of yesterday’s post, it’s actually a pretty good review. But I’m still completely stuck on the 7.2. On the 1-10 scale that makes it sound not good, but the review shows almost no negativity, engages the music and the words credibly, and generally sounds like it was written by a human. Anyway, who wants Read more

As was mentioned here a few days ago, NPR’s First Listen is streaming Laura Gibson’s forthcoming (as of Tuesday, February 24th) and staggeringly beautiful record, Beasts of Seasons. Framed around Gibson’s acoustic guitar and her voice — a strange chimeric instrument, at once childlike and also serene and wise beyond its years — each of the nine songs carries what would otherwise be ordinary folksinger fare in surprising and complicated directions. An orchestra’s worth of instruments — banjo, horns, cello, musical saw, vibraphone, found sounds, piano, snatches of other voices — expands on her basic melodies and structures, articulating them into a powerful and evocative suite of songs that, like (I would submit) all great art must do, point away from themselves. Thematically framed around “Communion Songs” and “Funeral Songs”, her lyrics focus on, as she puts it in one place “[f]irst, reaching towards something outside of ourselves, be it a lover or God or family (Communion Songs) and second, grappling with the idea of ultimate aloneness and acceptance (Funeral Songs).” The final song, “Glory,” perhaps sums this up, an amazed and grateful recounting of her past, her childhood — things like her “father’s voice/dressed in anger/swollen with grace/my surrender/his forgiveness,” or her “sister’s belly/red and swollen/carefully swaying/carrying such grace” — and then, with her voice rising alongside a small, quiet choir, she tells us, singing, “I have never seen such glory since.” Beasts of Seasons gives us a gracious portrait of an artist who looks inward and finds other people, who looks outward and finds herself, who is astonished at the sorrow and beauty and transcendence to be found when someone plunges themselves into the fact that it is not good that anyone should be alone.

Pre-order (or, after 2/24, just plain old buy) Beasts of Seasons direct from Hush Records, most likely the best way to get a little of your record-buying budget into her pocket; also keep FRIDAY, MAR 27 @ 9:30PM open, because Miss Gibson is coming to Moscow, playing at Mikey’s with Pablo Trucker.

Brendan occasionally guests on Stereopathic Sessions with Larson and Josh, and is staggered at how inarticulate his words are about the things he loves the most. He doesn’t blog, and doesn’t want to.

Be sure to catch this while it’s available!  You can stream Laura Gibson’s entire new album a week before it is released.

Laura Gibson will be playing at Mikey’s Gyros on Friday, March 27th with Seattle’s Pablo Trucker.