The Bowery Presents

Music Hall of Williamsburg upcoming shows

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Loney, Dear: official website; myspace; Multi-instrumentalist and home-recording phenom Emil Svanängen lives in Sweden and he makes records and plays shows under the somewhat inscrutable name of Loney, Dear. In either his tiny Stockholm studio apartment or the basement of his parents’ house, and with a dedication bordering upon manic, Emil discreetly builds Loney, Dear songs using a modest home studio set-up. In this way he has recorded and then released himself on CD-R four albums in the last two or three years. He has managed to sell several thousand of these, pretty much on his own. The music of Loney, Dear has been aptly described as, “soulful indie folk with a powerful mini orchestra.” Layer upon layer, adding instrumentation and vocals, these songs seem to bloom like time-lapse photography, depicting glimpsed scenes of modern disaffection and timeless yearning. When performing live, Loney, Dear becomes the band Emil conjures alone in his home studio, and mutates into a full, five-member band complete with guitar, sax, drums, organ and clarinet, shouts and claps. Loney, Noir is the most recently recorded Loney, Dear album. It is at once effervescent and resigned, exhilarating and melancholy, joyous and confessional. And we are under its spell.

Lia Ices: official website; myspace; Lia Ices is a singer-songwriter of uncommon power and presence based in Brooklyn, New York.

Lia’s 2008 debut, Necima, was recorded at the Rare Book Room with Nicolas Vernhes—Lia at the piano, Nicolas at the board and an assortment of talented friends (including guitarist Eliot Kessel, drummer David Muller, cellist Brent Arnold and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lee) helping to flesh out the gracefully spare arrangements.

The eight songs on Necima accurately reflect the experience of seeing Lia perform live: Her music acts as a bulwark against the frenetic maximalism of the world, slowing time and quieting the noises that distract us from what matters; circling from periphery to center and outward again, it renews the questions to which we’ve always returned. And maybe, if your ears are all in, and your phone is off for just a bit, something that had been dark will light up again. Attention, attention…

After selected shows in the fall and winter, Lia will be on more stages near and far throughout 2009, including dates with Iron & Wine; Loney, Dear; and Juana Molina.

www.rbrrecords.com

The Silent League: official website; myspace; Underwritten by an arch pop awareness and flavoured with vintage soft-rock and Americana, the Silent League use lush orchestration and delicate arrangements to create epic flights of melancholy pop.

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