THE BESNARD LAKES return to the States in July, to release new 12″ single
Yes, those almost famous disseminators of gorgeous but grounded experimental pop music, the Besnard Lakes, are returning to the United States in July, four months after their last U.S. tour, and having just returned from their first European tour, which was a rousing success. Their July tour will hit cities they didn’t get to perform in last time, like New York, Boston and Washington D.C.
07/12/07 Cambridge, MA – T.T. the Bear’s Place
07/13/07 New York, NY – Mercury Lounge
07/14/07 New York, NY – City Sol w/ Les Savy Fav + Land of Talk
07/15/07 Hoboken, NJ – Maxwell’s w/ Dirty on Purpose
07/16/07 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s w/ Dirty on Purpose
07/17/07 Washington, DC – Black Cat (backstage) w/ Dirty on Purpose
07/18/07 Chapel Hill, NC – Blend w/ Dirty On Purpose
07/20/07 Columbus, OH – Wexner Center for the Arts w/ Dirty on Purpose
07/21/07 Bloomington, IN – Uncle Fester’s w/ Dirty on Purpose
07/23/07 Chicago, IL – Schuba’s w/ Handsome Furs
07/24/07 Chicago, IL – Schuba’s w/ Handsome Furs
07/26/07 Cleveland, OH – Beachland
07/27/07 Buffalo, NY – Big Orbit’s Soundlab
Also, in the works and set for a September 11 release is a new 12-inch by the Besnard Lakes, called “Casino Nanaimo”. Side A is “Casino Nanaimo”, a place where repetitive sound and lights engulf addicted gamblers all vying for space on the eternal wheel of fortune. And then there is side B, “Devastation (alternate version)”, the unedited and original straight-to-two-track nine-minute version, recorded live-off-the-floor at Breakglass Studios.
Earlier this year, the Besnard Lakes released a full-length album on Jagjaguwar, called “The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse”, that quickly made it onto numerous and budding best-albums-of-the-year short-lists by a whole range of music-listening pedigree — critics, casual and not-so-casual rock listeners, garden variety pop fans, and headphone junkies. Recently, Pitchfork recently wrote: “…almost every song builds to a crucial moment where the Besnards bravely step out of the shadows, and in the process, transform from being a merely good band to a great one.”
Other critical praise:
“Incorporeal warmth… a sensation of other-worldy oddness…like specs of dust caught in a beam of projector light.” – MOJO, giving 4 stars to The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
“It’s like a Beach Boys album when it’s calm and a Queen album when it’s crunchy, but all filtered through what must be one hell of a record collection…” – ALL MUSIC GUIDE
They’ve “retrofitted classic-rock grandeur to indie rock dimensions and forged their own special niche-space rock that’s down to Earth.” – Pitchfork Media
“Sounding like Roy Orbison scoring a David Lynch movie, with spooky horse imagery to boot, Montreal’s The Besnard Lakes are on a mission to take you to the dark side of rock’n'roll.” – DAZE & CONFUSED
The Besnard Lakes’ “overarching fingernail-meets-chalkboard eeriness… is what prevents a lapse into the preciousness that sometimes accompanies indie rock, making [their] album a rousing success.” – UNDER THE RADAR
The Besnard Lakes Links:
The Besnard Lakes on Jagjaguwar’s website
The Besnard Lakes on MySpace
The Besnard Lakes webpage
MP3 of “And You Lied To Me”