Tag Archives: Catherine Irwin

CATHERINE IRWIN and LOWER DENS at ZANZABAR, Wednesday, July 27th

1 Reply

CATHERINE IRWIN and LOWER DENS

The Other Side of Life and Cropped Out! present:

CATHERINE IRWIN (from Louisville, member of FREAKWATER)
LOWER DENS (from Baltimore, Maryland; featuring Jana Hunter, on Gnomonsong)

Wednesday, July 27th
at ZANZABAR
2100 S. Preston Street
9 PM DOORS, $6, 21 and over


(photo of Catherine Irwin by Jason Creps.)

CATHERINE IRWIN has called Louisville, Kentucky home, or at least her home base, all her life. She began performing by playing guitar in punk bands “and not caring a bit about country music,” she says. Still, the seed for her band Freakwater was inside her: “Most of the country music I heard on radio, I hated. But I loved the Carter Family, the way they would approach songs about death and dying or being saved and rejoicing the same way. That kind of music seems to age better. I can’t see myself playing punk anymore, but this kind of music I can see playing the rest of my life” (Chicago Tribune).

LOWER DENS is a band from Baltimore whose first LP, Twin-Hand Movement, was released last year on San Francisco’s Gnomonsong label. Sonically, they come from some place near new-wave, kraut-rock, post-punk, and pop. Twin-Hand Movement, specifically, is a record that incorporates those sounds to form its own. LOWER DENS formed in late 2008. Jana Hunter (guitar and vocals) needed a touring band for her solo work and found, through mutual friends, Abram Sanders (drums) and Geoff Graham (bass and vocals.) Twin-Hand Movement was made with the help of Chris Freeland (recording engineer, drummer for Oxes, proprietor of Beat Babies Studio just outside Baltimore), Chris Coady (mixing engineer with TV on the Radio, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Beach House records to his credit, proprietor of DNA Downtown studio in NYC), and Sarah Register (mastering  engineer at The Lodge in NYC, serious player in Talk Normal.) Amongst others, they cite Wire’s Chairs Missing, Chrome’s Half Machine Lip Moves, Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, Faust IV, and Snakefinger’s Greener Postures as companions and influences. LOWER DENS is indeed at once classic and of the times, sounding familiar but not dated, recalling the warmth of nostalgia but not its tiredness. LOWER DENS is coming fresh off their latest tour opening for CASS McCOMBS.

Watch LOWER DENS perform “I Get Nervous” from their NPR Tiny Desk Concert here:

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210328669015245.

JOSEPHINE FOSTER, CATHERINE IRWIN, STATE CHAMPION at SKULL ALLEY, Friday, May 7th

Leave a reply

JOSEPHINE FOSTER (from Colorado, on Fire Records)
CATHERINE IRWIN (from Louisville, member of FREAKWATER)
STATE CHAMPION (from Louisville/Southern Indiana, on Sophomore Lounge Records)

Friday, May 7th
at SKULL ALLEY
1017 E. Broadway
8 PM, ALL AGES!
$8 in advance, $10 day of show
Tickets available at ear X-tacy or online here: http://skullalley.indieticket.com.

Over the course of just a few years, Colorado native JOSEPHINE FOSTER has captivated audiences & critics alike through a magnetic patchwork of recordings ranging from broken spirited balladry as one half of Born Heller, fiery psych rock gestalt with her rock outfit The Supposed to the voice of an outsider folk siren. The one constant is the utterly overwhelming strength and seductive unease of her voice & the bravery of an iconoclastic spirit. “You might call Ms. Foster’s eerie warbling old-fashioned, except that is evokes a scrambled past that exists only in her own vision: mountain songs that never were, spaced-out hybrids that never will be.” —New York Times.

CATHERINE IRWIN has called Louisville, Kentucky home, or at least her home base, all her life. She began performing by playing guitar in punk bands “and not caring a bit about country music,” she says. Still, the seed for her band Freakwater was inside her: “Most of the country music I heard on radio, I hated. But I loved the Carter Family, the way they would approach songs about death and dying or being saved and rejoicing the same way. That kind of music seems to age better. I can’t see myself playing punk anymore, but this kind of music I can see playing the rest of my life” (Chicago Tribune). Her songs are just packed with sapience, despondency, and wry wit, though you don’t have to look past “Louisville Lip” or “Dirty Little Snowman” to see she’s one of America’s greatest living songwriters. Even so, she remains humble, even self-depreciating: “If I had a master plan, it’d be trying to get people used to the idea of frumpy middle-aged losers singing music” (Boston Phoenix). She will be joined at this show by fantastic Louisville guitarist Michael O’Bannon, formerly of Blinders, Antman, and current member of 1069.

STATE CHAMPION started in 2006 as a moniker for the early acoustic experiments of Ryan Davis. It has since evolved into a rock n’ roll band with a Chevy van and a vinyl record. Having created a sound that is a product of its upbringing, with Sweetheart of the Rodeo on the radio, Bleach idle in the tape deck, and a Smog song stuck in its head, Davis & Co. drive through forty minutes of sincerely howled, sloppily executed, stripped down garage-country on their full-length debut, Stale Champagne (released this year on Sophomore Lounge Records). “The band is an under-the-radar phenomenon in the making, the classic style of quality band that Louisville overlooks… The tone is just right for this type of subtle rock. A bit earnest, a bit funny, a bit smart.” – Joseph Lord, Velocity Weekly.

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109505479085276

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

CATHERINE IRWIN, ELEPHANT MICAH, THE HOLLOWS at the SWAN DIVE, Friday January 22nd

1 Reply

CATHERINE IRWIN (member of FREAKWATER)
ELEPHANT MICAH (from Bloomington, Indiana)
THE HOLLOWS (from Bloomington, Indiana)

Friday, January 22nd
at the SWAN DIVE
921 Swan Street
9 PM, $5, 21-and-over

CATHERINE IRWIN has called Louisville, Kentucky home, or at least her home base, all her life. She began performing by playing guitar in punk bands “and not caring a bit about country music,” she says. Still, the seed for her band Freakwater was inside her: “Most of the country music I heard on radio, I hated. But I loved the Carter Family, the way they would approach songs about death and dying or being saved and rejoicing the same way. That kind of music seems to age better. I can’t see myself playing punk anymore, but this kind of music I can see playing the rest of my life” (Chicago Tribune). Her songs are just packed with sapience, despondency, and wry wit, though you don’t have to look past “Louisville Lip” or “Dirty Little Snowman” to see she’s one of America’s greatest living songwriters. Even so, she remains humble, even self-depreciating: “If I had a master plan, it’d be trying to get people used to the idea of frumpy middle-aged losers singing music” (Boston Phoenix). She will be joined at this show by (we think) fantastic Louisville guitarist Michael O’Bannon, formerly of Blinders, Antman, and current member of 1069.

Kentuckiana’s ELEPHANT MICAH has been practicing the fine art of flying under the radar for almost a decade now. In the middle 2000s, along string of home-fi folk rock albums (released by BlueSanct Records and Time-Lag Records) earned the band praise from avant-music mag The Wire and overseas gigs with Jason Molina’s Magnolia Electric Company. In 2010, Elephant Micah returns with a major CD/LP release on Time-Lag Records and its first American tour in five years. ELEPHANT MICAH is the name of a music collective led by musician Joe O’Connell. In addition, he has released work on his own LRRC (Luddite Rural Recording Cooperative), which has also released work from collaborators Justin Vollmar and Jason Henn.

THE HOLLOWS feature neo-country songstress Kate Long backed by an accomplished cast of fellow Bloomington music mainstays (see also: Fatted Calf String Band, Magnolia Electric Company, Panoply Academy, etc).  Be sure to catch them on this rare Louisville outing!

Check out the Facebook invite here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=246305277152.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.