"Head of Femur's pop-prog approach is alive and well on "Leader and the Falcon", a mini-suite that changes gears a couple of times in its four and a half minutes. There are plenty of bleeping keyboards and chorused lead guitar parts and more stacked vocals harmonies than ever before. In fact, it opens with a big bed of harmonies and a twinkly little Bruce Springsteen piano part before it jumps into its riff-stuffed first section. The song's most exciting passage is the sudden tempo change in the middle that precedes a gradual acceleration to a guitar-drenched bridge. It's stuffed full of instruments from front to back, but it's not overbearing or bloated, just fat and happy."
****JUST ANNOUNCED****
MATT FOCHT BAND FALL TOUR DATES WITH CONOR OBERST AND
THE MYSTIC VALLEY BAND
HEAD OF FEMUR is the willfully weird orchestral pop brainchild of pop auteurs Mike Elsener and former Bright Eyes drummer Matt Focht.
GREAT PLAINS (release date: 3-25-08, Greyday Records) is the band's third chapter in the journey, which started on the brittle badlands of Nebraska, continuing in the urban jungle of Chicago, transforming the band from a wieldy pop collective into a tight-knit rock band. With GREAT PLAINS, Head of Femur sheds the excessive glory of past efforts and focuses on immediate melodies and whip-smart song structures to produce the band’s best set of songs to date.
As much as it represents a major leap forward, GREAT PLAINS is also a return home: to Portland's Greyday Records, home of Head of Femur's 2003 critically-acclaimed debut album RINGODOM OR PROCTOR, which Billboard called “fresh, fun and original.”
When that album became an immediate underground hit, receiving rave reviews by tastemaker's like Magnet, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Pitchfork, Head of Femur hit the ground running, launching U.S. tours with Wilco, Bright Eyes, Dr. Dog and others, as well as releasing their sophomore album on SpinART, 2005’s HYSTERICAL STARS.
Rapid recording sessions in the spring of 2006 resulted in LEADER AND THE FALCON, a 6-song EP self-released in the fall of 2007. Pitchfork called it “a musical equivalent of what Dorothy might have felt like when first stepping out of her house into Oz”. (Joe Tangari)
Yet despite the raves, the EP turned out to be a swan song for Head of Femur's former self. As a massive pop collective known at times to include 20-plus musicians, Focht and Elsener wanted change. GREAT PLAINS is the ultimate turnaround, a stripped-down, dance-heavy record featuring Head of Femur’s core players, who reinvented their approach to songwriting while still staying true to their ambitious trademark sound.
Head of Femur formed in 2001 in Chicago after 3 of the 5 current members moved to the Chicago from Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. The lineup now includes lead singer and rhythm guitarist Matt Focht, lead guitarist and vocalist Mike Elsener, keyboardist Eathan Janney, drummer Colby Starck and enigmatic-named bassist The Chancellor (the only band member who still lives in Nebraska.)
Lacing together art-rock sensibilities reflective of Talking Heads and the homegrown comfort of Neil Young and The Band, GREAT PLAINS follows lyrical snapshots from his home state, set to music that gives them flight. Rhythmically complex yet immediately catchy, Head of Femur faces a new year where change is good.
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"Ambitiously weird, but still gloriously accessible...chamber-pop suites full of left turns and music box explosions full of melody."
-PITCHFORK
"Not since Brian Eno took Tiger Mountain by strategy has left-of-center pop rock sounded as silly, and at the same time as sophisticated as this.”
-CONCERTLIVEWIRE.COM
"A frantic mix of confessionals, character studies, chldhood reminiscences and refelections on art are both endearing and smart." -THE NEW YORK TIMES
"A spastic thrill ride." -VENUS ZINE
“Not self-consciously quirky, but marked by everything from horns to snippets of antique electronics, the band make for a fine display of how to make chaos work.”
-THE STRANGER
“The vocals smack of Elvis Costello, but can't be firmly categorized, as the harmonies are silky smooth with dashes of The Beach Boys and Roxy Music,
mixed with a fun and funky sound.”
-GLIDE MAGAZINE
As it turned out, I didn't go. :( All the tickets were sold out before I got to them. I mostly spent the weekend trying to keep myself from remembering where I should have been. You cats come back to Dubuque soon! I miss your faces!
DBQfest this year = not the same without you. Let's actually hang out this summer. Pitchfork this year or no? I miss all your faces and I assume you have had plenty of time to perfect your Scrabble skills.
yep theyer really stoked next time you see hem tell that sawed off little fiddel playing red head he needs to give me a call its good to hear from you all the best bruce
Thank you for being our friend! The Shams will be touring Chicago this summer to promote the 2009 Chicago Bluegrass and Blues Festival! We hope you can come out and dance the night away with us... -Donnie Biggins
Hey kids, gonna be in Chicago at the Subterranean on the 24th. I'm on tour with a band called Lost Apparitions. Come say hi and listen to some good music, plus you owe me a hanging out in your town!
got to www. myspace. com/musictourbr and vote on us to be in the next Myspace Music Tour Brazil gig in Florianópolis, our hometown. We realy apreciate your help!
Thanks!
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Olá vá até www. myspace. com/musictourbr e nos ajude a tocar no próximo show da Myspace Music Tour Brazil em Florianópolis com a menina Mallu Magalhães. Obrigado pela força!
Você precisa estar logado ao Myspace e ter uma foto no seu perfil!
Hope to see you at the CD Release Party! Sunday, September 28th, 3pm-5pm When the Moon Was Full of Mystery CD release party Price: free Wildwood (in the lounge) 477 S 3rd St Geneva, IL 60134 (630) 377-8325
