Portland Mercury 10/16/2008
The tsunami wave of Northern California garage-rock exhibitionists has reached a fever pitch, and emerging as one of the more broad-scoped acts is San Francisco's Leopold and His Fiction. Splashing snippets of the region's depleting freak-folk aesthetic and sopping them up with a Stooges-esque barroom stomp, vocalist Daniel James invokes the familiar, pure rock 'n' roll charisma afforded only the deftest students of its origins. It would seem easy to lump the band alongside such retro-rock luminaries as the White Stripes (James and White have eerily similar voices), but that just proves a copout to the praises of Leopold's jangly, hollow, reverb revelry. RYAN J. PRADO
CMJ
Leopold And His Fiction play dirty. But they won this week's CMJ Sonicbids Spotlight fair and square. The California (by way of Michigan and Kentucky) band cranks the kind of gritty, blues-infused, guitar rock that follows stylistically, and alphabetically, in a jukebox lineup including: the Black Keys, the Cult and Kings Of Leon.
real life situations, fan art by Natalie the great where ever you may be.
real life situations, fan art by natalie the great
Leopold and his Fiction is the balanced reincarnate of a sultry era of Western darkness underneath big city lights and country back roads leading to the morning shore of a transpiring musical horizon. The honest and transcendent San Francisco Rock ‘n' Roll band escalating into the west coast music scene, Leopold and his Fiction acquires a moody-pop frame derived from distant genres and unwavering imagination in an attempt to reinvent what each member feels has dissipated from the greater measure of music.
Leopold provides Detroit filth and guitar orientation breathing parallel with rasped vocals soaring to a grave reflection. Of the trio's American bicoastal familiarity and British influence, Daniel, along with the recent addition of bassist Micayla Grace, and drummer/organist Jon Sortland contribute to a very diverse sound through personal interests.
Together Leopold and his Fiction offers a morbid cohesion of California and a gentle open plains reminiscence stimulating a reason and energy for people to listen closely. A new vision in music and thought offers an alternate take to the repetition of a-sides with their own traditional sounds and elaborations.
NEW ALBUM OUT IN January 2009!!
One For Me To Find
Hawk Eyes
Broke
Ain’t No Surprise
Sun’s Only Promise
Tiger Lily
Come Back (Now That I’m Here)
Mean Ol’ Train
Pretty Neat
Katie Mae
Adanelia
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Ain't No Surprise
"While the sound is certainly expansive, Leopold and His Fiction also manages to exude a certain kind of folk-tinged, backwoods charm that makes them much more than just a straight up rock-and-roll band." --NPR Second Stage
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"Their convergence results in angsty blues-flavored rock ‘n’ roll, that when paired with James’ story-inspired lyrics evokes the feel of Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home. " --Relix
"Groovy ‘60s bop...sung by James in a hard-edge haughty voice somewhere between Van Morrison, Jim Morrison, and Eric Burdon being channeled by Jeffrey Lee Pierce. Straight-up rot gut." --Big Takeover
"Vocalist Daniel James has a gritty, soulful, swaggering manner of singing that recalls the Detroit Motown era as easily as the White Stripes’ Jack White. Their stripped down, energetic guitar sound is not so far from that of The Stooges, and there’s a sense of physical yearning for redemption that wouldn’t be out of place in a gospel revival." --Eugene Weekly
"The ramshackle style and rustic revival stem from parts of America’s deep, dark underbelly and together meld into a recipe of rootsy fervor." --Crawdaddy
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"With one stylistic foot in the swamp and the other in the big city gutter...Leopold and his Fiction own a sound that crept off a forgotten Southern back road and found itself wearing stylish sunglasses in a San Francisco club." --Rocky Mountain News
"No doubt about it, these literary rapscallions still rock and will bring their highfalutin yet down and dirty sounds." --Flagstaff Live
Armed with a kit on his right and a vintage Farfisa organ on his left, Sortland maintains driving percussions while, at the same time, adding haunting organ chords to Leo's musical sentiments. Meanwhile, Grace's deep, brooding bass lines help solidify James' screeching lyricism and manic, gospel- and blues-inspired ax rants. -The Metropolitan Newspaper
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"It borrows from a laundry list of superstars including the twang of Johnny Cash, the intonation, perhaps even poetry, of Bob Dylan, as well as Allman Brothers’-style southern rock and The White Stripes’ signature rawness, but the comparisons don’t do justice to the band’s originality." --Stereo Subversion
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"Leopold holds on to their charmingly bucolic pop sound and supplement it with a bass and occasional organ... More great music from a great band you need to know now." --Indie Rock Reviews
"This San Francisco trio has a sound that is similar to stripped down version of These United States or a power trio version of The White Stripes. This is blues rock music that combines of grit, soul, and intelligence." --The Wheel's Still In Spin
"Kinda like the Kings of Leon before that band got dull, Leopold and His Fiction plays meta-rock with all sorts of rootsy trappings...Best of all, this stuff is played with style and energy." --Aiding & Abetting
"Lead singer/songwriter Daniel James has crafted an album that’s enjoyable from start to finish - it’s a gritty, gruff, hard-edged document from an exciting young band" --Pop Headwound
"An album that sticks to Southern Rock basics, but manages to wind through Dead-like jams, uptempo Allmans rock, sauntering country pop and everywhere in between...The band has always been the anti-corporate antidote to Kings of Leon, and a more grounded, song-based version of My Morning Jacket." --Berkeley Place
"A nice way to start off the new year." --Hear Ya
"The trio is completely tight and incorporate a real southern edged flare to their music while not going too far with the twang" --The Fire Note
"SF has had a deep culture, history, of excellent Americana, “alt.country”, whatever you want to call it and these guys carry the torch just fine." --KZSU Zookeeper Online Read Full Story
ALBUM NOW AVAILIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
$11 includes shipping to the US, $15 includes shipping to UK and other. Availible the last week of September.
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Leopold and his FIction Tee shirt
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Native Fiction Records
heyyy not sure what you guys are up to this weekend but were playin a few shows. tomorrow night theres a party in oakland were playing but its all hush hush so if you wanna swing by send me a message. then saturday at ghost town with the strange boys and santa cruz on sunday with some friends. regardless ill see ya next week at the hemlock
Long time. How's everything? Are you heading to Boulder, CO anytime soon? We would love to have you all play one of these 1st Fridays at our store there for Rock on the Ranch. Let me know what you think. Rock on! Hope to see you soon.
lol that mother fucking guitar that jack always brags about... that's mine...when he dies...it's in his will...so if you're going to steal it...you're gonna have to go thru me
Hi Hi! Just wanted to drop a line. Hope everything is going swimmingly for you guys, wherever you are at the moment! Hope to see you back here soon! The Monte V loves you! :)
great performance at the festival on saturday. you definitely rip on guitar a lot more live than you do on the recordings, very very impressive. thanks for playing!
