Retiver Show Tonight.

What could be better than Andy Cabic and Goldie Hawn?

Michael Hurley 25 Minute Mini Documentary.

Snock 'N Roll: Adventures With Michael Hurley (Complete Documentary Short) from Marc Israel on Vimeo.

NPR: "Download the Best New Music of 2010"

NPR and iTunes have partnered to bring you free downloads of NPR's favorite songs of 2010. All you need is an iTunes account.

Why are we telling you this? Because the list includes Lower Dens' "I Get Nervous" and Sharon Van Etten's "One Day," two of our favorite songs this year, too.

Vetiver On The Sasquatch Stage.

Vetiver @ Sasquatch Gorge Amphitheatre Sunday May 30th 2010. Photos by Alissa Anderson

Lower Dens On The Road.

Lower Dens @ El Rio May24th 2010.

Jana Hunter's new band Lower Dens are rolling on a national tour with only a single under their belt. The band's debut full-length, Twin-Hand Movement, will be released on Gnomonsong this July.
Upcoming dates:
5/25 Eureka, CA @ Lil Red Lion
5/26 Portland, OR @ Rotture
5/27 Ellensburg, WA @ Raw Space
5/28 Olympia, WA @ Northern
5/29 Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern Early show 6:00 PM
6/1 Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis
6/2 Kansas City, MO @ The Foundation Room
6/3 Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop
6/5 Chicago, IL @ The Hideout
6/6 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Cafe
6/7 Toronto, ON @ The The The
6/8 Montreal, QC @ Green Room
6/9 Burlington, VT Monkey House
6/10 Dover, NH @ Brickhouse
6/11 Boston, MA @ Brookline Cable Access
6/12 Brooklyn, NY @ Silent Barn
6/13 Baltimore, MD @ Penthouse

Photos From The Papercuts In-Store At Amoeba SF On 06/13/09.

Papercuts Live Performance Captured In Full Grandeur.

While on tour earlier this month the Papercuts stopped by The Space in Hamden CT for a live to tape session for The Needle Drop.com. Preformed in front of a small audience the songs from the recent You Can Have What You Want album have never sounded better. Stream the whole session or download MP3s of individual tracks HERE.

If you like what you hear you can catch the band live this June co-headlining with Port O' Brien:

06/19 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
06/20 Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
06/25 San Francisco, CA @ Independent
06/26 Los Angeles, CA @ Echo
06/27 San Luis Obispo, CA @ Downtown Brewing Company

Hey, You're Michael Hurley!

Andy Cabic & Mr. Hurley photo by M. Doyle

The legendary rambler, Michael Hurley, made a surprise visit to Revolver HQ today. He's currently on a little West Coaster playing a couple shows in town and then moving on back to Oregon.
04/24 San Francisco, CA @ The Pizza Place
04/29 Portland, OR @ Holocene
05/01 The Dalles, OR @ The Mint

Papercuts' Sci-Fi Video For "Future Primitive".

Papercuts 'You Can Have What You Want' NPR's Song Of The Day.

Papercuts: A Pop Throwback, Oozing Heartache
By Michael Katzif

NPR.org, April 9, 2009 - Papercuts' Jason Robert Quever has a thing for the music of the '60s: His focused pop nuggets exude feel-good charm and a touch of sadness, channeling the spirit of The Zombies and The Byrds along the way. Or at least they used to. If 2007's Can't Go Back was the singer-songwriter's nod to the jangly pop of the early '60s, then its new follow-up, You Can Have What You Want, represents a step toward the looser, more psychedelic rock that came later in the decade..... read full post here.

Papercuts on NBC's First Look.

The Papercuts were featured on NBC's "First Look" which aired after Saturday Night Live on March 21st. If you missed it or didn't happen to be up that late you can watch the segment HERE.

Upcoming Papercuts shows:
04/24 San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord (Record Release w/Finches & Cryptacize)
05/02 Arlington, VA @ IOTA (w/ Vetiver)
05/03 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (w/ Vetiver)
05/04 Peterborough, NH @ The Glass Musuem (w/ Vetiver)
05/05 Winooski, VT @ Monkey House (w/ Vetiver)
05/06 Allston, MA @ Harper's Ferry (w/ Vetiver)
05/07 Brooklyn, NY @ Bell House (w/ Vetiver)
05/10 Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop (w/ Vetiver)
05/11 Athens, OH @ Union Bar & Grille (w/ Vetiver)
05/12 Chicago, IL @ AV-Aerie (w/ Vetiver)
05/13 Pontiac, MI @ Pike Room (w/ Vetiver)
05/14 London, ON @ Call the Office (w/ Vetiver)
05/15 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern (w/ Vetiver)
05/16 Buffalo, NY @ Soundlab (w/ Vetiver)
05/17 Pittsfield, MA @ Copperworks (w/ Vetiver)

Papercuts Four Star Review In Mojo.

Pitchfork Takes First Crack At New Papercuts Album.

On the band-name wince-o-meter, the Papercuts rank just below the Leapfrogging a Parking Meter and Hitting Your Balls on Its and the Digging Too Deep in Your Nose and Getting a Nosebleeds. But that hasn't stopped the reverbed-out San Francisco sad-pop project. You Can Have What You Want, the third album from Jason Quever's band, will be out on April 14. In the US, Gnomonsong will release the album, and it'll be on Memphis Industries in Europe. The record will feature collaborations with Alex Scally of frequent Papercuts tourmates Beach House.

And here's the tracklist:
01 Once We Walked In The Sunlight
02 A Dictator's Lament
03 The Machine Will Tell Us So
04 A Peculiar Hallelujah
05 Jet Plane
06 Dead Love
07 Future Primitive
08 You Can Have What You Want
09 The Void
10 The Wolf

Posted by Tom Breihan on Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 3:45pm

Killer Vetiver / Black Crows Hootenanny Photos.

Wikipedia definition: Hootenanny was used in the early twentieth century America to refer to things whose names were forgotten or unknown. In this usage it was synonymous with thingamajig or whatchamacallit, as in "hand me that hootenanny." Hootenanny was also an old country word for "party". Now, most commonly, it refers to a folk-music party.

Photographer Alissa Anderson captured these amazing photos of Vetiver & The Black Crowes doing a mega jam of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" in Milwaukee on December 7th ot this year. Anderson has taken countless photos of such artists as Vetiver, Devendra Banhart, Espers, Fern Knight, Meg Baird, Port O' Brien along with many other folksters, rockers & hipsters. Check out more of her work at http://alissaanderson.com/

Vetiver In No Depression's 2008: In Review Series.

2008: In Review
Vetiver
Thing Of The Past / Gnomonsong
Vetiver, in a reflective mood.

"Music discovery" is a newish buzzword of this decade, now that it's easier than ever to make a recording yet harder to figure out which ones are worth listening to. Independent bloggers and web software tools have joined traditional press, radio, and our friends to guide us toward music of interest. But the musicians we like have always helped to cultivate our tastes as well, through their own social networks and the cover songs they teach us.

You probably hadn't heard half of the songs that Vetiver essays on Thing Of The Past, an all-covers album and the band's third full-length disc, before it appeared in May. You almost certainly hadn't heard Dia Joyce's "Sleep A Million Years" unless you'd been to Vetiver frontman Andy Cabic's house, because it appears he has the only copy in existence. Joyce's rescued song nests among artifacts from Iain Matthews, Elyse Weinberg and Bobby Charles that are far from obvious, as well as less obscure cuts that appeared on albums by Townes Van Zandt, Ronnie Lane, Hawkwind and Loudon Wainwright III.

Vetiver's approach is quite straightforward – they feature Cabic's close voice, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums, and maybe some backing vocals, steel guitar or violin – but the band also divines a powerful atmosphere from taste and intuition. Cabic coos over fluttering strings as Garland Jeffreys' sad "Lon Chaney" portrait reaches its end; that's chamber music to my ears. Hawkwind's "Hurry On Sundown" becomes an unholy incantation to raise the spirits, with a bit of Led Zeppelin III mysticism. Perhaps best of all is sometime comic Biff Rose's solo piano lament "To Baby", remade with a wistful, drifting groove.

Vetiver's original songs are typically subtle and understated, with the overheard quality of a shared secret. This well-curated set has the same feeling of discovery, but with a sweet permanence that runs much deeper than ephemeral buzz.

Vetiver Song Premiered On Stereogum Today.

Today was a good day. Stereogum premiered a free download or stream of "Miles Apart" from the new Vetiver EP More Of The Past along with a few words from Mr. Andy Cabic himself.

As a followup to Thing Of The Past, psychedelic San Francisco folk-rock troupe Vetiver, aka Andy Cabic & Co., is releasing a companion covers EP called More Of The Past (11/11, Gnomonsong). In addition to the EP, the band's putting out a two-song 7", which finds More Of's "Hey Doll Baby" backed by the vinyl-only "Miles Apart." Well, vinyl-only until we premiered it in this week's Drop. On top of offering the new track, we asked Cabic about his take on A.R. Kane's original. Original post with song stream.

How did you decide to cover "Miles Apart"? Why didn't it show up on Thing Of The Past or More Of The Past?

I'm a fan of A.R. Kane -- much like all the other artists whose songs we performed on Thing Of The Past -- and this was a song in particular of theirs that I enjoyed a lot and thought would be fun to try our hand at. It didn't make the album because I wanted to keep Thing Of The Past concise, and "Miles Apart" didn't seem to fit alongside the others.

Any significance in its pairing with "Hey Doll Baby" on the 7"?

Not really, no. They are both songs I personally wanted to have available on vinyl.

How do you go about making a cover song your own?
I'm not sure you do anything different than perform it sincerely, with your own sense of style and abilities, right? I'm not setting out to "own" the song. Ownership is determined by the ear of the listener I suppose. All the songs we performed are significant to me, personally, in how they've played a role in my life through their melody, their lyrics, their style, what they suggest. They already are personally significant ... We just recorded them because it was fun to do, to present these songs in a new but not dissimilar way to people who may not have heard them before.

Upcoming live dates:
12/04 Louisville, KY @ Museum Atrium Gallery
12/05 Chicago, IL @ Riviera Theater (w/ Black Crowes)
12/06 Detroit, MI @ The Filmore @ State Theater (w/ Black Crowes)
12/07 Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom (w/ Black Crowes)
12/08 Grinnell, IA @ Herrick Chapel @ Grinnell College
12/09 Fargo, ND @ The Venue (w/ Black Crowes)
12/10 Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue (w/ Black Crowes)
12/11 Des Moines, IA @ ValAir Ballroom (w/ Black Crowes)
12/12 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown Jr
12/13 Denver, CO @ Filmore Auditorium (w/ Black Crowes)
12/14 Lawrence, KS @ Jack Pot Saloon
12/15 St Louis, MO @ Off Broadway Night Club
12/17 New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge

Vetiver Covers Album Reviewed On Pitchfork

Vetiver
Thing of the Past
[Gnomonsong; 2008]
Rating: 6.5
Orginial Review

Covers albums ask you to set aside some of rock crit's most reliable qualitative barometers, songwriting and "artistic growth," for a slightly different set of evaluative tools such as interpretative skill and aesthetic cohesion. But what most fans (and covers albums are primarily for fans) expect from a covers collection is a private tour of a band's basement: its nascent influences, personal touchstones, even its embarrassing fanboy crushes.

Vetiver, however, have never obscured their roots. Since the band's 2004 self-titled debut, Andy Cabic and his revolving lineup of players have camped at the various collision sites of rock, folk, psych, and country, combing through almost every inch of that frequently fertile soil. So its more weather than news that the band's latest LP, the accurately named Thing of the Past, digs exclusively in the crate marked "1967-1973", culling its covers from the catalogs of artists like Hawkwind, Townes Van Zandt, and Michael Hurley (the last appears on "Blue Driver"). Anyone hoping Vetiver would pull a Richard Thompson and cover Britney is out of luck.

There's very little on Thing of the Past-- released on Cabic and Devendra Banhart co-owned Gnomonsong-- to harsh anyone's mellow. Cabic's balmy tenor is as easy as ever on the ears, and its mild flavor is an actual advantage when called upon to shift from a supporting role in "Sleep a Million Years" to the soft-rock lead in "To Baby". Until full-band jam "Hurry on Sundown" kicks up some modest dust eight tracks in, Vetiver hold heart rates in check with plenty of mid-tempos, acoustic instrumentation, and tasteful, gold soundz arrangements. The band also keeps interpretive liberties on a leash. Some of the album’s best cuts-- jaunty banjo ditty "The Swimming Song" and melancholy wallow "Road to Ronderlin"-- are potent because they're time-tested, both virtual Xeroxes of, respectively, Loudon Wainwright III and Ian Matthews originals.

To his considerable credit, Cabic rescues several obscurities from the dustbin, including the aforementioned "Sleep a Million Years". First performed by an un-Googleable Dia Joyce, the dreamy folk tune is resuscitated with a dewy morning-after vocal performance by Vashti Bunyan (someone well-acquainted with musical second acts). "Lon Chaney", written by genre-hopping, New York singer-songwriter Garland Jeffreys and performed stately, if a little detached, by Cabic and Papercuts' Jason Quever on piano, is another neat find.

"Lon Chaney" opens the door to an intriguing point of inquiry, though. Like many artists in the period from which Vetiver draws, Jeffreys wrote political songs informed by passionately held progressive values (in Jeffreys’ case, racial equity). But Vetiver, in breaking their two-year absence with a Vaseline-smeared backward glance, emanates a curiously apolitical, even reactionary, vibe. Make no mistake, Thing of the Past is a perfectly pleasant, well-produced album that offers an authorized version of what Vetiver fans already unofficially know about the band. And if it doesn't make many false steps, it isn't exactly walking a ledge.

-Amy Granzin, June 05, 2008

Upcoming Vetiver European and US Northeastern shows:
06/06 Cardiff, UK @ Barfly
06/07 Belfast, North Ireland @ Black Box
06/08 Dublin, Ireland @ Crawdaddy
06/10 Birmingham, UK @ Barfly
06/13 Porto, PRT @ Passos Manuel
06/14 Lisbon, PRT @ ZDB Gallery
06/17 Barcelona, ESP @ Sidecar
06/18 Madrid, ESP @ Joy Eslave (w/ Akron/family)
06/19 Seville, ESP @ Teatro Central (w/ Akron/Family)
06/20 Granada, ESP @ Teatro Alhambra (w/ Akron/Family)
06/21 Malaga, ESP @Teatro Canovas (w/ Akron/Family)
06/27 Paris, FR @ Café De la Danse
06/29 Glastonbury, UK @ Glastonbury Festival
07/25 Rochester, NY @ Boulder Annual Music Festival
07/26 Albany, NY @ Valentine's
07/27 Burlington, VT @ Club Metronome
07/28 Peterborough, NH @ Reynolds Hall
07/29 Portland, ME @ SPACE Gallery
07/30 Hampden, CT @ The Space
07/31 Montague, MA @ Montague Bookmill
08/01 Boston, MA @ Museum of Fine Arts
08/02 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
08/03 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

Good Times With Andy Cabic Of Vetiver On The Revolver USA Podcast.

Uli and Postie catch up with Mr. Andy Cabic to discuss the inner workings of Vetiver's new all covers album Thing of the Past. Check here to be teleported to the Revolver USA podcast download page. Choose from either an AAC enhanced version or the just steam a meat & potatoes MP3 version.

Vetiver Thing Of The Past Reviewed In The NY Times.

VETIVER
“Thing of the Past”
(Gnomonsong)
Original post

Generally for a rock band of at least semiserious intentions, the time for a covers album is when it has grown established and a little confused: its 4th or 5th or 10th record, say. Third is a little soon.

But Vetiver, from San Francisco, is basically a folk group with amps and drums, and covering other people’s songs isn’t a grand statement; it’s a folk ritual, a means of dissemination and cross-pollination. “Thing of the Past,” its third album, renders faithful versions of very obscure songs in their own style, which is Vetiver’s style anyway: late 1960s and early 1970s settled, meditative, West Coast electric folk-rock. The record is super studied, but never bloodless. And it’s much better than that sounds.

Andy Cabic, the band’s leader, doesn’t just choose, for example, a lesser-known Neil Young song. Instead he’s chosen a song whose original iteration contained possibly Mr. Young’s most obscure guest appearance: “Houses,” from Elyse Weinberg’s album “Elyse” (1968). Vetiver’s version is sweet and centered, careful and musical, a balance between larking and scholarship. I can’t quite understand how the band pulled it off.

Such is the case all the way through the album. “To Baby” by Biff Rose; “Lon Chaney,” by Garland Jeffreys; “Hurry on Sundown,” by Hawkwind; “Sleep a Million Years,” by Dia Joyce. (Who is Dia Joyce? I looked her up online and found almost nothing.) Somehow this is not a precious or pretentious record; these versions are delicate and sturdy at the same time. And the band recruits a few of its singer-songwriter heroes, Vashti Bunyan and Michael Hurley, from its favorite era. Mr. Cabic’s voice sounds contemporary with theirs, a little like Doug Yule’s, from the Velvet Underground.

Vetiver centers itself on slow, reliable grooves and drones; it finds the meat of a song and doesn’t grandstand. And yet the record so clearly follows Mr. Cabic’s pleasure principle that it short-circuits the good reasons not to make something like this.
BEN RATLIFF

Vetiver will be playing an Amoeba Berkeley in-store at 6:00 PM this evening & tons of Euro dates to follow this summer:

5/16 Brighton, UK @ Theatre Royal (w/ Vashti Bunyan)
05/17 Brussels, BEL @ Les Nuits Botanique
05/18 Fulda DEU @ Das Kreuz
05/20 Zurich, CH @ Rote Fabrik-Ziegel Oh Lac
05/21 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
05/23 Coventry, UK @ Tin Angel
05/26 Cambrige UK @ Barfly
05/27 Leeds, UK @ Faversham
05/28 Liverpool, UK @ Sound City Festival
05/29 Edinburgh, UK @ Cabaret Voltair
05/30 Glasgow, UK @ Arches
05/ 31 Aberdeen, UK @ The Tunnels
06/01 Newcastle, UK @ Cluny
06/02 Nottingham, UK @ Bodega Social
06/03 Bristol, UK @ Cube Cinema
06/04 Manchester, UK @ Road House
06/05 London, UK @ St. Giles in The Fields Church
06/06 Cardiff, UK @ Barfly
06/07 Belfast, UK @ Black Box
06/08 Dublin, IRE @ Crawdaddy
06/10 Birmingham, UK @ Barfly
06/13 Porto, PRT @ Passos Manuel
06/14 Lisbon, PRT @ ZDB Gallery
06/17 Barcelona, ESP @ Sidecar
06/18 Madrid, ESP @ Joy Eslave (w/ Akron/family)
06/19 Seville, ESP @ Teatro Central (w/ Akron/Family)
06/20 Granada, ESP @ Teatro Alhambra (w/ Akron/Family)
06/21 Malaga, ESP @Teatro Canovas (w/ Akron/Family)
06/27 Paris, FR @ Café De la Danse
06/29 Glastonbury, UK @ Glastonbury Festival

Jana Hunter: Exclusive Radio Session For Tom Ravenscroft on Channel4 Radio.

John Peel's son, Tom Ravenscroft, follows in his father's footsteps in a modern way with his own "New Music Download" podcast for 4Radio. This week's podcast features Jana Hunter playing live takes of "Babies", "Poems" & "In Servitude" recorded exclusively for the show. Check here for Tom's page for complete details.

TRACKLISTINGS - Show 9 - 8th May 2008
DJ C & Zulu - "Soundgun Emergency" (DJ C Mix, ft. Aceyalone & Jah Orah) (Mashit Records)
Time Has Come - "Ignorance Is Bliss" (Regain Records)
Jana Hunter - "Poems" (Channel 4 session)

Two 4Unsigned Tracks Swimfaster God Whisper - "The Blueprints II" (4Unsigned Website)
The Darren Macer Poetry Experience - "Untitled" (4Unsigned Website)

Record that Will Most Definitely Be at Number 1 next week!
Kamal Chamkila - "Pehle Laklkare Naal"

Jana Hunter - "Babies" (Channel 4 session)
Soundmurderer - "Gunshot" (Clash Records/ Kriss Records)

Record We Disagree On
The Heliocentrics ft Percee P & MF Doom - "Distant Star" (Stones Throw)

Jana Hunter - "In Servitude" (Channel 4 session)
Oxford Collapse - "For the Winter Coats" (Channel 4 Session)
Phosphorescent - "Wolves" (Dead Oceans)

Upcoming Jana Hunter live shows:
05/23 Hanover, NH @ Dartmouth
06/14 Baltimore, MD @ Floristree