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Passion Pit – DJ SET
Event on 2012-02-24 21:00:00

Supporting Acts: DUKTAP

Passion Pit – DJ SET

Passion Pit is an American electronic band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Formed in 2007, the group consists of Michael Angelakos (lead vocals/keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards/guitar), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth/samples), Jeff Apruzzese (bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums). Passion Pit formed in late 2007. Originally, Michael Angelakos had started "Passion Pit" as a project in order to write a few songs for his girlfriend as a Valentine's Day present. Angelakos lived in Buffalo, NY, where his music was first heard. The group is widely followed throughout the city, with their music appearing in local eateries, such as Elmwood Taco & Subs, in addition to the actual band's home city of Boston. In 2008, after playing only a handful of shows, they were voted Best New Act in the ''The Boston Phoenix'''s Best Music Poll. Michael Angelakos hears music in his head and knows exactly how he wants it to sound. The young composer/performer has already created two studio masterpieces — Manners and Chunk of Change — and — with his fellow musicians in Passion Pit — is taking his perfectionist pop vision to a whole new level in concert. Soulful, memorable, danceable, earnest and unabashedly pop, the music Michael Angelakos delivers on Passion Pit's debut album, Manners, reveals a complex and challenging 21st century sound and sensibility, baroque and intricate in its construction with exquisitely soaring hooks and melodies coupled with enigmatic lyrics flowing straight from the id. Launched a mere three years ago as a humble one man multi-track laptop project in Angelakos' college dorm room, Passion Pit has rapidly evolved under fire into an in-demand concert attraction, with sold out tours and a growing international reputation based on the power and immediacy of the music. Passion Pit is a two-fold entity sharing a single essence: there's in-the-studio Passion Pit, essentially comprised of Michael writing, designing, and constructing intricate cathedrals of sound, and Nathan Donmoyer handling live percussion and programming. Ian Hultquist is also featured on Manners performing guitar on songs such as "Make Light" and "Moth's Wings." And then there is the in-concert Passion Pit, a loose yet tightly calibrated ensemble who turn Angelakos' musical studio blueprints into a cathartic live experience. Angelakos was 20 years old when Passion Pit took its first hold on his psyche in the form of a multi-song "Valentine" to his then-girlfriend, recorded in his bedroom on readily available ad hoc technology including the built-in microphone on his laptop. After signing with indie label Frenchkiss, he opted to add more recordings that had been made shortly after the he self-released the collection of songs — including the signature track "Sleepyhead" — to his dorm room set, releasing it officially as the lo-fi EP Chunk of Change. Shortly thereafter, Angelakos gave the first Passion Pit performance, which consisted of himself and a laptop singing the EP's songs in front of some rear-screen projections in the basement of his school to approximately 15 of his friends. The "half-show/half-installation" caught the attention of Angelakos' friend and musical acquaintance Ian Hultquist, who approached Michael about the possibility of starting a band to play the music live. A few months later, with the help of Hultquist, Angelakos was building a full ensemble capable of realizing and producing the sounds in his head and taking them to the stage. Within mere months of forming, Passion Pit — voted the Best New Local Act of 2008 in the WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll — was opening for high profile bands like Death Cab For Cutie, Girl Talk, and Yelle, while mostly headlining their own sold-out shows. The learning curve for Passion Pit was short and steep. The pressure was unquestionably intense, especially for all shows leading up to — and even a few months of those after — the release of Manners (which often stood-in for the luxury of a proper rehearsal time). Those months of touring showcased Michael and company evolving from aesthetic chrysalis to full-fledged band, a leap that has impressed both early skeptics and die-hard fans alike. One of Angelakos' compositions/recordings that began resonating immediately with music fans is his whirling surrealistic pop paean to sophisticated dreamland, "Sleepyhead," with its other-dimensional choral hook sculpted from a mutated and cut-up sample of Celtic artist Mary O'Hara. Michael, who counts 70s folk among his many obsessions, is extremely hesitant to sample any music at all, preferring to use songs and sounds as cryptic reference points and textures rather than literal references. When he listened to Mary O'Hara's take on the classic folk tune, he immediately heard a whole new song, finding in the Gaelic phrase for 'Oh, My Little Boat,' the perfect sonic flourish for "Sleepyhead." The track began attracting attention shortly after he posted it online. Angelakos is continually writing according to his own technique. According to Michael, "Sleepyhead" just appeared in his head and was completed in less than two hours on his computer. Knowing exactly how to perform it vocally, he ran over to Hulquist's apartment for the purposes of singing the song into a better microphone, and wrote the lyrics on the spot as he recorded them. By 2009, "Sleepyhead" had reached #9 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and inspired its own core of YouTube devotees interpreting the song. Michael likes the clips with acoustic guitars, finding it intriguing how fans can take such a divisive and almost-karaoke proof vocal sound and sing along to it with such enthusiasm. To date, the official "Sleepyhead" video has accrued more than 3 million views on YouTube with many of the fan tributes accumulating hundreds of thousands of views. When it came time to record an official debut album, Angelakos went to work with producer Chris Zane for Manners, the first full-length Passion Pit collection, essentially writing and playing all music on the album with the exception of programming and drumming by Nathan Donmoyer and Ian Hultquist's guitar work on select tracks. Zane played a vital role in helping Michael realize the Passion Pit sound in the studio, eventually even developing the role of "older brother" to both Angelakos and Donmoyer during the painstaking recording process. On Manners, you can hear what someone like Angelakos does in a proper studio where he can get virtually any sound he wants. He approached the project with the intent to make an album that was "one very particular and extremely lucid snapshot of how I was feeling and existing at a particular moment." As for the lyrical material, Angelakos purposefully matched the music with oblique, impressionistic, densely layered, abstract lyrics that utilize both phrasing and performances that, according to Michael, "were not meant in any way to match the musical content or even style of music." It was Angelakos' mission to mask this emotional complexity with the immediacy and irresistible nature of plain and simple pop music. Angelakos has always carried his pop vision in his head and, now that's it's 2010, Passion Pit is bringing that vision to the world. Stepping out from behind his keyboards to become a front-man, Angelakos is more than ably supported by Ian Hultquist and Ayad Al Adhamy on keyboards/synthesizers and a pulsing throbbing dance-heavy rhythm section consisting of Jeff Apruzzese on bass/synthesizer and studio collaborator Nate Donmoyer on drums and programming. In a little more than a year, Passion Pit has evolved from a one-man dorm room project into a burgeoning band that has surged above the buzz, capable of selling out three nights at New York's Terminal 5 (January 2010) and a night at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Passion Pit has even landed high-profile slots on a series of international festivals including Australia's Big Day Out and the UK's Glastonbury Festival as well as North American festivals including Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Coachella.

at The Crofoot
1 South Saginaw
Pontiac, United States

Railroad Earth
Event on 2012-03-01 20:00:00
STG Presents
Railroad Earth
Thursday
March 1, 2012
Doors at 7:00pm
Show at 8:00pm
Neptune Theatre
1303 Northeast 45th St
Seattle, WA 98105-4502

STG presents Railroad Earth at the Neptune Theatre in Seattle on Thursday, March 1, 2012.

Railroad Earth is one of America’s greatest bands playing today, plain and simple. They sing of our nation’s changing landscape and social ills with a commitment reminiscent of Woody Guthrie, while interpolating instrumental timbres that could have been pulled from Celtic or Cajun culture. And as anyone who has caught them live will attest, their concerts are imbued with the fire-in-the-belly passion of straight-ahead, blue collar rock & roll. Then there is the newest album from the New Jersey sextet, which is the most cohesive embodiment of their myriad gifts to date—hence the decision to simply call it Railroad Earth—showcasing nine new selections that draw strength and inspiration from an acknowledgment of our shared past, while also embracing new ideas and celebrating diversity… just like America when she is at her best.

Like their fellow musical travelers, from Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons to Wilco and alt-country chameleon, Ryan Adams, Railroad Earth eagerly embraced change in pursuit of an aesthetic breakthrough. “It was time to do something different,” admits lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Todd Sheaffer. He and his band mates—violinist Tim Carbone, mandolin player John Skehan, multi-instrumentalist Andy Goessling, and drummer Carey Harmon, plus new bassist Andrew Altman—have spent nearly a decade refining their sound and modus operandi. This time, however, they elected to take some cues from their new A&R man, Michael Caplan (Allman Brothers Band, Los Lonely Boys, Keb’ Mo’), and change up their game “to get a fresh perspective.” The result is the band’s most compelling set to date; encompassing rousing ballads and string-band funk, wistful waltzes and quirky time signature folk.

To realize this vision, Railroad Earth enlisted co-producer Angelo Montrone, whose résumé ranges from work with Matisyahu to Natalie Cole. Sheaffer credits Montrone for helping the band know when to scale back—and when to forge ahead. “We focused on the arrangements a lot more carefully and honed in on our ensemble playing.” The producer urged the band to draw out the rock elements of its sound, with additional electric guitars and even some judicious distortion, thanks to an arsenal of vintage amplifiers at Montrone’s place. (“They’ll probably ban us from the bluegrass festivals,” chuckles Sheaffer.) The record even features some mean and dirty lap steel playing, courtesy of Goessling, which is a first on any Railroad Earth album.

Michael Caplan also encouraged the band to highlight one of its most secret weapons. “We have some great singers in this band, and we’ve always had a lot of background singing and harmonizing,” says Sheaffer. “This time we wanted to push it further and utilize that instrument more fully, so we spent a lot of time on the backing vocals.” It worked: Railroad Earth features some of the finest harmony singing committed to record. Just listen to “Black Elk Speaks,” as evidence; a masterpiece reminiscent of CSNY circa Déjà Vu, and inspired by the 1932 book of the same title, in which a Sioux medicine man recounts the changes he’s witnessed in his lifetime. The poignancy of Sheaffer’s lyric and the electrified country-rock sound is enriched further as each new vocal part enters alongside him, harmonies and vibrations illuminating the song’s spiritual core. Likewise, the humble lyric of “On the Banks” is suffused with a halo of golden light through the rich chorus of voices that surround Sheaffer’s gentle delivery.

That emphasis on the vocals works to underscore Sheaffer’s emergence as one of the most compelling lyricists of his generation. His succinct yet distinctive imagery and feel for the unique cadences of language, with key turns of phrase repeated, as if in prayer, fuse with the music to yield far more than the sum of its parts. “The Jupiter & the 119″ uses the tale of the first transcontinental railroad—which literally brought together the country, and united disparate camps in a common goal, to reflect upon the hopeful wave of union and transformation that swept over the nation following Barack Obama’s election. Putting a more personal spin on the sentiments of “Black Elk Speaks,” “Lone Croft Farewell” explores Sheaffer’s feelings about being driven from his New Jersey home to accommodate the construction of a massive electrical plant: “They’re diggin’ at the edges… to build the power line / Same old story… but now the story’s mine.” There’s even a ghost story, “Potter’s Field,” about a Civil War-era specter of Scottish origin, wandering this mortal coil in search of peace. This classic-sounding, edgy folk song was inspired in part by a visit to the Old Man of Storr, a rocky hill on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. “The kind of place where you can feel the ancient spirits,” Sheaffer says.

Only history and the passing of time can truly make a landmark. The first reference to Plymouth Rock came over 120 years after the Pilgrims landed on the Massachusetts shores circa 1620. Nevertheless, those first settlers knew that one phase of their journey had ended and another begun. And so it is with Railroad Earth. It may fall to our children and grandchildren to validate the album’s longevity and influence, to file it alongside Patti Smith’s Horses or Neil Young’s Harvest as a record for the ages. But at the moment, anyone with ears should recognize its significance as a turning point in a great American story that is still unfolding.

at Neptune Theatre
1303 NE 45th
Seattle, United States

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