Americans have an undeniable and insatiable appetite for voyeurism. Readily feeding them hearty portions is front-man Ezra Furman, who makes no qualms about peddling the deeply personal to the public and draws no drapes between himself and an audience thanks to his pulsating, confessional songwriting style. Through his eponymous Chicago-based quartet, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, Furman employs the same open-chest honesty that drew ire for Ginsberg's Howl and spawned speculation of Cohen's Chelsea Hotel as he pines for his Wild Rosemarie and recounts bouts of transience during the making of the band's upcoming third studio LP, Mysterious Power.
With lyrics featuring the fittingly dualistic motif of blood - representing both the humor d'amour and the stomach-turning stains of tragedy - Furman's music madly swings between wide-eyed sentimentality and brutally truthful accounts of life's grotesqueries. Forging ahead with Furman's brazenly rust-tinged croons, the band solders rollicking rockabilly rhythm and love-struck doo-wop sensibility with punk-rock ferocity and immediacy. In a musical alloy as unlikely as it is engaging, Furman finds release for bleeding-heart sensitivity and bloody-knuckled brawls of conscience as he "declares open warfare on jadedness, cynicism and irony." (Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune)
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons are putting forth their tautest album to date with Mysterious Power, as produced by Doug Boehm (French Kicks, Starsailor). There is an impressive range of styles and sounds in this newest set of songs, but there is also a palpable cohesiveness that can in part be attributed to the full incorporation of guitarist Andrew Langer. A veteran of the Chicago-area outfit The Redwalls, Langer was used only in guest spots on the band's second album; however, his being woven into the fabric of Mysterious Power, along with the eruptive energy of Adam Abrutyn's drumbeats and the volatile McCartney-wails of Job Mukkada's harmonies, lends a complementary sonic counterweight to Furman's lyrics that drives the music forward.
Don't Turn Your Back on Love and Wild Rosemarie are so intensely delicate and gorgeous they have a haltingly powerful presence. The anthemic catharsis of Teenage Wasteland and the frantic crescendos of Blood Sucking Whore reveal piercing vulnerabilities beneath their bold arrangements. The Harpoons deftly toy with dynamics more like the Pixies than a folk-rock group on tracks like Heaven At the Drive-In, while mixing in Is-This-It-inspired guitar hooks on Portraits of Maude and Blue-Album-style backing harmonies on I Killed Myself but Didn't Die. This third LP puts a stronger emphasis on beauty, building on earlier releases that toyed more with the irrepressible energy of youth. This progress is perhaps best showcased by Wild Feeling and the album's title track, Mysterious Power.
Ezra Furman & the Harpoons have made numerous album of the year lists with their debut Banging Down the Doors and sophomore release Inside the Human Body. They have gained critical acclaim for performances with Lou Reed at South by Southwest, Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Walkmen, Spoon, and Delta Spirit, as well as at major festivals such as Lollapalooza. They have attained international notoriety by soaring to the number-one spot on European radio stations and playing to thousands at Barcelona's Primavera music festival. Ezra personally embarked on the quixotic feat of recording an original and personalized song for every person who bought a special self-released EP. On top of all of this, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons deliver live performances that will leave you buzzing with excitement.
Furman gallops and crashes around the stage like an asylum-bound Buddy Holly complete with endearing hiccups and frightening tics. He not only christens every tour with a nom de rock, but also titles each individual gig. Furman's witty and effusive conversations with the audience, along with his heightened attention to the crowd's prevailing mood and the shows named like children, creates an extremely personalized feel for every performance. The band grinds out riffs stoically and belts out harmonies spiritedly as they lay the aural ties to support the verbal locomotion of Furman as he careens and caroms about, filling the room with the boiling-hot emotional steam of a fully bared soul.
Ezra Furman -Vocals, Guitar
Andrew Langer - Guitar
Job Mukkada - Bass
Adam Abrutyn - Drums
http://www.ezrafurman.com/
The Apache Relay take more long car rides than most bands. But only a portion of their car time is dedicated to their touring schedule -- the rest is something like driving in the middle of the night from Nashville to Alabama and back, just to listen to a new record 12 consecutive times. Despite their wagon's sketchy brakes, this happens a lot. It's where the indie-roots band discovered a shared love for the timelessness of Motown records, the weight of the Raising Sand album, the textures of modern rock bands, as well as the intensity of a really skilled acoustic player.
It's also where they cemented their bond, spontaneously forming the band after one gig at Belmont University. Just a few months later they enlisted producer Doug Williams, best known for his authentically raw approach with the Avett Brothers. Under their original name, Michael Ford Jr. & The Apache Relay, they tracked their debut 1988 live -- applying their musicianship to an eclectic and textured array of pop-influenced original songs with guests Jessica Lea Mayfield, Joe Kwon and Byron House. Paste Magazine named 1988 an "Auspicious Debut of 2009," and highlighted the band as "Best of What's Next" with, "It's a spirited collection of songs that shine with hope like light under a doorway."
Ford Jr. found his bandmates by chance in a dorm at Belmont University in Nashville, where he was becoming known for his soulful folk-rock songs. His first introduction was to guitarist Mike Harris, who circumvented the music school's practice hour rules to pretty much any time he wanted, rolled his amp into Ford Jr's room to jam on Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn tunes all night. Later, when he started disliking performing his songs alone, he heard about Harris' new band, The Apache Relay (named for the underdog race in Ben Stiller's Heavyweights.) And though Ford Jr. had never heard or met the trio with Brett Moore and Kellen Wenrich -- he hired them to back him at a show, and that was that.
There was something about the musicality that everyone brought to the table that just worked right off the bat. Mixed in is a Bad Brains bumper sticker, a bit of Suzuki training, jazz lessons, a lot of Beatles listening, knowledge of traditional mountain music, a worship of Phil Spector and the love for the complex but accessible layers of bands like the Arcade Fire.
Michael Ford Jr. wrote every song on the album. He has an unvarnished way of presenting the joy of infatuation or the sadness of loss. It's youthful in a way, in that it grasps of deeper emotions before time starts making them more complex and overwrought.
Now after a year under their belts, the band- with the really long name - are now just known as "The Apache Relay." With equal parts acoustic and electric, they are gaining following and a buzz on the road for their jumping-up-and-down energetic shows. Even on the acoustic numbers there's always some head-banging excitement with a mic stand or two getting kicked over, the crowd reacting to the band's joy of just playing together.
http://www.theapacherelay.com/
Tristen is the 87th most popular baby name in the United States, and has been consistently among the top 1,000 names given to baby boys since 1971. From the Old French Tristran, which is from the Gaelic Drystan, a name derived from drest (tumult, riot). The name was borne in medieval legend by a knight who was sent to Israel by King Mark of Cornwall to bring Isolde back to be the king's bride. On the return trip, Tristan and Isolde accidentally drank a love potion intended for the king and fell in love. Tristan left to fight for King Howel of Brittany and, seriously wounded in battle, sent for Isolde. She arrived too late and died from grief next to Tristan's deathbed. The tale was the subject of many popular tragedies during the Middle Ages.
http://www.myspace.com/tristentristen
