September 27, 2013
This is the Kit tour with The National, reissue Wriggle Out the Restless
You may have noticed Paris- and Bristol-based band This is the Kit palling around with the Brassland roster for a few years now. They first opened for The National during their storied run of Beacon Theater shows in December 2011. They were invited to The National's All Tomorrow's Parties fest in December 2012, split some UK dates with Buke and Gase just after that, and participated in Brassland events in Adelaide, Australia and Haldern, Germany in 2013. Their 2010 album Wriggle Out the Restless has been available sporadically on Bandcamp throughout this time and we at the label have logged a few frequent flier miles over to the United Kingdom to hang out and spend some time with them.
And now for an amazing news alert! The National have invited This is the Kit to open up for the entirety of their autumn tour of UK and Europe. Here are the dates:
OCTOBER 2013
31 - Helsinki, Finland @ Ice Hall
NOVEMBER 2013
02 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Forum
04 - Berlin, Germany @ Max Schmelling Halle
05 - Dusseldorf, Germany @ Mitsubishi Electric Halle
06 - Luxembourg @ Rockhal
07 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Heineken Music Hall SOLD OUT
09 - Belfast, UK @ Odyssey Arena
10 - Dublin, Ireland @ O2 Arena
11 - Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo SOLD OUT
12 - Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo SOLD OUT
13 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace SOLD OUT
14 - London, UK @ Alexandra Palace SOLD OUT
16 - Brussels, Belgium @ Forest National
18 - Paris, France @ Zenith
20 - Madrid, Spain @ Palacio Vistalegre
21 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Pavilhao Atlantico
We're also pleased to announce the official reissue of Wriggle Out the Restless. We put it on digital services in May, and it is now available in physical form in the United Kingdom for the first time in many years. Here's some places where you can buy it:
PHYSICAL
- BRASSLAND (World)
- RISE (Bristol, UK)
- PICCADILLY (Manchester, UK)
- AMAZON (UK)
DIGITAL
- BANDCAMP (World)
- ITUNES (UK)
- AMAZON (UK)
We'll be adding links to more indie-minded alternatives as they become available.
Here's a list of new stuff for the reissue. First, in close collaboration with the band, The National's Scott Devendorf carefully crafted some new-fangled imagery featuring TiTK's frontperson Kate Stables. The new cover art also adorns a new website which we built with the help of our sainted web helper Hal Hixson. Every Brassland version of Wriggle also includes bonus track "Treehouse" courtesy of TITK buddies at Need No Water who originally released the song on a 7" in 2011. Finally, there is a Deluxe Edition of the record available on iTunes -- for an extra buck you get five extra live tracks, including two new songs which will probably appear on the band's follow-up album in 2014. Here's "Bashed Out" for ya.
(To our United States friends: For now, you can only buy it direct from Bandcamp or the Brassland Store. We'll give Wriggle a more thorough USA reissue when we coax TiTK back to the States, or have some other new "content" to offer.)
You may have heard some internet rumors that Aaron Dessner from The National is working on the band's proper follow-up. Those rumors are correct. In fact we might have started some of them. Check out some combined TiTK + Dessner magic below, from their Other Voices broadcast earlier this year.
Phew, so much newness we have exhausted ourselves describing it! Expect us to be releasing some B-sides, remixes and digital exclusives as we firm up 2013-14 plans for the group.
Now for some of our sentimental nonsense -- and an idea of just how deep the relationship with some of our bands goes.
The history between Brassland and the Stables clan goes back well before 2010. Bryce Dessner -- composer, label co-founder, guitar player in The National -- has known Kate's sister Jane Stables well before any of our adventures in indie rock began. When The National did their first tours of the UK in the early '00s, it was Jane who provided floors and couches in London for various band members to sleep on. At the time Kate was shuttling between home bases in Bristol, England and Paris so we didn't get to know her that well...
Even then, however, we had started to hear about the musical prowess of Kate's partner in music and life Jesse Vernon. (Check out their homegrown micro-label Disco-Ordination for some space rock, post-rock and TiTK's back catalog.) Kate had just begun venturing out as a solo artist. But as the '00's shifted to the '10s it became clear that the music she was making had something about it that was immediately gripping (in a laid back kind of way). It sounded pure and (dare we say it) essential -- so much so that a lot of their fine musician friends from both the Paris and Bristol music scenes began gravitating toward the project as members of her band.
Depending on the context, the group shifts in size and sound. Kate does folk(esque) solo sets. (Is it possible to do a folk set on an electric guitar?) As a trio, they have an in-the-pocket feel that allows their Sly & Robbie dreams to shine. In their psychedelic 5-piece formation, Jesse shreds on guitar (in a tasteful psychedelic folk fashion). In any arrangement Kate's voice rings through clear as a bell, and she sorta makes you wish you'd actually learned to play that banjo you bought in college.
The first time we heard Wriggle we immediately recognized there was something special going on and that we'd love to help out. Apparently lots of other people thought that too. TITK songs like "Treehouse," "Earthquake," "Moon," and "Spinney" earned increasingly frequent airplay on the BBC. Their intimate yet playful live shows earned them love from The Guardian. It's a beautiful thing to watch and well known label friends like Iron and Wine, Alexi Murdoch and Sharon Van Etten have been so struck by their unmistakable magic they've invited TiTK out on support tours so they can watch it over and over again.
When the label that originally released Wriggle went out of business in spite of all this buzz, we knew we had to step in and keep it in-print.
And now we're excited to give you the chance to watch the story of the record and of this band to grow and prosper.
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