June 18, 2007
Erik Friedlander Releases New Album
Congratulations to Brassland alumnus Erik Friedlander on the release of his new album, Block Ice & Propane.
Be sure to give a listen to his Brassland release, Maldoror, and have the privilege of saying you knew him way back when...
October 18, 2006
Erik Friedlander Plays on Mountain Goats Album
In 2005, our man Friedlander made his true indie rockin' debut by contributing cello and various other arrangement duties to the Mountain Goats career-making album, The Sunset Tree. He has reprised his roll on the Mountain Goats' new album, Get Lonely. And this time Friedlander even made it into the video.
March 20, 2006
Erik Friedlander Playing with John Darnielle
Erik Friedlander participated in sessions for the Mountain Goats new album for 4AD this March. Brassland plans to release Friedlander's second, yet-untitled solo album this fall, around the same time as the Mountain Goats' release.
August 31, 2005
Erik Friedlander: Prepping Maldoror's Follow-Up Album
Erik Friedlander had a successful July residency at the Knitting Factory, mixing solo and group sets with intimate collaborations with artists such as Ikue Mori and Lucio Pulido. In late August, Erik travelled to San Francisco to record a follow-up to MALDOROR with engineer Scott Solter (Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, etc.). More news on that release soon. For now, keep an eye on our tour page for news of some possible east coast gigs with Vanderslice, including an appearance at CMJ.
June 20, 2005
Friedlander at The Knitting Factory
Erik Friedlander is in residence at the Knitting Factory's Old Office for the month of July. He'll be playing every Tuesday in various iterations - solo, with Topaz, in duos with Ikue Mori and Teho Teardo, etc. Look at our [LINK TO COME]tour page for details. There's even more information on Erik's site.
May 12, 2005
Friedlander Playing With Darnielle Amid Mountain Goat Mania
Congrats to Erik Friedlander. He has just completed a hugely successful five-date NE swing opening for the Mountain Goats. (He also joined the group on stage for three or four songs.) Erik's contributions to their latest album, The Sunset Tree, have garnered mentions in the likes of the Boston Herald and Billboard who wrote, "There is an undertone of sadness here, often amplified by Friedlander's cello in the timeliest of spots." Publications like The New Yorker are calling this the Mountain Goats' best album to date. (Brassland's Alec Hanley Bemis got into the act in a long rant on Coolfer.com blog.)
We'd like to give Erik some credit for helping frontman John...
March 24, 2005
Erik Friedlander Opens For The Mountain Goats in May
Erik Friedlander has just announced five May dates opening for The Mountain Goats. This extends Erik's ambitious March and April gigging schedule, and is part of his burgeoning association with certain unsavory elements of the "indie rock scene." Earlier this month, Erik spent 11 hours at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco. The fruit of those labors will be heard on Vanderslice's new album, slated for August 2005 release. You can also hear his mandolin and cello playing on The Mountain Goats' wonderful new album, The Sunset Tree. It will be released in April, but if you're impatient you can hear Erik's star turn right now on The Dilaudid EP, a d...
December 21, 2004
Friedlander Joins The Mountain Goats For Music-Making
October Erik Friedlander played an opening set at New York's Knitting Factory for super-fan and super-songwriter John Darnielle aka The Mountain Goats. Erik's playing that night was so hot that someone literally fainted during his set. (Okay, actually said audience member had a seizure, and it was rather scary, though they seemed to be fine by the end of the night.) Point being? Erik got along with them so well that Mr. Darnielle flew him out to Northern California a month ago to join in on the sessions for The Mountain Goats third album on 4AD.
On his blog Mr. Darnielle wrote of Erik's tenure as a Goat: "Having completely elevated everybody's game during his short s...
September 19, 2004
Friedlander in Europe
Erik has just dropped us a note that he'll be doing a short European solo tour November 2nd - November 8th. We'll have more details soon. You can also catch him opening for the Mountain Goats at the Knitting Factory on Friday, October 8th.
August 13, 2004
Erik Friedlander Posts Clips of Tour
Erik Friedlander has just posted this collection of Quicktime movie clips from his recent US solo tour. Re-live the magic, or get a preview of what you can expect next time he comes to your town.
January 1, 2004
Friedlander Unveils Maldoror
Maldoror has been making serious waves at press. The Wire ran a full page feature in their November issue, and the record made it into their 2003 writer's poll as a "best of" in the Modern Composition catagory. JazzReview.com calls it "an album of stark beauty and haunting poignancy," while AllMusic.com was even more gushing. "His approach is avant-garde to be sure, but far from atonal... For all its intensity, Maldoror is nearly shockingly accessible, even with its far-flung and dramatic sense of dynamics. This is an album created to be listened to as one work, the individual selections all contribute to a haunting, hunted whole...this is a brilliantly conceived and executed recording,...
July 27, 2003
Erik Friedlander Speaks and Plays
New on our music/video page, is a Real Audio segment from PRI's Next Big Thing about the making of Maldoror. We've also posted an MPEG video of Erik playing an extended solo cover of Carlos Santana's "Golden Dawn." Yes, that Carlos Santana. The segment is from Erik's Skin DVD.