Saturday, September 3, 2016

Although “Ebb” single from Steel Cranes is “expression of being flatlined,” band maintains quirky sense of humor during making of its solemn video.

To avoid nudity in clip’s bathtub footage, director Adrienne Calo acted as “nipple police,” says vocalist Tracy Shapiro; Band’s 40-date tour continues.

+++


Steel Cranes (L-R): Amanda Schukle, Tracy Shapiro. Photo credit: Lisa Gilligan.

+++

PLAY, POST & SHARE


Check out “Ebb” by Steel Cranes courtesy of Impose or via the links below!




+++

Steel Cranes – In The Press

“Rollicking drums and bass collide with salacious guitar licks.” – SF Weekly

“Absolutely stunning.” – Impose

“One of the year’s most compelling albums.” – Popmatters

 “Tango is a struggle between two forces. And it is worth every step.” – Innocent Words

“Raw, relentless power.” – Bitch

“Fiery, and impassioned” – MAGNET

+++


“This is our second album but I like to think of it as our debut comedy album,” says Tracy Shapiro of Steel Cranes. While the Oakland-based band doesn’t expect Tango to be filed next to Steve Martin, Shapiro says that “humor was largely my barometer” when she and band mate Amanda Schukle started working on the record.

But the album’s latest single “Ebb” carries very little, if any, humor, in fact.

“It’s an expression of being flatlined,” Shapiro says. “I wrote it at a time when I had lost my capacity to feel anything other than disconnected. But for many of the other songs on Tango, it felt compelling to bring to life the vulgarity of heavier emotions, which often landed us in comedic territory.”

The video for “Ebb”, as sad and solemn as it is, was “an incredibly fun experience to make,” Shapiro remembers. And once again returning to the land of funny, Shapiro explains that director Adrienne Calo also had to act as what Shapiro describes as the “nipple police” during the shoot.

“The milk bath we created mostly hid my skin beneath the water, but Adrienne, who had a video monitor in my living room, kept shouting ‘Nipples!’ every few minutes, at which point I would concave my body to sink my breasts while maintaining a forlorn wistful look on my face.”

+++

Steel Cranes
Tango
(Mister White Tights Records)
Out Now


Track Listing:

1. Ebb (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
2. Pretty (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
3. Today Is The Day (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
4. Her
5. Sandglass
6. Happy
7. Take Me Down
8. What Am I Doing Here
9. The Poet

+++

More about Steel Cranes and Tango


Described by MTV as possessing “the slo-mo heaviness of a 2,000-pound pendulum” upon the release of the debut Steel Cranes album in 2013, Schukle and Shapiro offer an evolution of that sound on the new album Tango, available now, and being supported by a 40-date tour that launched on August 4th, and continues into September. See below for full itinerary.

With a vision for the sound of ​Tango that was more expansive than the band’s debut, Schukle and Shapiro were initially stalled when considering the logistics of accomplishing these time-consuming sonic refinements in a studio environment. It soon became clear that the best option was to record and mix the record themselves.

Amanda has been recording her own music for years, and she began obsessively learning more about recording and mixing,” Shapiro remembers.  “As soon as we decided to do everything ourselves, the control freaks in us were unleashed!”

This education ultimately yielded the more passionate and layered version of the Steel Cranes sound that is heard on Tango.  Once freed from the confines of creative deadlines and traditional studio environments, Shapiro and Schukle took full advantage of their new work paradigm.

“We wanted time and space to let ourselves stretch in new ways,” Shapiro says. “In ways that don’t come easy when you’re aware of how much it costs to spend three hours experimenting with the fucked-up tones on your old Casio keyboard.”

Most of all, a year spent recording, versus the five days allocated for the previous album, meant more of everything that made the first Steel Cranes album special.

“More texture. More nuance. More melody. More guitar tones,” Schukle explains. “It is also more beautiful.”

Tango by Steel Cranes is out now. Amanda Schukle and Tracy Shapiro are available for interviews.  Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

+++

Steel Cranes – Tango Tour

Upcoming:

09/06 Milwaukee, WI @ Linneman’s
09/07 Chicago, IL @ Township
09/08 Bloomington, IN @ The Back Door
09/09 Evansville, IN @ PG
09/10 St. Louis, MO @ Schlafly’s Tap Room
09/11 Columbia, MO @ Cafe Berlin
09/12 Lawrence, KS @ Jackpot Saloon
09/14 Wichita, KS @ Kirby’s Beer Store
09/15 Norman, OK @ Red Brick Bar
09/16 Albuquerque, NM @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
09/17 Santa Fe, NM @ Boxcar

Past:

08/04 Tucson, AZ @ Flycatcher
08/05 Phoenix, AZ @ Rips Bar
08/06 Los Angeles, CA @ Redwood Bar & Grill
08/07 San Diego, CA @ Tower Bar
08/09 San Luis Obispo, CA @ SLO Donut Co.
08/10 Fresno, CA @ Dynamite Vinyl
08/12 Santa Cruz, CA @ The Crepe Place
08/13 Oakland, CA @ The Golden Bull
08/14 Pacifica, CA @ Winters Tavern
08/16 Medford, OR @ Bamboo Room at King Wah’s
08/17 Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
08/18 Portland, OR @ World Famous Kenton Club
08/19 Seattle, WA @ Blue Moon Tavern
08/20 Olympia, WA @ McCoy’s Tavern
08/21 Tacoma, WA @ Real Art Tacoma
08/24 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
08/26 Denver, CO @ Lion’s Lair
08/27 Omaha, NE @ Barley Street Tavern
08/28 Lincoln, NE @ Vega
08/29 Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews
08/30 Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s
08/31 Minneapolis, MN @ Amsterdam Bar
09/02 La Crosse, WI @ Root Note
09/03 Madison, WI @ BOS Meadery

+++

Steel Cranes Links


+++

Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion


No comments: