Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Jared Putnam of The March Divide releases additional 80’s cover tunes, this time taking on Culture Club, ‘Til Tuesday, and The Bangles.

Songs accompanied by individual artwork depicting Putnam in each artist’s “era-compliant” styling. Listen now via Cover Me, Diffuser, Spill.

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Jared Putnam of The March Divide channels Boy George.  Photo: John Glover. Art: Krist Krueger.

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Jared Putnam of The March Divide continues his series of 80’s covers! See below for listening links!



“Voices Carry” by ‘Til Tuesday [SOUNDCLOUD | SPOTIFY | MP3]


“Mamma's Don't...” by Willie Nelson [SOUNDCLOUD | MP3]

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The March Divide – In The Press

[A selection of songs from three albums and four EPs released by The March Divide since 2013.]


“Impressively hooky.” — American Songwriter

“Catchy hooks and memorable lines.” — Innocent Words

“His work is uniformly intimate and thoroughly emotional.” — Nooga

Big Star-informed, strummy acoustic reverie.” — BLURT

“Completely clever.” — Performer

“Gifted with a serious set of pipes.” — The Aquarian

“Quality pop at its best.” — Popdose

“All about lyrics and melodies.” — Babysue

“Bittersweet beauty.” — Impose

“Immediately relatable.” — Atwood Magazine

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“I have an ongoing project, to record every song off of Disintegration.” – Jared Putnam, The March Divide

San Antonio-based songwriter, Jared Putnam, leader of the sometimes more, but usually one-man pop-rock band, The March Divide, is a prolific songwriter (three albums and four EPs worth over the last few years), but he’s also a studio hound, in general, who loves to be there recording.

As Putnam preps songs for a new album, he has been having some fun recording cover versions of songs that have inspired him, some that are beloved hits, and some that are both. Most of all, they are songs he grew up with.

“I feel like these are the songs that introduced me to music, around the age that I started to care,” he says.

Working with engineer Mike Major (At The Drive-In, Coheed and Cambria), who also plays keys on the majority of the tracks and has been working with Putnam for years, was a comfortable environment in which to have a good time with these tunes.

Artists including The Cure, The Bangles, Culture Club, ‘Til Tuesday, and Willie Nelson get a treatment from Putnam that isn’t ironic, but truly interpretive in the best way, as he takes his style and applies it with the thoughtful touch that makes it clear why we love these songs, and why he does, too.

“People might write this off as a rehash, but that honestly didn’t even occur to me until I was finished recording. For me, these songs are endearing. I was a little kid and these songs were on MTV. Everyone loves something about these songs.”

Adding to the fun, graphic designer Krist Krueger has taken Putnam’s image and created “covers for the covers,” with each song accompanied by Warholian art depicting Putnam “wearing” the iconic look of the artist he’s paying tribute to.

Putnam is currently working on a new EP to be released later this year.

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The March Divide – Live

3/23/2017: San Antonio, TX @ Sanchos
3/30/2017: Amarillo, TX @ Leftwoods
3/31/2017: Albuquerque, NM @ Moonlight Lounge
4/01/2017: El Paso, TX @ El Paso Brewing Co.
4/08/2017: Wichita Falls, TX @ The Deep End
4/13/2017: New Orleans, LA @ Checkpoint Charlies
4/14/2017: Galveston, TX @ MOD Coffeehouse
4/15/2017: Houston, TX @ Bohemeo's

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The March Divide Links


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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion



Friday, March 10, 2017

Lawrence to Los Angeles: Tree Machines bears fruit of move west as soaring single “Waiting On The Sun” is released. Hear it now!

Band sweats bullets through the summer of 2016 to create “Up For Air,” an album of “naked cynicism mixed with a hint of hope.”

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Tree Machines (L-R): Douglas Wooldridge, Patrick Aubry. Photo by Kasia Nawrocka.

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Listen to “Waiting On The Sun” by Tree Machines via Popdust or the links below!





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Tree Machines – In The Press

“It’s some LA soul that indie pop needs.” — Popdust

“Immediately aiming for the anthemic.” — The Wild

“Emotionally staggering.” — Diffuser

“Best new rock song of the year so far.” — BULLETT

“I’ve been unable to stop listening.” — Gold Flake Paint (UK)

“Grips you in such a beautifully brutal way.” — Innocent Words

“Gleaming placidity.” — BlackBook

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Tree Machines built a safe room in Los Angeles. Not for security of the conventional kind, but for a place to unleash, and make the kind of music that is at once vulnerable and strong, without fear of consequence. Anthems for times that don’t make sense, but carve a path forward. Call it a studio, if you have to. But you don’t have to.

Here, Douglas Wooldridge, Patrick Aubry, and producer Mike Giffin (all three contribute to the various instrumentation and music) have been creating Up For Air, the debut Tree Machines full-length album. Its first single, “Waiting On The Sun,” out today and premiered via Popdust, is “one of the best examples of the feel and vibe of Up For Air as a whole,” says Wooldridge, the band’s lyricist and vocalist. “Naked cynicism mixed with a hint of hope and understanding that no matter what, another day will come.”

The upcoming album follows-up 2015’s debut Tree Machines EP, which contained the single “Fucking Off Today,” a hard-to-ignore opening salvo that expressed Midwestern malaise (which these former Lawrence, Kansans know all too well) in a new way. Three more Tree Machines singles appeared during the summer of that year.

Once in Los Angeles (Canoga Park, to be exact), the band proceeded to go down the rabbit hole building the (very) small studio, an effort that took almost a year by itself. Regardless, they were determined to create a room where they could make music that moved, was moving, and was bigger than the tiny space in which it was created.

“I think people are going to be surprised that guys from Kansas can write music with a strong social conscience and unique ideas,” Aubry concludes. “Plus, it sounds pretty fucking good, too.”

Up For Air, the debut album by Los Angeles-based band Tree Machines, arrives in 2017. The album's first single “Waiting On The Sun” is streaming now.

Tree Machines are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Tree Machines Links


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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion


Cotton Mather to release “Wild Kingdom” on April 7th, its second “Songs From The I Ching” collection, marking 30 of 64 tracks available to date.

Band scheduled to support Spoon at SXSW on March 15th, among additional performances. Hear new single “Better Than A Hit” via Popmatters now.

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Robert Harrison of Cotton Mather as photographed by Valerie Fremin.

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Cotton Mather – Live at SXSW

3/11/2017: Austin, TX Second Play Stage @ Sheraton Hotel (SXSW, 7PM, Acoustic)
3/15/2017: Austin, TX @ The Main (SXSW, 11PM, supporting Spoon)
3/16/2017: Austin, TX Rajiworld Showcase @ Palm Door (SXSW, 12AM)
3/18/2017: Austin, TX @ Yard Dog (SXSW, 1510 S. Congress)

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“Trust us, everything this band touches is gold,” says Popmatters of “Better Than A Hit” by Cotton Mather.




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Cotton MatherIn The Press

“Its first album in 15 years, is nothing short of a triumph. #9 Austin album of 2016.” — Austin Monthly

Harrison’s gifts are as strong as ever.” — AllMusic

“An exemplary specimen from Harrison’s seemingly endless collection of instant classics.” — Austin Chronicle

Harrison and his comrades have retained their retro vitality. 8/10.” — Uncut

“Save money on the next (Beatles) reissue and try this colorful extension of their sonic legacy.” — Los Angeles Times

“A record that is not to be missed. Grade: A.” — Goldmine

“Cerebral aspirations grounded in a classicist’s grasp of melody.” — MAGNET

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“One thing I’ve always liked about Cotton Mather music is that it’s always winking at you. This record has that quality.” – Robert Harrison

It took 15 years for Cotton Mather to return with 2016’s Death of The Cool (released July 19th, 2016), the first collection of songs compiled from band leader Robert Harrison’s ambitious, possibly impossible aim to write 64 songs, one for each hexagram of the I Ching, the ancient text which he refers to as an “extraordinary book about ordinary life.” Texas Monthly kicked off the “Songs From The I Ching” project on November 16th, 2015. Read about it here.

Now, in what seems like the passing of just 15 minutes, Cotton Mather will release Wild Kingdom on April 7th, 2017. The album brings together another 11 tracks, following up the 11-song Death of The Cool, and the three-track “Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins” EP (released December 30th, 2016), that are both also a part of the I Ching song cycle.

To date, 30 of the “Songs From The I Ching” have been released. Listen to 25 here.

Wild Kingdom is more a change of season than scenery,” Harrison states. “While I was writing the first half of the I Ching project, I tended to circle the songs with a requisite richness and gravity because I thought it important to do something for the first release in fifteen years that we never could have done before. Otherwise, what’s the point ‘Relatively obscure indie cult band reunites to demonstrate that maybe going away the first time was just a fine idea?’ Uh, no thank you. You have to get better!”

Kontiki gave me something to shoot for,” Spoon leader Britt Daniel once said of Cotton Mather’s 1997 underground classic album. In addition to praise from musicians, the record was especially loved by the UK press, with both Uncut and The Guardian awarding it five-star ratings. Like the instantly memorable pop songs that made (and make) Kontiki influential – a two-disc reissue released in 2012 received similar praise all over again, and Kontiki was also finally released on vinyl at the end of 2016 – Wild Kingdom continues in the Robert Harrison tradition of impeccable song craft that doesn’t ever let up on the hooks, or the winking.

Wild Kingdom, the latest album by Cotton Mather, arrives on April 7th, 2017 containing 11 tracks comprising another portion of the 64-track “Songs From The I Ching” project that also includes the 11-song Death of The Cool album (released July 19th, 2016) and the three-track “Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins” (released December 30th, 2016.)

Visit ichingsongs.com to read Robert Harrison’s in-depth song commentaries explaining the relationship between each individual track and the I Ching hexagram it is based on.

Robert Harrison of Cotton Mather is available for interviews.  Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Cotton Mather
Wild Kingdom
(The Star Apple Kingdom)
April 7th, 2017
  

Track Listing:

01. The Cotton Mather Pledge (STREAM)
02. Fighting Through (STREAM | MP3)
03. High Society (STREAM)
04. Hijinks Dad (STREAM)
05. Better Than A Hit (STREAM | MP3)
06. King William (STREAM)
07. California (STREAM)
08. Girl With A Blue Guitar (STREAM | MP3)
09. It's Better Not To Be The King (STREAM)
10. The Army
11. I Volunteer

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Cotton Mather
“Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins” EP
(The Star Apple Kingdom)
Out Now


Track Listing:

01. Call Me The Witch
02. Faded (STREAM | MP3)
03. Girl Friday

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Cotton Mather
Death of The Cool
(The Star Apple Kingdom)
Out Now
  

 Track Listing:

01. The Book of Too Late Changes (STREAM | MP3)
02. Close To The Sun (STREAM | MP3)
03. The Middle of Nowhere
04. Candy Lilac (STREAM | MP3)
05. Life of The Liar (STREAM | MP3)
06. The Land of Flowers
07. Never Be It
08. Queen of Swords
09. Waters Raging
10. Child Bride (STREAM | MP3)
11. The End of DeWitt Finley

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“Songs From The I Ching” Master Song List (as of March 10th, 2017)

Hexagram # | Song Title | “I Ching” Hexagram Name | Where Available | Listening Links

#1 | Close To The Sun | The Creative | on Death of The Cool | (STREAM | MP3)
#2 | The Middle of Nowhere | The Receptive | on Death of The Cool
#3 | The Land of Flowers | Beginning | on Death of The Cool
#4 | Child Bride | Youthful Folly | on Death of The Cool | (STREAM | MP3)
#5 | Never Be It | Waiting | on Death of The Cool
#6. Life of the Liar | Contention | on Death of The Cool | (STREAM | MP3)
#7 | The Army (Acoustic Version) | The Army | non-album track | (STREAM)
#7 | The Army | The Army | on Wild Kingdom
#8 | Candy Lilac | Union | on Death of The Cool | (STREAM | MP3)
#9 | High Society | Little Accumulation | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM)
#11 | California | Advance / Peace | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM)
#12 | The End of DeWitt Finley | Standstill | on Death of The Cool | (STREAM)
#13 | The Cotton Mather Pledge | Seeking Harmony/Fellowship Among Men | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM)
#14 | “Call Me The Witch | Possession In Great Measure | on “Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins” EP
#15 | It’s Better Not To Be The King | Modesty | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM)
#16 | Girl Friday | Delight | on “Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins” EP
#18 | Shadow The Star | Remedying | non-album track | (STREAM)
#21 | Fighting Through | Biting Through | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM | MP3)
#22 | White Gold | Adornment | non-album track | (STREAM | MP3)
#23 | Queen of Swords | Falling Away | on Death of The Cool
#24. The Book of Too Late Changes | The Return | on Death of The Cool | (STREAM | MP3)
#25. I Volunteer | Without Falsehood | on Wild Kingdom
#28 | Carnival Off My Back | Great Exceeding | non-album track | (STREAM)
#29 | Waters Raging | The Abysmal | on Death of The Cool
#37 | King William | The Household | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM)
#44. Better Than A Hit | Encountering | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM | MP3)
#52 | Way of The Samurai | Keeping Still/The Mountain | non-album track | (STREAM)
#53. Girl With A Blue Guitar | Gradual Progress | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM | MP3)
#56 | Hijinks Dad | The Wanderer | on Wild Kingdom | (STREAM)
#64. Faded | Before Completion/Not Yet Fulfilled | non-album track (Robert Harrison vocal version) | (STREAM | MP3)
#64. Faded | Before Completion/Not Yet Fulfilled | on “Cotton Mather with Nicole Atkins” EP | (STREAM | MP3)

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Cotton Mather Links


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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion


Wednesday, March 8, 2017

the black watch announces “The Gospel According To John,” its 15th album in 30 years of music-making. Hear single “Whence” now!

“Sounds like the holy union of Guided By Voices, The Wedding Present and any number of New Zealand pop heroes.” – Buzzbands.la.

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John Andrew Fredrick of the black watch as photographed by Steve Keros.

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“Whence” is from The Gospel According To John, out April 21st. Hear “Whence” via Popdose or the links below!




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the black watch – In The Press

“Should’ve become a household name a long time ago.” — USA Today

“Salutes the great DIY pop canon and trophy hallways of heroes with an illustrious array of pepped up jangle pop.” — Impose

“Clever and extremely catchy songs.” — Popmatters

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“L.A. has not produced a band as capable of both My Bloody Valentine miasma and Nick Drake quietness.” — Andy Gill, Gang of Four

John Andrew Fredrick, a man that has been making music, writing books, professionally professing about both (that’s what professors do?), and generally being a ceaseless creative entity forever, has threatened to quit releasing music and concentrate on his other careers and hobbies (Dr. Fredrick also holds a Ph.D, plays tennis or ping-pong five days a week, and paints) for years.

But this product of 25 years of Los Angeles living continues to find songs and riffs and lyrics wandering into his head as he’s traversing the city’s traffic to California Lutheran University, forty-five miles north of Los Angeles, where he lectures in the English department.

The latest collection of wandering riffs and lyrics by Fredrick’s band the black watch, the latest in a line so long it’s like the painful reveal of an over-the-hill age (except this number represents an actual accomplishment), is Christened (emphasis on Christ) with a title wholly (holy) befitting Fredrick’s sense of humor and sense of artistic entitlement.

Put the puns away, it’s The Gospel According To John.

The new album, arriving April 21st, 2017, is the band’s 15th in 30 years of music-making (leaving out EPs, singles, wax cylinders), a pretty impressive feat, especially for a band that has “put the frosting,” as Fredrick puts it sweet, on its career more than once. The Gospel According To John follows-up 2015’s Highs & Lows, and was recorded over the course of eleven months with Rob Campanella of The Brian Jonestown Massacre producing. Hear the single “Whence” via Popdose now.

On the heels of the release of The Gospel According To John on April 21st, Fredrick will follow-up four well-received novels with the release of a non-fiction title about Wes Anderson, who Fredrick previously taught a course on at The University of Southern California. Fucking Innocent: The Early Films of Wes Anderson will be released on June 13th, 2017.

“This book makes film criticism fun,” Fredrick says. “It’s very ‘Lester Bangs goes to the movies.’”

The Gospel According To John, the 15th full-length album by the black watch arrives on April 21st, 2017 preceded by the single “Whence,” streaming now. John Andrew Fredrick is available for interviews.  Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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the black watch
The Gospel According To John
(The Eskimo Record Label)
April 21st, 2017
  

Track Listing:

01. Whence (STREAM | MP3)
02. Way Strange World (STREAM | MP3 | VIDEO)
03. The All-Right Side of Just OK
04. A Story
05. Jealously
06. Orange Kicks
07. Oscillating Redux
08. Satellite

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the black watch Links


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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion


Friday, March 3, 2017

Minneapolis-based band Tabah launches tour tonight at Daytrotter Downs supporting upcoming debut, “Symmetry Somewhere,” out March 17th.

Singer Erholtz’s vocals “are a little bit PJ Harvey and Stevie Nicks.” Hear the “transportive,” “beautiful,” “spacious” single “Curtain Call” now.

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Tabah (L-R): Andrew Seitz, Murphy Janssen, Cecelia Erholtz, Charlie Bruber, Jeff Ley. Photo credit: Peter Jamus.

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Hear “Curtain Call” by Tabah from Symmetry Somewhere now via Impose, 89.3 The Current, or MAGNET!




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Tabah — In The Press

“Opaque and beautiful melodies. Pure loveliness. Transportive.” — Impose

“A mystically groovy sound. A tribal sense of belonging.” — City Pages (Minneapolis)

“Something beautiful and spacious.” — MAGNET

“Lives up to the buzz. Cecelia Erholtz’s husky vocals are a little bit PJ Harvey and Stevie Nicks.” — Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)

“This five-piece are going places.” — 89.3 The Current (Minnesota Public Radio | NPR)

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Check out the premiere of “Lucid State,” the lead track from Symmetry Somewhere by Tabah, via Groundsounds!

The five-piece Minneapolis-based band Tabah is often called out in the local press about its vocalist, Cecelia Erholtz. The word “Earthy” gets used a lot, and while not inaccurate, it leans into a place that is actually smaller than what is required to describe her.

Today, in its preview of Tabah’s hometown show this weekend at St. Paul’s Turf Club, Minneapolis daily paper the Star-Tribune accurately noted that “Erholtz’s husky vocals are a little bit PJ Harvey and Stevie Nicks.” Pinging two of the universe’s biggest voices is high praise, to say the least.

As a matter of fact, Erholtz’s “Earthy” vocals communicate something more universal than what could be attributed to any one planet. They could be “Jupitery,” or “Saturny,” and even Heavenly on Tabah’s debut album Symmetry Somewhere, scheduled for release on March 17th, 2017.

     See below for a complete itinerary of upcoming Tabah tour dates.

Together – and Tabah’s musicians really do sound like they are playing together – the band takes their music to a unique place where psych-heaviness and ethereal-wisp combine in a way that hasn’t necessarily been heard like this before. Consider this: Symmetry Somewhere is a head-bobbing, mind-bender of an album that was recorded in Nashville, and could pass for folk in its quieter moments, but is still loud enough to piss off neighbors.

Recorded live to tape, with minimal overdubs, the band worked tirelessly during the day at Welcome To 1979 Studios, and then retired to a cattle ranch just outside of Nashville where they would meet at a gazebo near a frog pond. That place soon became a temple where the five would find themselves reflecting, releasing, and crafting closely amongst relaxed moonlight, soft mornings and Southern thunderstorms.

So far, this special band’s way, and way of working, has made a lot of sense for epicenter of musical discovery in Minneapolis, 89.3 The Current, which has consistently supported Tabah since the band’s first EP release in 2015, including one of its “Best Local Tracks of The Year” honors. The resultant sell-out crowds at Tabah’s hometown venue, the famed 7th Street Entry, have only further cemented the group as a must-see live act in the city; a mystifying, haunting, soulful experience that will now go national with the release of the new album, and the tour that launches this evening in Davenport, Iowa at the Daytrotter Downs festival.

Now that Symmetry Somewhere is completed, the members of Tabah continue to seek – personally and also professionally – through their visceral ability to connect in meaningful ways with their rapidly expanding audience. Now they have the tangible result of this pursuit. The new album is already in their hands and ears, and soon, in yours. As for what can’t yet be physically grasped, it’s still waiting for us to discover. It might be Earthy. It’s definitely out there.

The debut album Symmetry Somewhere by Tabah is scheduled for release on March 17th, 2017, preceded by the single “Curtain Call,” streaming now. Members of Tabah are available for interviews. Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic for more information.

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Tabah – On Tour

3/03/2017: Davenport, IA @ Daytrotter Downs Festival
3/04/2017: Saint Paul, MN @ The Turf Club (Album Release Show)
3/05/2017: Iowa City, IA @ Gabe’s
3/06/2017: Des Moines, IA @ Vaudeville Mews
3/07/2017: Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge
3/08/2017: Wichita, KS @ Barleycorn’s
3/09/2017: Norman, OK @ The Red Brick Bar
3/13/2017: Austin, TX @ Cheers Shot Bar Rooftop (SXSW)
3/13/2017: Austin, TX @ The Thirsty Nickel
3/15/2017: Austin, TX @ Handlebar
3/16/2017: Austin, TX @ Cherrywood Coffehouse (SXSW)
3/18/2017: New Orleans, LA @ DMac’s
3/19/2017: Jackson, MS @ Soul Wired Cafe
3/21/2017: Jackson, MS @ Offbeat
3/24/2017: Nashville, TN @ The 5 Spot (Album Release Show)

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Tabah
Symmetry Somewhere
(S/R)
March 17th, 2017
  

Track Listing:

01. Lucid State (STREAM | MP3)
02. Curtain Call (STREAM | MP3)
03. Closer To Colder
04. Bloom
05. Noble
06. The Hive
07. Spine
08. Kuker
09. False Balance
10. TWC
11. Celebrate
12. Villain
13. Central Why?
14. Myth

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Tabah Links


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Contact Josh Bloom at Fanatic Promotion