Woodpigeon + The Miserable Rich

Event information

WOODPIGEON
The background: Woodpigeon are a musical collective from Canada, each of whose members plays with a number of other local groups – one such related project is The Summerlad, who did a show on Valentine's Day where they played nothing but My Bloody Valentine covers. They're also a vehicle for the "sad words wrapped in pretty pop music" of frontman, guitarist and songwriter Mark Hamilton, who moonlights as a journalist. He is Woodpigeon and so are they – all eight of them, plus the additional members from various places across Canada who do everything from play sax to help with the stage visuals and provide remixes.

Signed in the UK to End of the Road records, their debut album "Songbook" came out last year, and the current album, released on February 9th, is getting great reviews across the board. The album is called Treasury Library Canada.

THE MISERABLE RICH
Back in 2006, cellist and pianist Will Calderbank joined James de Malplaquet to form the Grape Authority, a live band playing the songs the latter had written under the name James Grape. De Malplaquet had a deal as a solo folk/electronica project, but while recording and developing a live band version, the two became frustrated with the traditions of indie, folk and electronica, and decided to turn what they had done on its head.

They were also playing in eight-piece alt-folk outfit Shoreline, and with the band’s encouragement, they decided to use similar instrumentation in their new project.

Taking the name from an experience they’d had playing at the wedding of two ultra-rich aristocrats in Rome, and musical inspiration from "Say you don't mind" by ex-Zombies singer Colin Blunstone and the Balanescu's super-cool orchestral covers of Kraftwerk, James and Will decided to form The Miserable Rich - a chamber quintet to play their modern songs.

Debut album "Twelve Ways to Count" is out now on Humble Soul:

" ...their lush orchestro-folk is so heartbreakingly beautiful, it reduces anyone who hears it to a weeping mess." NME 8/10

"Breathtaking... Easily the best record of 2008" Americana UK

"warm acoustic loveliness" Rocksound

"...pop music that could soundtrack a nursery rhyme created by Tim Burton" Bearded


THE WINTER JOURNEY
The Winter Journey are a gentle duo out of place in manchester, england- making music around the drawing room piano as if it were only yesterday.

The first Winter Journey long-playing record is now available from Timbreland Recordings, distributed by Forte. It is called "This is The Sound of The Winter Journey", because it is the sound of The Winter Journey.

The album has 11 songs on it. There are harmonies and dancing and fingerpicking and sad songs and quite happy songs that are a little unsure of themselves. Anthony wrote it all, and he and suzy have carefully recorded it by hand, for your listening pleasure, at home, on christmases, birthdays and other days of rest.

All the things that have made The Winter Journey live performances such exciting and unpredictable events are on the record. There are zither songs about music catalogues, songs with metronomes and Carl Wilson surprises, an acoustic krautrock number about 5pm on a friday, tapdancing, metaphysical ruminations hiding under a sunny mccartney blanket of harmonies, the carter family wigging out with the wright brothers, and a tribute to louis armstrong with glockenspiels and bells.