LE LOUP
Le Loup is an American indie band founded in late 2006 in Washington, D.C. by Sam Simkoff (keyboard/banjo). |
01. Canto I
02. Planes Like Vultures
03. Outside of This Car, The End of the World!
04. To the Stars! To the Night!
05. (Storm)
06. We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!
07. Breathing Rapture
08. Look to the West
09. (Howl)
10. Loup (Fear Not)
11. Canto Xxxiv
12. I Had a Dream I Died
Buy from:
Memphis Shop
Norman Records
Rough Trade
Amazon UK
Download We Are Gods! We Are Wolves! here.
"This LP of ambitious home recording inhabits a similar magical folk-pop realm to Sufjan Stevens with its mandolins, exultant choirs and exclamatory song titles..' - **** Uncut
"Thumping drums, horn accents, monkish harmonies, and a spunky indie rock shine near the end elevates this song well above new weird Americana" - Pitchfork
"Jubilant 'n' skittering bumps, low-bit percussion, hand claps, the slight shadow of a Spacemen 3 guitar burst, bells and sighs" - Stereogum Band To Watch
"When all seven members squeezed on DC9's tiny stage and filled the room with joyous noise, it was clear why they've gotten so far so fast" - DCist
"Free of the rehashing and genre splicing that draws so much of our attention these days, The Throne... is a record quietly aiming for heights far above anything dared by the majority of young musicians currently making the rounds. It s the sound of a singular vision coming into focus, taking bits of the everyday and creating something all together familiar yet eerily alien in the manner with which it looks towards the future. Densely layered in execution, Simkoff s The Throne.., just like the work it takes its name from, is one of those rare creations that ingrains itself further and further into your psyche with each and every listen" - 9/10 DrownedinSound
"Le Loup's hazy charms really resonate in the dog days of August" - Washington Post
21 February - Crawdaddy, Dublin with School of Language
22 February - La Maroquinerie, Paris
23 February - Festival La Route Du Rock, le Palais du Grand, St. Malo
24 February - 6PAR4, Laval
26 February - Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing
27 February - Le Botanique, Brussels
28 February - Soundstation, Liege
29 February - L'Autre Canal, Nancy
03 March - L'Usine, Geneva
07 March - L'Emporium, Rouen
12 March - SXSW (March 12 - March 16) Austin, TX
18 March - The Earl, Atlanta, GA
19 March - Local 506, Chapel Hill, NC 20 March - The Barbery, Philadelphia, PA
21 March - The Black Cat, Washington, DC
23 March - The Mecury Lounge, NYC
24 March - Union HallBrooklyn, NY
25 March - T.T. the Bear's, Cambridge, MA
27 March - Waldron Arts Center, Bloomington, IN
28 March - Schuba's, Chicago, IL
29 March - 1st Ave., Minneapolis, MN
02 April - Holocene, Portland, or
06 April - The Casbah, San Diego, CA
12 April - The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Website
Created during a time of personal crisis, The Throne is a cataclysm, an escape, and a journey. Inspired largely by Dante's Inferno (also a journey conceived by a man in a time of crisis), here an emotional catacomb is traversed circle by circle. From Dante come apocalyptic scenes, rendered from personal feelings of hopelessness and impending disaster. Descent and escape are the central themes of "canto i" and "canto xxxvi", which take their titles from the first and last chapters of the Inferno, respectively.
Simkoff encountered the works of both Dante and another artist, James Hampton, during the initial writing of the record. The Throne takes its title from a piece of folk art that was meticulously built over the course of nearly fifteen years by Hampton, starting in the '50s. An engulfing homage to another heavenly realm, Hampton was a harried, outsider artist who kept his work a secret in a shed adjacent to his home. Consisting of 177 individual pieces that were painstakingly assembled from everyday objects, Hampton's throne became a delicate shrine to the transcendent.
More than a thematic influence, Hampton's work served as a model for pouring personal turbulence into work in a frenzied manner. Le Loup also takes the subtitle of album centre piece "le loup (fear not)" from the crown jewel of Hampton's throne, a placard at the top of his work wrought of tin foil, urging the viewer to "Fear Not". This hopefulness, in the face of uncertainty and despair, shines through on the epic album closer "i had a dream i died."
The complex themes of The Throne are characterized by mounting tension and dramatic swells, coupled with an engaging emotional resonance that lifts just as much as it illuminates. Simple melodies plucked on a banjo are buoyed by keyboard lines, improvised percussion, and sometimes as many as a dozen overlapping and intertwining vocal tracks, creating a complex and lush soundscape which shrouds itself only long enough to surge into hugeness. Conceptually abstruse while remaining fundamentally personal, The Throne is a collection of rushing narratives that connect the individual struggle of each of us to the death of the universe in a manner that is both intimate and unshakably vital.
Le Loup is:
Sam Simkoff - banjo, keyboards, vox
Christian Ervin - computer
Mike Ferguson - guitar, amp, vox
Nicole Keenan - keyboards, french horn, vox
Dan Ryan - bass, percussion, vox
Robert Sahm - drums, percussion
May Tabol - guitar, vox
Jim Thomson - guitar, amp, vox