Rhode Island-based Americana collaborative The Low Anthem return to Babeville for their first headlining show in the Queen City on Monday, February 13, 2012. Doors open at 7:00pm with Other Lives taking the stage at 8:00pm. Tickets are $16.00 in advance and $17.00 day of show and are available through all Tickets.com outlets including online or by phone at 888-223-6000, at Tops markets, Rust Belt Books, or at the Babeville box office.
Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky met in the mid-2000s while attending Brown University. They played in various ensembles together as well as DJed at WBRU. Their mutual interests led them to form the Low Anthem in 2006.
They self-released their debut CD, What The Crow Brings, in 2007, joined by Dan Lefkowitz and Jocie Adams. Eleven months later, they followed up with their next self-released album, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. A European tour and subsequent buzz resulted in a deal with Nonesuch Records in the US, who re-released Charlie Darwin in 2009.
Reviewers praised the release, with the UK's Mojo calling the album, "...the second best cabin-in-winter indie album ever made" [referencing Bon Iver's debut release], and The New York Times wrote, "...its music inhabits its own otherworldly place, where ghosts and angels hover just out of view."
Tours, festivals (including Bonnaroo, Lollapalloza, the Newport Folk Festival, and Austin City Limits), and television appearances followed, and the band continued to write and record, releasing Smart Flesh in February 2011. Praise continued to roll in, often from seemingly odd sources, such as Absolute Punk.com, which wrote, " Welcome to The Low Anthem's Smart Flesh, where folk music doesn't need to be reinvented for it to come alive – just performed. If you're looking for a solid folk spooker to open the year, your search ends here."
Smart Flesh made a number of 2011's year end Top Albums of the Year lists, including American Songwriter, Paste, Uncut, Q, and Mojo.
As a gift to their fans, the band currently has a 10-track release penned under the band name Snake Wagon for download for free on their website.
Opening is Stillwater, Oklahoma's Other Lives, which grew out of frontman Jesse Tabish's previous band, Kunek. Other Lives have released two albums -- 2008's eponymous debut (produced by Beck's drummer Joey Waronker), and last year's Tamer Animals. Pitchfork's review of the album referenced Kurt Vile and Fleet Foxes, and said, "Tamer Animals feels organic and lovingly crafted, a record whose lushness often invites you to simply collapse into it."
The band has just finished a tour opening for Bon Iver, and shortly after their Babeville show, hop on a tour with Radiohead.
www.lowanthem.com
www.otherlives.com
