Radio Exile | Have Beard, Will Join Megafaun

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Have Beard, Will Join Megafaun

By Shawn M. Smith September 3, 2009 Post a comment | Email the author

TeamClermontPublicity_MegafaunMikeSchaedler72_1

I keed, I keed. I really can’t grow a beard, so it’s out of the question.

Megafaun [MySpace], that Durham-based trio birthed from the ashes of the amazing Deyarmond Edison, extended their tour in support of the critically-acclaimed second album, Gather, Form & Fly after their recently successful six week tour with fellow North Carolina-based group Bowerbirds. Brothers Brad and Phil Cook and Joe Westerlund are hitting the road on a tour that will see them hooking back up to share the stage with former DeYarmond Edison bandmate, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). Yes, The Dodos [MySpace] will be there as well, but let’s be honest, this would be like Damien Rice letting Bell X1 open for him.

Ha.

Check out tracks and tourdates “after the jump”

[mp3] Megafaun – “The Fade”
[mp3] Megafaun – “Kaufman’s Ballad”

Tour Dates:

9/15 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center *Megafaun only
9/16 – Eau Claire, WI @ House of Rock *Megafaun only
9/17 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon (Forward Music Festival) *Megafaun only
9/19 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown *w/ Bon Iver
9/22 – San Francisco, CA @ The Filmore *w/ Bon Iver
9/24 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater *w/ Bon Iver
9/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern *w/ Bon Iver
9/28 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theater *w/ Bon Iver
9/29 – Mesa, AZ @ Mesa Arts Center *w/ Bon Iver
10/4 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theater *w/ Bon Iver
10/6 – Tallahassee, FL @ Club Down Under *w/ The Dodos
10/7 – Atlanta, GA @ The Earl *w/ The Dodos
10/8 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle *w/ The Dodos

“Gather, Form & Fly is a monument to a band that thousands have experienced on stages, under trees, in galleries, on ﬂoors, in headphones, and through radios-with-the-windows-down over the past three years. All the hints they’ve given us — from songs Stereogum described as “mournful, slow-blooming banjo-and-white-noise-laced epics” to tours with The Rosebuds, Arnold Dreyblatt, and Akron/Family — have culminated in a record that is an ode to death, love, musical history (from blues to musique-concréte), community, tradition, and experimentation. In all, it’s an ode to the listener.

Based in Durham, North Carolina, Megafaun was built by brothers Brad and Phil Cook and fellow Eau Claire, Wisconsin native Joe Westerlund. The trio, plus longtime friend Justin Vernon (a.k.a. Bon Iver), made the cross country move together from WI to NC as the band DeYarmond Edison, ultimately splitting in 2006. Megafaun was born from those ashes and proceeded to record the remarkable album Bury the Square in 2007. The band found a home on the road, collaborating with friends (they also joined Akron/Family and Dreyblatt as backing band) and developing an American musical language that is exquisitely translated by 2009’s Gather, Form & Fly.

Brad, Phil, and Joe have been playing in bands together since 1997, after meeting at jazz camp in Wisconsin as teenagers. With the end of DeYarmond Edison, a paradigm-shift was imminent. “Brad and I left our primary instruments behind and picked up secondary ones. We booked a seven day tour without having written any songs,” said Phil, revealing the seeds of the improvisational spirit that both Megafaun and their fans now cherish and exalt. “We’ve become song writers collectively and individually through the birth of this band,” added Joe, “and Gather, Form & Fly marks a huge growth and change in our thinking about time and song form.”

Megafaun’s past three years ripple with the power of varied experience usually reserved for a lengthy decade: 250 shows over the past two years, supporting tours doing double-duty as backing band/collaborator with nearly every notable and diverse tourmate, and musical exploration spanning albums, generations of musical history, and fathoms of personal exploration. That self-survey daringly brings itself to the stage: “We thrive on situations that allow us to expose our nuances, our imperfections, and our spontaneity. We are not afraid of the imperfect set, but are afraid to limit ourselves to the non-spontaneous nature of recitation,” said Joe. That same spirit informed the album, which was self-recorded in three bedrooms, a kitchen, a yoga studio, a living room, a basement, and in a forbidden university piano studio that they had to break into to ﬁnd an in-tune piano. In act of further embracing the new, Megafaun brought in Chris Stamey (the dBs, Holsapple-Stamey, et al) to help mix and guide Gather, Form & Fly, adding another dimension to the exquisite result.

Gather, Form & Fly rings out in its honesty to its makers and, thus, to its listeners —- both on wax and on stage. Phil, Brad, and Joe move with awareness of their every move, acknowledging in near-unison that this album shares Bury the Square’s broad stylistic and emotional palettes —- group percussion, cacophony, drone, and folky narration will not disappoint —- but also reveals sounds and words that have been, somewhat silently, with them all along. There are the moments, present in every song, that will turn heads toward speakers, turn eyes toward the sky, and turn all notions of music on their sides, if just for one shimmering and genuine moment. And then, almost anywhere this Summer, you can go see Megafaun live……and hear it all again, for the ﬁrst time.”