upcoming

Future Islands, Lower Dens (new wave)

What:

Future Islands  (post wave/pop from Baltimore)  Lower Dens  (new wave from Baltimore) 9:30pm @ the Lil Red Lion

Comprised of J. Gerrit Welmers (synthesizers and programming), William Cashion (bass), and Samuel T. Herring (vocals), Future Islands has continued to make passionate music through an electronic medium for the past four years. [Although, the three have been working and performing since the spring of 2003.] They call their music “Post-Wave,” taking in part from the emotional fragility of New Wave and coupling it with the power and drive of Post-Punk.

Their music is spearheaded by Welmers, whose layers of synths and drums create the landscape for Cashion’s punching-strum style, that pulses and fights—the two—creating noise and bliss. Herring, who has been called “one of the most magnetic frontmen in indie rock,” finds his space in between. Carving through the music, at times, with a whispering croon, and at others, with a deathly wail.

In Evening Air marks the first full-length release from Future Islands since moving to Baltimore, and also their first full-length release as a focused three piece. However, there’s no lack of spirit in this paring down. More so, there’s a greater intensity and eye to detail than we have yet witnessed from the group. These changes are felt and heard. In Evening Air takes us and swirls us around those feelings of growing outside of one’s city and one’s self. It moves through gripping loss and the search for peace from a heavy head, with an ease and understanding where there was none.

With production by Chester Endersby Gwazda, Future Islands fuses together their poetry with a dynamic musical range. Traveling from the slow burn to the highly ecstatic while holding on to the quill and not letting go. These songs are answers. They are born from fire and pain, yet are filled with light, acting as breathless testaments to love and it’s consequences. But this isn’t just a group of songs. This is a book of stories.  From darkly quiescent and imaginative tales, to the passionate burnings of a searching heart. From the fear of being misunderstood and coming to terms with the loss of love. Future Islands speaks a language of forever and always, with an honesty that falls but never touches the ground.

NPR Song of the Day post for “Walking Through That Door”

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