au-au-au

AU European Tourdates!!

• Apr 03 - Home Plugged - Brussels, Belgium
• Apr 04 - Papiersaal - Zurich, Switzerland
• Apr 05 - Clandestino - Faenza, Italy
• Apr 06 - Init - Rome Rm, Italy
• Apr 07 - Palmetta - Terni, Italy
• Apr 08 - Studio 2 - Vigonovo, Italy
• Apr 09 - WUK - Vienna, Austria w/ Xiu Xiu
• Apr 10 - Kranhalle at Feierwerk - Munich, Germany w/ Xiu Xiu 
• Apr 11 - Festsaal Kreuzberg - Berlin, Germany w/ Xiu Xiu
• Apr 12 - Kampnagel - Hamburg, Germany w/ Xiu Xiu
• Apr 14 - Powiekszenie - Warsaw, Poland
• Apr 15 - Puzzle Club - Wroclaw, Poland
• Apr 17 - Video - Ghent, Belgium
• Apr 18 - Le Fiacre - Liege, Belgium 
• Apr 19 - Bar le Barabas - Nancy, France
• Apr 20 - Les Trinitaires - Metz, France
• Apr 21 - Bar L’Estaminet - Vagney, France
• Apr 22 - WORM - Rotterdam, Netherlands
• Apr 23 - Louisiana - Bristol, United Kingdom
• Apr 24 - The Castle Hotel - Manchester, United Kingdom
• Apr 25 - Shacklewell Arms - London, United Kingdom
• Apr 26 - Sticky Mikes Frog Bar - Brighton, United Kingdom
• Apr 27 - Pompidou Centre - Paris, France 
• Apr 28 - Bergen Kjott - Bergen, Norway
• Apr 29 - Revolver - Oslo, Norway 
• Apr 30 - Valborgskalas - Gothenburg, Sweden
• May 02 - Fritz’s Corner @ Lilla Hotellbaren - Stockholm, Sweden 
• May 03 - Huset i Magstraede - Copenhagen, Denmark
• May 04 - Haldern Pop Bar - Rees, Germany
• May 05 - EXIT07 - Luxembourg, Luxembourg

au-au-au

MP3: AU “Solid Gold” (from Both Lights & Solid Gold 7”)

AU Both Lights

1. Epic
2. Get Alive
3. Crazy Idol
4. OJ
5. The Veil
6. Solid Gold
7. Today/Tonight
8. Why I Must
9. Go Slow
10. Old Friend
11. Don’t Lie Down

Both Lights hit me like a wave. I walked right into it, eyes open.

The music writer Bob Palmer once described “a fusion of music and poetry accomplished at a very high emotional temperature.” He called it “a gigantic field of feeling…something enduring, something that could be limitless.”

Palmer was talking about the Blues. But all I can think about is AU.

Like all waves, it keeps on coming. AU’s third album, Both Lights, is a recurring dream. Eleven songs made by the Portland, Oregon-based duo Luke Wyland and Dana Valatka, it’s a story of Time. Three years to be exact: since their critically-acclaimed 2008 album Verbs and its 2009 EP evolution Versions, there’s been a long exhale. A little defiance of the double-speed countdown of the indie hype clock. And a hell of a lot of living. Turn it on. More than a mere accompaniment, it’s a gleaming mirror. It’s an exaltation, an exhalation, a monument of extreme composition, the child of collaboration and isolation, a preamble to a wild live show, a statue intact in the violent wind of art and commerce, and, simply, a record about love. It’s for itself, and, in being that, it’s an album that can be understood like a person. “It’s the topography of me,” says Wyland. So you follow the coordinates.

The record begins with “Epic” — count it among the world’s greatest lead tracks. Complete with earth-cracking saxophones by man-machine Colin Stetson, “Epic” defines ascension — from the slow motion of an Oregon sunrise to a ‘67 Barracuda barreling off a bridge. It’s a thesis statement for an album that began as a series of improvisations in Wyland’s attic, a one-man tug of war with love, loss, pain, anger, and desire. Wyland calls “Epic” a “real re-introduction to the band” and it encompasses that extreme confidence. It sets the tone for Both Lights, illuminating the frantic energy that drives AU.