Fall North American Tour Dates by Chris Baum

Bent Knee will be circling the US and Canada with Haken and Leprous this fall. Dates and details at bentkneemusic.com/tour. To honor the occasion, we've released a new full-length concert film, "Live at The Record Co.", playing Land Animal front to back. Enjoy.

10.30 Pontiac MI | The Crofoot
10.31 Toronto ON | The Opera House
11.01 Montreal QC | L'Astral
11.02 Philadelphia PA | Underground Arts
11.03 New York NY | Highline Ballroom
11.04 Boston MA | The Sinclair
11.06 Baltimore MD | Baltimore Soundstage
11.07 Carrboro NC | Cat's Cradle
11.08 Tampa FL | The Orpheum
11.09 Ft Lauderdale FL | Revolution Live
11.10 Orlando FL | The Plaza Live
11.11 Atlanta GA | Variety Playhouse
11.12 New Orleans LA | Southport Hall
11.13 Dallas TX | Gas Monkey Live
11.14 Austin TX | Barracuda
11.16 Phoenix AZ | Crescent Ballroom
11.17 Pomona CA | The Glass House
11.18 San Francisco CA | August Hall
11.19 Portland OR | Hawthorne Theatre
11.20 Seattle WA | The Crocodile
11.21 Vancouver BC | Rickshaw Theatre
11.23 Salt Lake City UT | Metro Music Hall
11.24 Denver CO | The Bluebird Theater
11.25 Lawrence KS | The Granada Theater
11.26 St Louis MO | Delmar Hall
11.27 Nashville TN | EXIT/IN
11.29 Pittsburgh PA | The Rex Theater
11.30 Cleveland OH | The Beachland Ballroom
12.01 Chicago IL | Bottom Lounge

Paper Earth Concert Film Release by Chris Baum

Bent Knee’s ethos has always revolved heavily around collaboration, so when Judd Greenstein asked if we’d like to write new work for the band and a contemporary chamber ensemble - jointly commissioned by NYC’s Ecstatic Music Festival and the Celebrity Series of Boston's Stave Sessions - it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. After months of brainstorming and workshopping ideas with Samuel Solomon and the Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble, the final result is Paper Earth, a thirty-minute, six-movement song cycle who's thematic crux revolves around how memory continuously alters our present. We’re extraordinarily grateful to the musicians, to Sam, to Judd, and the commissioning festivals for bringing this music into the world. Paper Earth marks a new artistic direction for the band, and it’s a project we’re all immensely proud of. [PREMIERE LINK]

Viciously talented... teemed with color and creativity.
— The Boston Globe

I. Paper Earth

Paper Earth
I'll fall for your curse
I'll feed off your lovely
Your fine tooth get greedy 'til I need it

One foot in a ghost town
One foot in paradise
One eye on my companion
One
eye raising mice

We dance while the sun and moon take turns to light my face
My skin is like the funny papers
Also good to taste so taste and take me

Paper Earth
I'll fall for your curse
A charm we glom on to
A dream an unending stream
And I need it

II. Slideshow

The oldest sound I’ve ever known
Is the beating of my mother’s pulse
It’s so loud

We walk in lines we walk in rows
The beating stops the baby goes
So long

Forward to the stretch of road the
Your car pulled over mother’s ghost
It’s true love

I’ve been growing up through a slideshow I forgot
Stealthy Photoshop fits the story in a box
The further I move on, the more I want to stop
Just to notice what I’ve got

The only vow I ever broke
Was summer in the campfire smoke
No clothes

My deepest fear runs out my ears
Drops down my neck
it's sneering in the
Fresh snow

Watch their faces suffer
As my kids emmet their mother and we
Hold hope
Don’t go

III. Wasn’t Even There

I know I know I know I know your weight
And your taste
I know I know I know I know your hair
On my face

I know your speak through clenched teeth
I know you want me
Though I'm asleep

Beneath beneath beneath beneath the trees
You take me
Unwrap unwrap unwrap unwrap the seems
And forsake me

So bright
So clean
How did pine needles get inside of me

My thought
In a white gown
What happened
What went down

I know I know I know I know you're shocked
To be chased
Because because
because because
Whatever you want
boy
Whatever you want you take

IV. Interlude

[Instrumental]

V.  Tone My Crazy

We are a dream hot for other dreams
Folding our cells to recall a scene
Cell
seen by all from the outside in
Scenes from inside don’t break past the skin
You told me in time I won’t feel the sting
I heard you just fine didn’t learn a thing
If you felt what I felt you feeling for
You’d lock me up
baby and never look back so

You tell me I should tone my crazy oh
You tell me I go too far maybe though
It’s easier to see me broken no
No way we lack the words or forgot the ways to show

What’s fast but still slow
What’s dark and still glows
What’s burning and cold

You saw a river and I saw a stream
Rainbow of red in the forest leaves
Too many neurons to stay in sync
We are both places that we'll never be
You told me it's fine if we hand in hand
My palms slip on small talk and secret gaffes
If I felt what you felt me feeling for
We'd fairy tale merry go never look back no

VI. Acceleration

Paper Earth
I'll fall for your curse
I'll feed off your lovely
Your fine tooth get greedy 'til I need it

The further I move on
The more I want to stop
Just to notice what I’ve got

All photos © Ryan Jackson

Bent Knee - The Paper Earth Tour // Summer 2018 by Chris Baum

I'm tremendously excited to announce Bent Knee's Paper Earth Tour, circling the US this summer. Details at bentkneemusic.com/tour.

5.31 Nashua NH @ Riverwalk
6.02 Northampton MA @ Iron Horse
6.03 Providence RI @ Fête
6.04 New Haven CT @ Cafe Nine
6.06 Asbury Park NJ @ The Saint
6.07 New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge
6.08 Philadelphia PA @ Boot & Saddle
6.09 Baltimore MD @ Metro Gallery
6.11 Carrboro NC @ Cat’s Cradle
6.14 Atlanta GA @ The Masquerade
6.15 New Orleans LA @ Gasa Gasa
6.16 Dallas TX @ Three Links
6.17 Austin TX @ The Sidewinder
6.19 Albuquerque NM @ Launchpad
6.20 Phoenix AZ @ Valley Bar
6.21 San Diego CA @ Soda Bar
6.22 Los Angeles CA @ Bootleg Theater
6.23 San Francisco CA @ Cafe Du Nord
6.24 San Jose CA @ Art Boutiki
6.28 Eugene OR @ HiFi Music Hall
6.29 Portland OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
6.30 Seattle WA @ Barboza
7.03 Boise ID @ Neurolux
7.05 Salt Lake City UT @ Kilby Court
7.06 Denver CO @ Lost Lake
7.07 Lawrence KS @ The Bottleneck
7.08 St Louis MO @ Fubar
7.10 Minneapolis MN @ 7th St Entry
7.11 Chicago IL @ Schubas
7.12 Madison WI @ The Frequency
7.13 Lansing MI @ Mac’s Bar
7.14 Detroit MI @ The Loving Touch
7.15 Bellefontaine OH @ The Holland Theatre
7.17 Cleveland OH @ Beachland Tavern
7.19 Cambridge MA @ The Sinclair
7.21 Amityville NY @ Amityville Music Hall

Guy Mendilow Ensemble Album Release + Fall Tour Dates by Chris Baum

Guy Mendilow Ensemble's long-awaited studio album for The Forgotten Kingdom is finally here! Stream/purchase/download at https://goo.gl/dGnrBa

From the press release: 

Embark on a musical trek through a nearly lost world with Guy Mendilow Ensemble’s "The Forgotten Kingdom". Journey through former Ottoman lands starting in Sarajevo and winding through Salónica in a narrative-driven performance reimagining the historical record of Sephardic communities of the Balkans and Mediterranean. 

In this sweeping adventure brought to life by an "international tour-de-force" (Bethlehem Morning Call) from the Middle East, South and North America, music and storytelling conjure an
imagi-nation lost to war, recorded in a language that blends archaic Spanish with Turkish and Greek. The bittersweet yearning of fado, the rhythmic and emotional intensity of flamenco combine with cinematic arrangements stirring those familiar with the culture and those new to it. 

Rendering stories and songs of an older age with drama, 
humour and heart, The Forgotten Kingdom finds highly resonant, deeply moving connections to contemporary struggles, debates, and dilemmas. It’s a performance that "explodes with artistry, refinement, and excitement" (Hebrew Union College, OH).

Read the full press release at guy.rockpaperscissors.biz/dispatch/pu/23087.

To learn more about the project, visit guymendilowensemble.com.

Fall Tour Dates

  • 10.11 Maryville TN @ Clayton Center for the Performing Arts (Lecture & Masterclass)
  • 10.12 Maryville TN @ Clayton Center for the Performing Arts
  • 10.30 - 11.1 Sheridan WY @ Wyo Theatre (Songwriting Residency)
  • 11.2 Sheridan WY @ Wyo Theatre
  • 11.3 Gambier OH @ Kenyon College (Lecture & Masterclass)
  • 11.4 Gambier OH @ Kenyon College
  • 11.5 Belafontaine OH @ Holland Theatre
  • 11.7 - 10.8 Urbana IL @ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Educational Shows)
  • 11.9 Urbana IL @ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
  • 11.10 - 11.11 Petrolia ON @ Ontario Contact
  • 11.16 Hartford CT @ Charter Oak Cultural Center
  • 11.17 Storrs Center CT @ Von Der Mehden Recital Hall (Lecture & Masterclass)
  • 11.29 Wellesley MA @ Wellesley College
  • 11.30 Cambridge MA @ Club Passim
  • 12.11 - 12.13 Boston MA @ Sumner School (Songwriting Residency)
  • 12.16 Boston MA @ Kroc Center (Celebrity Series)

guymendilowensemble.com/tour

Bent Knee Audiotree + Daytrotter Sessions by Chris Baum

Live footage from Bent Knee's June performance at Schubas in Chicago just dropped via Audiotree. The full session is available at https://audiotree.tv/sfs/bent-knee.

  1. Terror Bird https://youtu.be/DfM-Zofse54
  2. Leak Water https://youtu.be/xPmlQnPyPA0
  3. Time Deer https://youtu.be/9E0eni7_W9w
  4. Way Too Long https://youtu.be/xsy_kZwBGO0
A stunning, near-spiritual performance.
— Audiotree

Daytrotter also recently published live audio from our April recording session in their Davenport, IA studio. Listen at https://www.pastemagazine.com/bent-knee/horseshack-april-21-2017.html

Bent Knee October Tour Dates:

  • 10.14 Philadelphia PA @ Blocktoberfest
  • 10.15 Baltimore MD @ Metro Gallery
  • 10.16 Lancaster PA @ Tellus360
  • 10.17 Asbury Park NJ @ The Saint
  • 10.20 Philadelphia PA @ Bourbon & Branch

bentkneemusic.com/tour

 

Time Deer Video Premiere // July + August Tour Dates by Chris Baum

Bent Knee has unveiled a new animated film for Time Deer, the third single from Land Animal, via Highlight Magazine. The video was directed and animated by the Japanese artist Riki Nitabaru, who said this about the project:

"The story centers around a deer that travels through time, trying to find the cause of humanity's problems in the modern world. In my take, just as the deer finds the cause of all strife, the world starts to cleanse itself. The deer becomes a receptacle of all living things, and it morphs to become a brand new being that encompasses all life forms."

Riki previously directed a music video for Good Girl (from Bent Knee's 2016 album Say So).

Upcoming Bent Knee Tour Dates
Jul 14 Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall
Jul 15 Nashua, NH @ Riverwalk
Jul 17 Buffalo, NY @ Waiting Room
Jul 18 Ferndale, MI @ The Loving Touch
Jul 19 Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio
Jul 20 Madison, WI @ The Frequency
Jul 23 Dekalb, IL @ The House Cafe
Jul 24 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
Jul 25 Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
Jul 27 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Jul 31 Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Aug 01 Portland, OR @ Analog Cafe
Aug 02 Bend, OR @ Volcanic Theatre
Aug 04 San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
Aug 05 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater
Aug 07 San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Aug 10 Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
Aug 13 Nashville, TN @ The High Watt
Aug 15 Dayton, OH @ Jimmie's Ladder 11