11/22/19: THANKS
hope all is well presents
THANKS: A CELEBRATION OF ONLINE & IRL FRIENDSHIP
FEATURING:
WILSEN
BLEACH DAY
NOAH KESEY (LIVE DEBUT!)
PRINCESS NOSTALGIA
DAVID CHIEF
BOI CERAMICS
ELI CORETTI
MEAN FOLK
LILLIAN ANSELL
TRASH MAG
FORREST BRANDT
WILLIAM COTTISS
NATE STRITZLER
+MORE
DATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND
VENUE: THE KARMA BIRDHOUSE
TICKETS: $10
AA
7:00PM
CURFEW: 11:00
TICKETS: bit.ly/THANKS19
hope all is well is a small events project founded in spring 2017. Since then, hope has undergone multiple iterations and continues to reprogram it’s path.
We wouldn’t exist today without the continued support of friends, and we wouldn’t have made many of our closest friends without hope. So, as a “thank you” for helping this unlikely project still exist, we’re throwing our second annual party dedicated to & organized by our friends. It's called "THANKS" and it’s a celebration of friendship itself, no matter how it exists — be it online pals, wholesome irl companions or anything in-between.
Currently, hope's core members have either relocated out of Vermont or are in the process of relocating. We still have a local team and plan on hosting small events in Burlington for years to come, but we recognize that our organization's lack of sound equipment has become a huge obstacle & threat to our continuation of small concerts. Thankfully, we've found that some of our friends are in the same position. This year's proceeds from THANKS will be used to fund a sound gear-share for hope all is well, Nightshade Kitchen and The Karma Bird House. If you'd like to support, but cannot attend the event, you can make a donation here: bit.ly/THANKS19
Otherwise, old friends and new, join us: Friday, 11/22 at The Karma Bird House.
WILSEN
Wilsen are the Brooklyn-based trio of Tamsin Wilson (guitar/vocals), Johnny Simon Jr. (guitar), and Drew Arndt (bass).Ruiner is the second album, follow-up to 2017’s I Go Missing In My Sleep.
With producer Andrew Sarlo (Bon Iver, Big Thief, SASAMI) at the helm, Wilsen’s new album Ruiner dissolves both the heavy reverb and ethereal moments found on their first recording by instead letting the band’s essentials - drums, bass, guitar, and vocals - have centre stage. In the album’s opening moments, you might hear a knotted wash of guitars and Wilson softly humming, for a very brief moment returning you to their dreamscape but sharply, a driving rock rhythm comes into focus and so too does a revitalised band.
"Making this record was somewhat of a coming of age process,” Wilson explains.“We're getting older and becoming more deliberate, less precious, less measured. Overthinking less and trusting instincts more.”
Although Wilsen haven’t lost their fragility entirely, on Ruiner they mainly use bolder sounds and play with gritty textures and jarring grooves. See ‘Birds II’ which centres on a piercing guitar line or the crunchy ‘Down’ which is powered by a riotous percussion section. Wilsen are moving with purpose towards something, not away from it.
For Wilson, she’s moving towards self-acceptance, “I have an inherent
shyness,” she says. “I guess I'm acknowledging and finding a way with shyness as I get older.” Throughout the record, Wilson comes to terms with her many sides including her introversion and her inner monster which the album title refers to on ‘Feeling Fancy’, Wilson, with her distinctively hushed vocals overpowering the track’s clamorous instrumentals, offers listeners a powerful, and celebratory, declaration, “Quiet’s not a fault to weed out.”
When writing the lyrics, Wilson says that she trusted her instincts and “seized whatever emotion was happening at the time and ran with it.” The songs, as a result, are Wilson’s most honest; her openness is especially noticeable on the
record’s quieter tracks when Wilson is alone with her guitar; “I woke up in a life not mine,” she murmurs on the spellbinding closer ‘Moon’.
But even in the loudest moments of Ruiner, Wilson doesn’t retreat into cacophony. She maintains her vulnerability and beautifully captures intimate moments like the brief peace found in a pair of eyes across the room or the exhausted resolution of a relationship.
“It’s so dramatic, isn’t it?” laughs Wilson about the title Ruiner. “Another option was ‘Worthless’,” she jokes. But despite the air of melodrama, Ruiner aptly characterizes the process Wilson and the band took to make their album: they had to destroy the walls they built to reveal their authentic selves.
BLEACH DAY
Originally spurred from the home tape recordings of Vinny Marksohn and Louie Kiley, Bleach Day released their full-length debut, Where to Dream, in 2016. It's release was met with praise from blogs such as Buried Muse (now Idle House) and Earmilk. Seven Days called the album "...an eight-song sonic tapestry of analog whirrs, screwy samples and, at its core, beautiful, sun-bleached lo-fi pop."
Bleach Day is currently finishing a new LP while sporadically touring the US and Canada with their four piece band, having appeared at festivals such as POP Montreal and Waking Windows.
