Au Preps N.A. Tour

“Palpable joy” from Portland.

By Blurt Staff

When Portland, Oregon, outfit  Au dropped their second album Verbs (Aagoo) recently, the gasp emanating from critics and the blogosphere was more than just audible — it felt like a tremor in the popverse. As BLURT ourselves (itself?) uttered in a review, “Pitched somewhere between the arty campfire songs of Animal Collective, the whole-grain, free-jazz clap-alongs of Akron/Family, and the choral ephemeries of Grizzly Bear, Luke Wyland's Au plays feel-good experimentalia. It is joyful, explosive and improvisatory… one of this year's most joyful experiments.”

Au (pronounced 'ay you') is the brainchild of Luke Wyland, but for his sophomore outing he put together a “proper” band: multi-instrumentalists Johnathan Sielaff and Mark Kaylor, plus assists from a slew of Portland frends including vocalists Sarah Winchester (of Team Love recording artists A Weather) and Becky Dawson (of Ah Holly Fam'ly, Saw Whet), as well as members of Yellow Swans, Parenthetical Girls, and Evolutionary Jass Band.

According to the label the album was “recorded over three days at Portland's Type Foundry Studios and finished over a subsequent two-month period in Wyland's own attic studio… [It] seamlessly segues through new and unlikely ecstatic extremes with an arresting economy. Breakout Pop jams like "RR vs. D" rub shoulders comfortably with retreating meditations ("Two Seasons", "Summer Heat")-the record's several distinct movements working at once with more autonomy and cohesion-with arrangements that stretch in longhand across the album's length.

“Verbs is the elated realization of those many asymmetrical pop diamonds that shone so brightly throughout Au's artful debut (whose warm, Appalachia-informed gems found many favorable comparisons to the far-reaching likes of Arnold Dreyblatt, Animal Collective, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Grizzly Bear)-its many swift and unexpected evolutions shepherded confidently by Wyland's competent, classically-trained hand. As surprising as it is immediate, Verbs is infused with all of the earnest and palpable joy of its creation-the delightfully enveloping whole of which demands to be heard.”

Catch that palpable joy on tour – the band will be heading out to do dates with the Dodos and Deerhoof.

Au Tour Dates:

Tue-Aug 12- Brooklyn, NYC- Monkeytown (early and late shows)
Sun-Sep 28- Baltimore, MD- Sonar
Mon-Sep 29- New York, NY- The Spiegeltent
Tue-Sep 30- Middletown, CT- Wesleyan University
Thu-Oct 2- Boston, MA- Museum of Fine Arts
Fri-Oct 3- Hanover, NH- Dartmouth College
Sat-Oct 4- Montreal, QC- La Sala Rossa
Mon-Oct 6- Toronto, ON- Horseshoe Tavern
Wed-Oct 8- Chicago, IL- The Bottom Lounge
Fri-Oct 10- Richmond, IN- Earlham College
Sat-Oct 11- Columbus, OH- Milo Arts
Mon-Oct 13- Omaha, NE- Slowdown
Tue-Oct 14- Minneapolis, MN- First Avenue
Wed-Oct 15- Milwaukee, WI- Turner Hall
Thu-Oct 16- Bloomington, IN- Buskirk- Chumley Theater