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"The band creates a night-time world of turbulence and beauty in equal measure" [Kerrang! 4KKKK]
Priestbird is a new group comprised of the former members of the instrumental prog trio Tarantula AD. Following a vicious break-up, the three members of Tarantula AD parted ways and set out on their own, individual paths. One member left for Argentina to join a tango band, another became a semi-professional Soccer player in Italy, and the last retreated to the Himalayas to seek refuge in Shiva.
"...sure to draw comparisons with Godspeed You! Black Emperor" [Uncut]
After a year, the three members reconvened in New York City. In the midst of a brawl, typical of their past, they picked up the instruments in the room and began to play. What they played was not what they had known of each other in the past. It was something new. So inspired by what they heard and felt, they decided to work together again – but this time with a new sound, a new direction, and a new name.
"Epic? Most of it makes Radiohead's 'Paranoid Android' sound like Babyshamles. With guest vocalists such as Devendra Banhart, it all adds up to an intriguingly freaky kind of trip." [Q]
They now call themselves Priestbird. The name makes reference to a character in one of their songs that looks after the bird spirits on the afterlife. It was as if a steady fog had finally lifted. They realized that Priestbird was their true name all along. With this new beacon of light they developed a new sound that is doused in creativity yet makes reference to the familiar. It harbors a lyricism and visual quality that characterizes the artists’ former work in Tarantula AD yet is more approachable.
What a show it was. I've seen hundreds or thousands of shows, but Tarantula was perhaps the most amazing live band I've ever seen. After each song, there was a long pause while the crowd caught its collective breath, and I swear I heard people exclaim "holy shit" before the applause came...
They explore a psychedelic and pastoral realm reminiscent of early Syd Barret Pink Floyd, offset by a hard-hitting bombast evocative of Led Zeppelin’s third album. There are also references to the work of guitar mystic, John Fahey, the exploratory production of the Beatles, and the melancholic textures of Debussy. Lyrically, Priestbird constructs verse that explores otherworldly travel - things that we all know yet do not all see.
"Tarantula . . . melts classical practices with the energy of punk rock into a sound so dramatic it'll draw pictures inside your shuttered eyelids." - Tokion
Priestbird called upon the mastery of Black Crows’ engineer, Chris Ribando, to record their new album, entitled In Your Time. Saunder Jurriaans played the double-neck (both guitar and bass), sarod, and sang. Danny Bensi played cello, violin, piano, guitar, bass, organ, banjo, and sang. And Gregory Rogove played drums, percussion, piano, organ, flute, the forks, and sang.
The same kind of explosiveness, raw energy, sensitivity to space, and dynamism found on this record is palpable in Priestbird’s live show. They are a musical force to be reckoned with. This past year Priestbird toured the US and Eastern and Western Europe when not working on this new album. They have performed with an array of incredible musical groups during their career, including: Pearl Jam, Devendra Banhart, The Sword, Medeski Martin & Wood, Marc Ribot, Tim Fite, CocoRosie, Dungen, Grizzly Bear and more.
PRIESTBIRD will be available for special occasions/one offs and festivals in 2008.
If you like to host this bill please get in contact with us
SPIN.com - Band Of The Day - By: Emily Zemler
Tarantula A.D. insures that classical music hasn't lost all relevance in our ProTools-dependent culture of pop hooks and generic three-minute songs. Tarantula -- a trio whose members play far more than just three instruments between them -- employ cello, violin, and piano to create dark landscapes populated with the occasional tearing guitar chord or haunting lyrical verse.
But don't assume that just because Tarantula's debut full-length, Book of Sand, is primarily instrumental, it will soar and echo like a Beethoven symphony. Tarantula's classical-rock fusion is heavily cacophonous and deeply shadowed, owing more of a debt to Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" or Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings." Book of Sand is not completely without vocals though: Devendra Banhart lends his talents on "The Fall" and CocoRosie's Sierra Casady moans overtop a background of squeaking violins on "Sealake" and offers operatic cries at the end of the gloomy "Empire."
Comprised of the multi-talented Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans, and Gregory Rogove, Tarantula took an unconventional approach to recording Book of Sand and their earlier EP, Atlantic. Sessions took place over two weeks on Pacific coast and included very little high-tech equipment and the sound of the ocean creating an impromptu backing track. Later, they recorded Casady's vocals in European hotel bathrooms and the Paris Metro.
label kemado | band website | myspace.com
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