World's Fair

Apollo Sunshine’s brand-new full-length, Shall Noise Upon, is out today on Headless Heroes. The album finds the multi-talented trio skillfully displaying their versatility throughout the 16 tracks, from the driving electric “666: The Coming Of The New World Government” to the harmony-laden “Singing To The Earth (To Thank Her For You)” to the deceptively unadorned “Money,” a truly beautiful record that marries the talents of Apollo Sunshine with their energy and passion.

Check out the exclusive live acoustic version of “Money,” courtesy of Imeem.

The band is also pleased to announce a fall tour in support of Shall Noise Upon, the first extended run of dates since their tour with Dr. Dog last fall. The trio will play two very intimate performances at the Brooklyn art space Monkey Town on September 15 and 16 before embarking on a cross-country route, stopping everywhere from Los Angeles and Chicago to Dallas, Philadelphia, Boston, and Norman, OK, with plenty more dates to come.

Download “Singing To The Earth (To Thank Her For You)” here.

Apollo Sunshine Tour Dates

Sep 13 Cambridge, MA @ Newbury Comics (in-store performance)
Sep 14 Brooklyn, NY @ Sound Fix (acoustic in-store performance)
Sep 15 Brooklyn, NY @ Monkey Town
Sep 16 Brooklyn, NY @ Monkey Town
Sep 19 Andover, MA @ Andover Town Hall
Sep 26 Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
Oct 3 Fairfield, CT @ The Field
Oct 8 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Oct 9 Washington, DC @ DC9
Oct 14 Nashville, TN @ 3rd and Lindsley
Oct 15 Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
Oct 17 Dallas, TX @ The Cavern,
Oct 18 Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Oct 19 Norman, OK @ Opolis
Oct 24 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
Oct 27 Columbus, OH @ The Basement
Oct 29 New York, NY @ The Mercury Lounge
Oct 30 Boston, MA @ Middle East
Oct 31 Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse

More dates TBA

What people are saying about Shall Noise Upon:

“Apollo Sunshine’s third album…revels in the trappings of a time-stamped delirium: echo-trippy vocals, analog keyboards, British accents, fuzz-tone guitars…Playing many different instruments, sometimes switching off to one another, [the band members] forge a slippery continuity out of messy glory. Sometimes they also manage beauty.” – The New York Times

“Apollo Sunshine blends ’60s psychedelic folk with the arena rock hugeness of the ’70s and the lo-fi noise pop aesthetics of ’90s groups like My Bloody Valentine or the Olivia Tremor Control. The cover art for the Boston, Mass.-based trio’s third record, Shall Noise Upon, depicts a Jackson Pollock-like, color-splattered globe surrounded by constellations of religious and spiritual icons from every corner of the earth. The image suggests the record somehow takes the disparate cultures of a large world and unifies them into a single, genre-breaking, stargazing album. It may seem like an impossibly lofty goal, but the songs deliver.” – NPR’s Second Stage

“The disc-opening ‘Breeze’ fades into a shimmering exotica that melts easily into dripping sunshine folk, harmonies then tipping into layered harps. Everywhere, there’s gorgeous atmosphere, like the evocatively celestial instrumental ‘Green, Green Lawns of Outer Space,’ and later, Sam Cohen’s swelling pedal steel cutting through ‘Fog and Shadow.’” – Paste Magazine

“Apollo Sunshine have discovered a way to make everything from harmonica-fueled psych-folk (‘Brotherhood of Death’) to a stripped-down acoustic ballad (‘Monday’) work on an album that sound timeless without the nostalgic clichés often associated with that adjective.” – Alternative Press

“…pretty much everything you really want in a great rock trio…” – JamBase.com

Artist: Apollo Sunshine
Album: Shall Noise Upon
Label: Headless Heroes
Street Date: September 2, 2008

New York is already being bestowed by a bounty of good music these next months, but the glory isn’t reserved for the East Coast. Los Angeles, too, is opening its sprawling arms to a number of beloved World’s Fair artists.

The Grey Race

Just recently off a tour with Teddy Thompson, the Grey Race are back in the States for just a few shows before heading off to Europe to play as Teddy’s back-up again.
 
 
 
 
Thursday, September 18
Coronet Theater
366 N. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
$25
Doors @ 7pm

There’s a glimpse of what’s to come in their video for “On The Chin”…Bring your gloves!

 
 
World’s Fair
MySpace
(more…)

Apollo Sunshine’s new album, Shall Noise Upon, is available digitally and on vinyl today, August 5.

To celebrate, the band has teamed up with imeem to offer an exclusive stream of the entire album, which you can hear here, here, here (with the good people at JamBase), or below.

When Apollo Sunshine was in San Francisco, back in June, imeem was also able to catch up with the trio and get some really great live footage. Here’s an acoustic version of “Breeze,” which is especially interesting because anyone who’s seen their live show knows they’re anything but mellow performers.

SPIN.com was there to document the show at Brooklyn’s Union Pool last night, calling it “an hour-plus of effects pedal-drenched guitar and harmonized give-it-all-you-got vocals, channeling the energy of the Flaming Lips and Neutral Milk Hotel.” URB.com had nice words, too, declaring it to be “one of the more solid performanceswe’ve seen in New York in a minute,” the band able to “…[incorporate] multiple genres without sounding like wannabe trendhoppers.”

(Photo by Sachyn Mital)
(more…)

 
Apollo Sunshine is getting ready for the digital/vinyl release of their new album, Shall Noise Upon, next week. After this Saturday’s Boston show (”666″ was also just chosen as the Boston Phoenix’s “MP3 of the Week”), they’re coming to New York for a couple of days. Monday, August 4 they’ll be at Union Pool and Tuesday, August 5 aboard the Jewel (along with Drug Rug and Sam Champion) as part of the Rocks Off Concert Cruise.

To celebrate summer and their release, the band is giving away a pair of tickets to the cruise, a customizable guitar by Built By Wendy, and a handful of Apollo Sunshine guitar picks to one lucky person. Enter to win here.

Shall Noise Upon is also available for pre-sale.

The Village Voice recently wrote up the event. Here’s what they say:

Whether wailing bucolic or apocalyptic, instrument-swapping power trio Apollo Sunshine’s new Shall Noise Upon aims to be an old-fashioned psychedelic masterpiece and—is the record over? I forget—may well have succeeded. Local pop-rock weatherpersons Sam Champion and Cambridge psych-folk-rockers Drug Rug will supply bonus motion sickness on this dependably rambunctious booze cruise.

Aug 02 Boston, MA @ Bank of America Pavilion w/ State Radio
Aug 04 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
Aug 05 New York, NY @ Rocks Off Concert Cruise (aboard the Jewel!)
Aug 08-09 Wellfleet, MA @ The Wellfleet Beachcomber

Artist: Apollo Sunshine
Album: Shall Noise Upon
Label: Headless Heroes
Street Date: September 2, 2008 - CD; August 5, 2008 - Digital/ Vinyl

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website

Apollo Sunshine, in collaboration with SPIN.com, has just released “Singing to the Earth (To Thank Her for You),” off their upcoming album, Shall Noise Upon, out 9/2 on Headless Heroes (8/19 for digital/vinyl).

Says SPIN:
“The pleasingly repetitious number is all sorts of hand-clapping, high-register goodness, sounding weirdly like the less pandering version of ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’ that Coca-Cola may have preferred to use in their infamous ad.”

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THE SONG HERE

Apollo Sunshine will be playing 2 shows with Gov’t Mule in July, and then moving on to Chicago, New York, and Massachusetts later in the summer.

July 19 - Hampton Beach, NH @ Hampton Beach Casino (w/Gov’t Mule)
July 20 - Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony (w/Govâ’t Mule)
July 27 - Chicago, IL @ Wicker Park Fest
Aug 5 - New York, NY @ Rocks Off Cruise
Aug 08-09 - Wellfleet, MA @ The Wellfleet Beachcomber

Artist: Apollo Sunshine
Album: Shall Noise Upon
Label: Headless Heroes
Street Date: September 2, 2008 - CD; August 5, 2008 - Digital/ Vinyl

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website

…Well, at least if you’re in New York and looking for some sweet shows. We got you covered, don’t worry. Here are five for the dog days.

First up is Chin Chin, the disco funk band from Brooklyn, who are playing a special gig at the very excellent Joe’s Pub this Thursday, July 10, at 9:30.
 
Here’s what Wax Poetics has to say:

“Contemporary funk never sounded so retro. Their versatile tracks are influenced by a myriad of genres, which creates uniquely danceable and joyful jams. Chin Chin’s self-titled album is a much-needed breath of fresh, soulful air. Listen to Chin Chin now.”

www.worlds-fair.net/chin_chin/
www.myspace.com/chinchinnyc

 
And just 8 days later (that’s July 18 for those mathematically challenged), Daptone’s very own Budos Band will be heating up the evening as part of the Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing series. Budos goes on at 7:30 (in Damrosch Park, part of the Lincoln Center complex), followed by Chico Mann at 9.

www.worlds-fair.net/budos_band/
www.myspace.com/budosband

 
 
Next, on August 5, Apollo Sunshine take the East River by storm (well, hopefully not literally…), playing as part of the Rocks Off Concert Cruise with Sam Champion and Drug Rug for what should be a rollicking good time. The vessel, the Jewel, leaves at 8pm sharp from Skyport Marina (23rd & FDR Drive), and swimming to catch up with your friends is not exactly an advised strategy…

 
 
www.worlds-fair.net/apollo_sunshine/
www.myspace.com/apollosunshine

 
The following day, Wednesday, August 6, Tiny Masters of Today will close out the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s Music at the Bridge Series with a special show at Tobacco Warehouse, part of the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park, alongside Headlights and the French Kicks.
 
And it’s free! Show starts at 6.
 
 
www.worlds-fair.net/tiny_masters_of_today/
www.myspace.com/tinymasters

 
 
Finally, on August 17, Sharon Jones, along with labelmates Menahan Street Band and Naomi Shelton, will be performing on the last day of the venerable Central Park SummerStage, old-school style, as part of the Daptone Revue. This marks the debut show for Menahan Street Band, a citywide introduction to Naomi Shelton (who’s been making her presence known in the Village for years now), and of course, another sure-to-be smokin’ performance by Ms. Jones.
 
Show starts at 3. Don’t miss it.

www.daptonerecords.com/
www.myspace.com/daptonerecords

Tomorrow, June 26, Apollo Sunshine will play a show in San Francisco’s 12 Galaxies. The band has been hard at work for a while playing songs off their new album, Shall Noise Upon, which will be out physically on September 2 (August 5 for iPods and turntables and iPod turntables), and it shows, because their live set is pretty awesome.

Apollo Sunshine with Big Light
12 Galaxies
2565 Mission St
San Francisco
$12 adv/ $15 door
9pm
21+

Yes, San Franciscans, you, like RCRD LBL, Largehearted Boy, and PopMatters can listen to or download “666: The Coming Of The New World Government” on this blog, OR you could go see it live and in action, which at least seems like it will be slightly more fun than looking at a computer screen alone, but, well…the choice is yours.

Or if you’re in Massachusetts, you can see them on August 8 and 9 in Wellfleet, at the Wellfleet Beachcomber.

“666: The Coming Of The New World Government,” here. [DOWNLOAD]

Artist: Apollo Sunshine
Album: Shall Noise Upon
Label: Headless Heroes
Street Date: September 2, 2008 - CD; August 5, 2008 - Digital/ Vinyl

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website

Listen to the brand-new track, “666: The Coming Of The New World Government,” here. [DOWNLOAD]

Shall Noise Upon, set for release on September 2nd, 2008 on the Headless Heroes label, is the third full-length album from Apollo Sunshine. Recorded during the summer of 2007 in the Catskill Mountains, in a house inhabited by spirits (and next door to the home of the original Uncle Sam), the album sees multi-instrumentalists Jesse Gallagher, Sam Cohen, and Jeremy Black weaving through a multitude of styles (psych-pop, groove-funk, cowboy songs, samba/tropicalia) with assured fluidity and inspiration. This is not a band searching for their sound; they have crafted an awesome mix of original material that celebrates the journey through darkness and light.

Surrendering themselves to the collective head-space and transformative alchemy of Apollo Sunshine and with help from their friend and co-producer, Quentin Stoltzfus (Mazarin), Shall Noise Upon is an illumination of love in a world of “dangers”- real and false. The CinemaScopic arrangements on the album couldn’t have been realized without recruiting a parade of musical friends including: Drug Rug, Edan, Tulsa, Viva Viva, and White Flight. The result is a timely collage of lush instrumentation: drawn from home-made samples and field-recordings to singing bowls and jaw harp. The sounds on Shall Noise Upon come together in an impressionist tour of electrified music.

Album-openers “Breeze” and “Singing To The Earth (To Thank Her For You)” are love-poems to nature and longing, weaving the emotional connection to the world and to each other as one magnetic force, while building and bursting to the sound of cascading autoharp and drippy pedal-steel. “666: The Coming Of The New World Government” likens America today to the fall of Rome around anthemic psych guitar scrawl, propellant percussion, and winding vocal harmonies. “Brotherhood Of Death” is a brain-buster from the apocalypse that tells the hallucinatory tale of a man intoxicated by greed and power; followed by “Happiness,” a gorgeous, expansive instrumental, which sounds like an orchestra conducted by Ray Davies.

The band is already recreating the depth of these new studio recordings live. That may seem hard to pull off, but for anyone who’s ever seen Apollo Sunshine, maniacally switching instruments, producing an extra-terrestrial sea of tones, this is where they shine the brightest. Over the last few years they’ve toured with Apples In Stereo, Dr. Dog, and They Might Be Giants, Toots and the Maytals and performed at Bonnaroo, Langerado, and Sasquatch. This summer they’ve already played at the Wakarusa Festival in Lawrence, Kansas and they’ll also be appearing at the 2008 Wireless Festival in London.

There is an impression you get from an amazing mix, where distinct parts add up to a unified feeling; and with each play, the range of sounds grow more connected to each other. It’s these gifts, “albums” traded among friends that inspired Shall Noise Upon. It will have you believing in love, in a world both dangerous and beautiful.

Listen to the brand-new track, “666: The Coming Of The New World Government,” here. [DOWNLOAD]

Apollo Sunshine Tour Dates

June 26 - San Francisco, CA @ 12 Galaxies
August 08-09 - Wellfleet, MA @ The Wellfleet Beachcomber


Artist: Apollo Sunshine
Album: Shall Noise Upon
Label: Headless Heroes
Street Date: September 2, 2008 - CD; August 5, 2008 - Digital/ Vinyl

CONNECT: World’s Fair | MySpace | Website