Jeffrey Lewis Tour/Album
By Team JamBase May 18, 2009 • 1:00 pm PDT
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After a 2008 spent almost entirely on the road, including support tours with some of the most respected artists around (Jarvis Cocker, The Cribs, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks and The Mountain Goats to name but a few), with artistic and literary projects all over the map (an illustrated rhyming history of Communism, lectures on the comic book Watchmen, blogs for The New York Times, even an illustrated biography of Barack Obama…), and with his recent album of anarcho-punk covers 12 Crass Songs still making waves (4 stars in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Mojo, Uncut and many others), Jeffrey has somehow managed to find the time to record his best album yet.
‘Em Are I by Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard is Jeff’s fifth full-length for Rough Trade, and represents the first time that all of the greatest elements of his previous recordings have formed a fully cohesive and amazing whole. With his comic/tragic lyrics straight from the heart, and guitar style ranging from finger-picked roots to outer-space swoops, Jeffrey Lewis has worked on and off in between tours to spin an 11-song production that seems to reflect a love of the last 40 years of popular music, all filtered through Jeff’s unmistakable idiosyncratic muse.
Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie has said, “Jeffrey Lewis is hands down my favorite contemporary songwriter. The songs are so simple but chock full of some of the most insightful observations I’ve ever heard.”
Mostly tracked on classic analogue tape at Brooklyn’s Emandee Studios with engineer and co-producer Mark Ospovat, Jeff’s usual band of drummer Dave Beauchamp and bassist/brother Jack Lewis are joined at various times by friends and acquaintances including French indie-heroes Herman Dune, American banjo troubadour Emily Lacy, and even Dinosaur Jr.‘s J Mascis on cameo lead guitar.
If 12 Crass Songs displayed Jeff’s growing talent as an imaginative studio producer when applied to covering other people’s songs, as opposed to his celebrated roots as a stripped-down lo-fi songsmith, ‘Em Are I is the perfect marriage of the two and as with 12 Crass Songs, the new album features another beautiful sleeve package, designed and illustrated by Jeffrey himself.
JEFFREY LEWIS U.S. TOUR
05/20/09 Wed Bowery Ballroom New York, NY (w/ Pepi Ginsberg)
05/21/09 Thu Lee’s Palace Toronto, ON (w/ Au Revoir Simone)
05/22/09 Fri La Tulipe Montreal, QC (w/ Au Revoir Simone)
05/26/09 Tue The Moose Lodge Doyelstown, PA
05/27/09 Wed The Fire Philadelphia, PA
05/28/09 Thu T.T. the Bear’s Place Cambridge, MA (w/ Au Revoir Simone)
05/30/09 Sat Rock & Roll Hotel Washington, DC (w/ Au Revoir Simone & The Antlers)
05/31/09 Sun Club Cafe Pittsburgh, PA
06/01/09 Mon Birdy’s Indianapolis, IN
06/02/09 Tue Rock Island Brewing Co. Rock Island, IL
06/03/09 Wed Schubas Chicago, IL
Jeff TV from Rough Trade on Vimeo.
