Tuesday 22 February 2011

ARBOURETUM - Saturday March 19th at Miss Peapod's, Penryn

support from Red River Dialect

Tickets are £8, available from Jam, Miss Peapod's and by clicking here

"Baltimore's Arbouretum are singular on the stoner psych-rock scene. Due in large part to the vision of lyricist, frontman, and lead guitarist Dave Heumann, their sound is simultaneously sprawling, devastatingly heavy, sludgy, meandering, and mysterious." Allmusic.com

Suck it and see... click titles for two free mp3's from Arbouretum's latest album: 'The Highwayman' & 'Destroying to Save'



“vintage psych-blues riffs and mid-paced wig-outs burst forth from Arbouretum… Heumann has one of the most distinctive voices around, with a unique, heavy-folk feel to his grand, hymnal melodies…” The Guardian

“rough-hewn rock'n'roll that seems custom-made to be the soundtrack for some mythical peyote binge in the desert. The guitars are terrifically sludgy, the drums thunderously slow and the grooves combine steamroller momentum with psychedelic drift” The Observer

“it's stoner-folk-rock, like a heavier version of Midlake or an opiated Fairport” The Independent

“Baltimore’s Arbouretum have emerged heavier, moodier and better than ever… ‘When Delivery Comes’ sounds like Kyuss covering Richard Thompson while the distorted ‘Waxing Crescents’ is as satisfyingly unsettling as a metal Aphex Twin” UNCUT 4/5


The rantings and ravings above concern Arbouretum’s latest album, ‘The Gathering’ which just came out via Thrill Jockey records (also home to recent visitors Pontiak). The Baltimore based band have played in Cornwall once before, at a sold out show we put on at Miss Peapod’s in July of 2009 and it is with true and unhindered excitement that we welcome them back on March 19th.

Since the last visit they have had a few changes in their ranks – the second guitar has been replaced with synth, leaving singer and guitarist Dave Heumann’s growling chords and lucid fret work to mingle with the churning bass of Corey Allender. The new drummer plays with more weight and heft, anchoring the songs to a heavy groove while the melodies soar above – grandiose words I know, but all in the spirit of this curious music that mixes a light and spectral flight for the imagination with the raw earthy mechanics of Desert rock.

The support act is Red River Dialect, for whom I sing and play guitar, so forgive the reticence… we had a record out last November and some singularly fine voices of the music press said things like – “this has lingered with me for days… Beautiful” NME – “an album of quiet depths, an introspective account of a life lived” The Liminal

But those snippets don’t tell you much so click here to find another review and a free download of ‘Distant Man’, the opening song of our album. Having said all that we now have a drummer, a bass player and a whole albums worth of new songs so… we’re excited to play.

And here's one more video of Arbouretum, playing a track from the new album last November...

Arbouretum - "Waxing Crescents" - Live at the Ottobar from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

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