Aloud: "Exile" CD release show | St. Claire | Old Jack September 23, 2010

ALOUD Presents: EXILE CD Release Party & Concert, featuring a very special performance from Aloud (headlining) with St. Claire and Old Jack, hosted by poet/author James Caroline, in the Back Bay Fens: 69 Kilmarnock Street, Boston, MA 02215. T: Green line to Kenmore
Note: There is no Red Sox game. On-site and street parking available.

“The New Aloud – One of New England’s best contemporary bands has somehow managed to get much better over the last year. Songwriting, honest emotional surrender and compelling strong structure are keys to the new songs on Exile” -Ryan’s Smashing Life

“String quartets and trumpets and euphoniums … oh, my! Boston’s Aloud is experimenting with all different types of instruments… a new album that is unlike anything the indie rock duo has done before.” -New Haven Advocate

“If you think their studio stuff is good, you NEED to get your ass down to one of their shows – Aloud is easily one of the best live acts in the city.” -Playground Boston

BOSTON, MA: Young, dynamic indie-rock group Aloud is proud to present their newest album Exile, to be performed live, in concert during the CD Release Party on Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 at 8:30pm at Church. Exile is Aloud’s third full-length CD, and is the debut album from talented producer engineer Daniel Nicholas Daskivich. The album was fan-funded via Kickstarter.com, and will be released nationally in 10/12/10 on Lemon Merchant Records.

Exile represents a sea change for Aloud. Bandleaders Henry Beguiristain and Jen de la Osa spent over a year in the studio creating the album, following the departure of their original rhythm section. The result is a new sound. Screaming guitars and crashing cymbals, previously two of Aloud’s greatest assets, are nowhere to be heard on Exile. They’ve been replaced by acoustic and strange sounding guitars, string instruments, horns, pared down drum kit, finger snaps, handclaps and sound effects. Many of the tempos are much slower, revealing a previously unheard of intimacy and vulnerability, especially in the vocals. Exile is a beautiful and strange collection of songs, featuring often-unfulfilled, complex characters coming to terms with bleak circumstances, while searching for hope and relief in unlikely places.

The mid-tempo single ‘Old Soldier’ starts with a whisper and grows into a brilliant, psychedelic explosion of sound and instrumentation, including heavily effected electric guitars, marching drums, euphonium, trumpets, strings, mandolin, and Henry and Jen’s opulent vocal harmonies.

In the love-turned-death ballad, ‘To Die At Sea’, Jen sings longingly over an acoustic guitar and lush string quartet. The song is so beautiful and alluring that the listener easily ignores the deeper macabre message, as the siren entices her lover to dive with her to “the bottom of the sea”.

Another single, ‘Darkest Days’, takes a lighter tone. This Beatles-esque, sing-a-long features Henry crooning “Love, love, love, we all need love, to get us through the darkest days to come”. Henry says the meaning is, “We're all stuck together on this blue orb and we all go through personal crises, but for better or worse, this is it. There's no sense in not having a positive connection with the people around you.”

Title track ‘Exile In The Night’, is dominated by a Latin-tinged rhythm, ghostly soundscapes and a haunting melody. The song was heavily influenced by the music of Feist and the memoirs of Reinaldo Arenas (the celebrated, exiled Cuban poet). Jen explains the song’s origin, “There's a history of exile in our families, so it always been something that was always around. I wanted to write about that feeling of seeing some other place in the city you now find yourself in, or seeing ghosts and old faces in those of strangers.”

Overall, Exile is Aloud’s most sophisticated and experimental album to date, showcasing their new-found love of orchestration, Sgt. Pepper-like production, and rich, lyrical imagery.

Aloud headlines this special CD Release Concert with special guest artists: the Exile Orchestra featuring Chris Barrett, trumpet (Kingsley Flood); Matt Girard, euphonium (The Motion Sick, The Future Everybody); Kara Kulpa, violin; Beth Holub, viola; Josh Penslar, cello; and the Exile Choir, including Kelly Davis (Old Jack), Glenn & Emily Forsythe (St. Claire), and Travis Richter (The Motion Sick, Naked on Roller Skates).

Aloud will be touring as in support of Exile this fall, returning to CMJ this October before heading off on their debut coast-to-coast tour encompassing the entire US in over 50 performances.

For more information, please visit www.allthingsALOUD.com/exile, or contact Annie Burns at [email protected].

ALOUD UPCOMING CONCERT DATES:

9/4/10 – Rock The Plaza |@Patriot Place, Foxboro, MA
9/23/10 – EXILE CD RELEASE PARTY @ Church, Boston, MA
10/19/10-10/23/10 – CMJ Music Marathon, NYC, NY
10/24/10 – Howler’s Coyote Café, Pittsburgh, PA
10/25/10 – Barley’s Pub, Youngstown, OH
10/26/10 – Double Door, Chicago, IL
10/28/10 – The Lift, Dubuque, IA
11/2/10 – Front Range Community College, Westminster, CO
11/2/10 – Astroland, Boulder, CO
11/3/10 – Moe’s, Denver, CO
11/6/10 – First National Bar, Pocatello, ID
11/7/10 – Reef, Boise, ID
11/10/10 - Wenatchee Valley College, Wenatchee, WA
11/11/10 – Mars Bar, Seattle, WA
11/13/10 – Diablo’s, Eugene, OR
11/16/10 – The Mint, Los Angeles, CA
11/18/10 – San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
11/19/10 – Mr. Rick’s, Avila Beach, CA

More dates are being added daily. Visit www.allthingsALOUD.com for the latest concert dates.