Land Of Talk - L'Aventure Acoustique


Land Of Talk have just put together acoustic selections from "Applause Cheer Boo Hiss" under the aptly titled "L'Aventure Acoustique". This limited edition release contains bonus tracks including the new song "Some Are Lakes" from the forthcoming album and an inspiring cover of Wintersleep's "Weighty Ghost". Along with "Weighty Ghost" the band are particularly proud of the acousitc adaptation of "Street Wheels" which includes an epic piano accompaniment.

The album also features original artwork by Jesse Purcell including an ingenious Land of Talk Robot image on the inside of the sleeve. Jesse has previously worked on all the layout and screenprinting for the original "Applause Cheer Boo Hiss" release along with a number of beatiful posters for almost every tour the band have been on.

Pick up your copy exclusively at One Little Indian by clicking here

 

 

One Little Indian Podcast Presented By Land Of Talk!

The Canadian band Land Of Talk present the next installment of the One Little Indian Podcast series! Featuring 5 tracks from Asobi Seksu, Underground Railroad, Land Of Talk, Polly Paulusma, Lise Westzynthius. Don`t miss it!

Click Here To Download For Free Now!

 

 

Land Of Talk Acoustic Session In Green Park

So, it turns out you need a permit to film in the Royal parks.
Something the Policeman that tried to arrest both Rocklouder, and Land Of Talk pointed out during an interview/acoustic session...

To read more about the day's events and watch the acoustic videos and sessions click here

 

Land Of Talk - Applause Cheer Boo Hiss Out Now!

The Full 10 track debut album is now out on One Little Indian. Make sure you get your copy!

“A muscular record with gut-level riffs and fist-pumping choruses” – Pitchfork

“Ranging from a confident Cat Power to a more playful PJ Harvey” – Stylus

“The sprawling fuzz of Sonic Youth with the popsome goo of The Cardigans” – Drowned in Sound

You can buy the album from:

iTunes Amazon Play eMusic Wippit HMV

HMV Digital

 

Land Of Talk Interview

Drowned In Sound recently caught up with Land Of Talk:

Another indie-rocking Canadian band: do you fear any backlash at all now that we’ve been treated to so many excellent acts of a similar ilk from over there?
Liz: Wasn’t that ‘backlash’ like five years ago? I’d be worried if I didn’t think it was over. I think it’s over. I hope.

To read the full interview click here.

 

Land Of Talk - Live Video!

Click below to see Land Of Talk live at Le Bron,

Click here to watch

 

Land Of Talk/Decemberists Tour Cancelled

With much regret The Decemberists have cancelled the remainder of the European tour.  One of The Decmberists band members is ill and needs to return immediately home to mend.

 

It’s late August, and on the porch of her home in Montreal, Elizabeth Powell is using one hand to swat away pestering bumblebees, and holding a telephone to her ear with the other, telling the story of her group, Land Of Talk. “We’ve been away for so long, on the road,” she laughs, a malevolent buzz audible in the background. “I come back, and there’s bees everywhere… Killer bees! It’s awful…”

‘The Road’ has latterly become Powell’s second home, or maybe her first, since Land Of Talk began to enjoy a nuzzling acclaim in Canada; she estimates they’ve played over 300 shows since they formed, criss-crossing the country and enjoying well-received sorties across the border in a rickety van. “I didn’t used to enjoy ‘The Road’, and now I do,” she offers. “You have to relinquish a certain amount of your expectations, about your privacy or your daily routine. It’s hard to feel grounded, when you’re always moving somewhere else. But then you let go of that need to feel grounded; you feel settled, once you forego that need for stability.”

This seems an apt metaphor for Powell’s experience with Land Of Talk. A couple of years ago, Elizabeth was another struggling singer/songwriter on the Montreal circuit, plying her songs with only her guitar to share the lonely spotlight. “I didn’t like it,” she remembers. “I can’t stand playing by myself, it’s a little too obvious, all ‘me me me’.  I was tired of only ever playing with a backing band every now and again, guys who only learned the songs before the set. I wasn’t pushing myself, as a guitarist, or as a songwriter.”

Salvation came in the form of a bassist named Blake, who she began rehearsing with. “The songs started out kind of ‘poppy’,” remembers Elizabeth, “But when I started playing with Blake, they started going in an almost ‘math-rock’ directions, these new arrangements that were actually going somewhere. It all got much heavier.”

Powell recruited a drummer, Bucky Wheaton – “We were friends in college, loved all the same bands – Nirvana, Fugazi, Weezer, and all the Canadian bands of our generation, garage-bands, basement-bands” – and took to the road with her new group, soon drawing audiences spellbound by their barbed and impassioned pop, and by their fierce live performance. “It gets intense up onstage,” admits Powell. “We form the ‘triangle of terror’! I don’t talk to the audience much – unless I’m drunk, and then they just want me to shut up – we all pretty much concentrate upon each other. There’s a lot of unspoken communication; it could seem like the audience is peeking in on a rehearsal or something; it’s very powerful.”

The group (now with a new bassist, Tim K) entered the studio in 2006, to record their debut EP, Applause Cheer Boo Hiss. Money being tight, they had a budget of $1000. Studio time costing $350 a day, they cut the record in just three days; this was not a problem, however, as their punishing touring schedule meant they knew their songs inside-out, capturing each within two or three takes.
The record that resulted from these sessions is a delicious cocktail of the raw and the sweet, brittle buzzsaw guitars chiming tunes heavy with nagging melody and crackling emotion, the bulldozer rhythm section delivering the angst-fused dynamics, a rocket-propelled mess of low-end and clatter. Above this melee, Powell’s vocal, honeyed and broken, recalling Chan Marshall’s warm disquiet, and Juliana Hatfield’s bright clarity. “Some people think our music is really upbeat, others think it’s real sombre. I like to let people take what they want from the music.” The truth is, the songs are both upbeat and sombre, sometimes at the same time, which is why they’re so addictively delicious: heartbreak and hope, set to soaring melody and explosive noise. Perfect rock’n’roll.

As acclaim built for the EP, One Little Indian stepped in and offered to release it in the UK. The group – now numbering Chris McCarron on bass and Eric Thibodeauon drums – was in the studio working on their second album, cutting three new tracks for this release. “Just now, I was trying to write a new song,” says Powell, “And I was thinking, what if I can’t make the new album sound like the first? It was such a random bunch of factors behind that record – we were rushed, we had no budget… And now I’m worried, what if we can’t recapture that spirit, that spontaneity?”

The unforced, thrilling joy of ‘Young Bridge’, with its ecstatic chorus and a vocal performance that would please Debbie Harry, proves Elizabeth shouldn’t worry, that her knack for coruscating, uplifting sunshine’n’stormclouds pop shows no sign of deserting her yet, that bigger things await this cherishable little band from Montreal.

“‘The Road’, rock’n’roll… You have to let go of your expectations, you have to take what you find,” she says. “It’s not for everybody. It’s not for anybody who wants a ‘normal’ life. Which I don’t, anymore.”