Posted on: February 27, 2012 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Barsuk Records is thrilled to debut “The Shakedown”, the second single off Yellow Ostrich’s sophomore LP Strange Land, out March 6th. Singer/guitarist Alex Schaaf noted Neil Young’s influence on the guitar part, while claiming that “the song is about imaginary people.” Rolling Stone premiered the “catchy and guitar-heavy” track.

 

Yellow Ostrich will soon embark on a spring tour in support of Strange Land. The tour begins in Allston, MA at Great Scott on March 3rd and wraps up with a hometown show at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on April 12th. The jaunt also includes a stop at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, TX, where they will play several showcases, to be announced soon.

 

Strange Land is the follow-up to the acclaimed The Mistress, and is self-produced with engineer Beau Sorenson (Death Cab for Cutie, Sparklehorse). With multi-instrumentalist Jon Natchez and drummer Michael Tapper in the fold, Strange Land presents Yellow Ostrich fully formed, no longer a bedroom project, but rather now a full-fledged power trio.

 

The Mistress was a guy in a bedroom,” says Schaaf, who grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York in 2010.  “Strange Land is a band.  In a slightly bigger room.”  They recorded most of the tracks in six days in a little studio outside of Woodstock, New York, and so while The Mistress used a purposely limited palette of sounds, Strange Land has a dramatically expanded one: Tapper’s inventive, downright catchy drumming provides a polyrhythmic foundation for many of the songs while Natchez plays no less than 11 different kinds of horns on the album, lending an almost symphonic air, while his nimble bass playing helps propel the music in its exciting new direction.

 

Yellow Ostrich tour dates:

 

3/3 – Great Scott – Allston, MA #

3/4 – Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY #

3/6 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH #

3/7 – The Pike Room at The Crofoot – Pontiac, MI #

3/8 – Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL #

3/9 – Der Rathskeller – Madison, WI &

3/10 – 7th St Entry – Minneapolis, MN #

3/11 – Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI #

3/15-19 – SXSW – Austin, TX

3/19 – Solar Culture – Tucson, AZ

3/20 – Soda Bar – San Diego, CA

3/21 – Bootleg Theatre – Los Angeles, CA

3/23 – Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA @

3/24 – The Depot at Humboldt State – Arcata, CA

3/26 – Mississippi Studios – Portland, OR %

3/27 – Media Club – Vancouver, Canada %

3/29 – Flying M Coffee – Nampa, ID %

3/30 – Kilby Court – Salt Lake City, UT %

3/31 – Hi Dive – Denver, CO %

4/2 – The Waiting Room – Omaha, NE %

4/10 – Johnny Brenda’s – Philadelphia, PA ^

4/11 – Black Cat Backstage – Washington, DC ^

4/12 – Mercury Lounge – New York, NY ^

5/27 – Sasquatch Music Festival – George, WA

 

# = with 1,2,3

& = with 1,2,3 and Lower Dens

@ = with Lost in the Trees

% = with Howler

^ = with TEEN

 

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