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The Bundles boasts a line-up of Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis, Jack
Lewis, Anders Griffen and Karl Blau, a formidable group of artists who
have achieved great singular success. Their debut album The Bundles
[KLP214] is a delightful fusion of everything they have done on their
own. Mix the tragic-comic folk narratives of Jeffrey Lewis, with Kimya
Dawsons friendly calls for bravery, with the daffy,
multi-instrumentations of Karl Blau, Jack Lewis and Anders Griffen and
the result is an album that is able to be both snarky and tender, and
vulnerable and confident - all at the same time.
The Bundles started as a project of two mutual friends wanting to
collaborate. Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson were fans of each other
in the growing anti-folk music scene of New York City in the late 90s,
and when her band Moldy Peaches landed on Rough Trade, Jeffrey
soon followed. In February of 2001, Dawson visited Jeffrey who was
living at the time in Austin, Texas. During this visit they wrote and
recorded five songs with Lewis on guitar and Dawson on keyboards. In
2002, Kimya had started her solo career and while touring Germany
with the Jeffrey Lewis Band, those same five songs were expanded into
full band songs with the addition of Jeffrey's brother/bandmate Jack
Lewis on bass and Griffen on drums.
Years passed, during which Jeffrey and Jack released five acclaimed
records on Rough Trade, and Kimya toured constantly with six solo
albums, and received an invitation to the Grammy's for the Juno movie
soundtrack. Despite the heavy creative schedules of all involved, The
Bundles continued to be resurrected in unlikely times and places
wherever in the world the members happened to cross paths.
Eventually in 2009 the four congregated to make some full-band
Bundles recordings at the Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia,
Washington. With additional contributions from troubadour Karl Blau
who originally only signed on to record them they honed their old
songs and crafted some new ones, too. So on one hand, their debut
album took just a few days to write and record, on the other hand it
took eight years! One must not wait as long to hear from them again,
though, as The Bundles plan on playing shows as early as Spring 2010.
TRACKLIST:
All tracks available as individual downloads
1. A Common Chorus
2. Pirates Declare War
3. Klutter
4. Shamrock Glamrock
5. Over The Moon
6. Ishalicious
7. In The Beginning
8. Desert Bundles
9. Metal Mouth
10. Be Yourself
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