PETER LANCTOT & THE STRAY DOGS
GALAPAGOS NOW!
Pete Lanctot is a singer songwriter living in Brooklyn, NY. His songs are surreal and mysterious narratives often featuring sordid casts of characters who’s time, locations and origins are vague, and seem equally likely to be found in present day NYC, a Memphis juke joint of the '20s or hitchhiking a depression-era plains state highway. Musically, Pete’s songs carry on the American traditions of blues, folk and country music while avoiding reproduction and derivation, and embrace sonic experimentalism and the avant garde. Traditional blues and ballad forms are bent from their original shapes by untraditional playing techniques, droning accompaniments, and interactive free improvisation within the band. In a live setting, Pete accompanies his singing with a wide array of instruments including guitar, viola, violin, accordion and the haunting sounds of a strohviolin (a bowed string instrument where the sound is produced through a metal gramaphone-like horn). His band features a rotating cast of talented musicians and improvisers. Often utilizing very traditional blues, country and string band instrumentations (upright bass, drums, guitar, horns, banjo and pedal steel), the result is far from a polite Americana sound.
On and off the radar of Brooklyn’s underground since 2007, Galapagos Now! has carved a niche for itself as a group "of truly independent mind, and a totally individual sound," if the hype is to be believed. Galapagos Now! is a power trio that revolves around the collaboration between Joe Dairy and Mark Gurarie. Dairy (aka Jeff Waite), whose eight solo records are a testament to his prolific work as a kind of anti-Americana singer-songwriter, adds a croon or howl to the proceedings, whereas Gurarie sings "ugly," as he likes to put it, while holding down the bass. Elder Merchant, Brooklyn native and former drummer for Gözer, keeps the group in straight time while handling the band’s foreign relations. The band has toured the Midwest and South of the United States, as well as Europe. In August 2013, the tour behind a European release of their Compulsive Behavior EP brought them to the UK, Spain and Germany.
Thursday, August 13th at Hank's Saloon
46 Third Avenue (at Atlantic), Brooklyn, U.S.A.
Doors at 8PM. No cover. 21+ with ID.
Photograph by Bruce Davidson
