JORDAN KLASSEN SHARES VIDEO FOR NEW SINGLE “SURPRISED / NOT SURPRISED”

 WATCH AND SHARE “SURPRISED / NOT SURPRISED” HERE

FALL TOUR DATES BEGIN OCTOBER 24

STUNNING VIDEO FOR “VIRTUOUS CIRCLE” NOMINATED FOR UKMVA FOR BEST ALTERNATIVE VIDEO - INTERNATIONAL

Photo Credit : Rachel Pick // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Jordan Klassen is sharing another new single. “Surprised / Not Surprised” was written “at a time when I had a lot of noise running through my head,” says Klassen. “It's so easy to just assume that the narratives we're telling ourselves about ourselves are true and that can be pretty debilitating. The song is about those moments when you're quiet and present and suddenly you realize that the story you've been telling is false, and there's this tremendous relief that maybe you'll be ok, that everything will be ok.”

 WATCH AND SHARE “SURPRISED / NOT SURPRISED” HERE

This Fall, Klassen will embark on a run of North American tour dates that takes him across the continent. Tour dates begin October 24 in Alberta and run till the end of November when he returns home to BC. Full route listings can be found below.

“Surprised / Not Surprised” and previous single “Virtuous Circle” are the first new music from Jordan Klassen since 2017’s Big Intruder. The stunning video for “Virtuous Circle” was recently nominated for a UKMVA for Best Alternative Video - International. Directed by Farhad Ghaderi and produced by Shelby Manton of Boldly, explores the joys and pains of brotherhood through the volatile relationship between a young boy (Ben Andrusco-Daon) and his self-destructive older brother (Antoine Olivier Pilon) in the pursuit of winning a famous regional long-distance race.

WATCH AND SHARE “VIRTUOUS CIRCLE” HERE

 TOUR DATES
Oct 24 -Edmonton, AB - Station on Jasper
Oct 25 - Red Deer, AB - Red Hart Brewing
Oct 26 - Calgary, AB - King Eddy
Oct 27 - Regina, SK - Artesian on 13th
Oct 28 - Winnipeg, MB - WECC
Nov 1 - Wakefield, QC - The Blacksheep Inn
Nov 2 - Toronto, ON - The Cameron House
Nov 3 - Kingston, ON - Musikki Cafe
Nov 5 - Elora, ON - The Porch Light
Nov 6 - Hamilton, ON - Mills Hardware
Nov 9 - New York, NY - Underwater Sunshine
Nov 21 - Kelowna, BC - New Arts Collective
Nov 23 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret
Nov 29 - Victoria, BC - Lucky Bar

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REUBEN AND THE DARK SHARES NEW VIDEO, WINTER TOUR DATES, “BLACK WATER” FEATURED EL CAMINO : A BREAKING BAD MOVIE TRAILER

WATCH AND SHARE “FAULTLINE” HERE

WATCH AND SHARE EL CAMINO TRAILER HERE

WINTER TOUR DATES BEGIN FEBRUARY 8 // TICKETS ON SALE TODAY

UN | LOVE OUT OCTOBER 25 ON ARTS & CRAFTS

PRE-ORDER UN | LOVE HERE

“Compelling and evocative”  - Exclaim!

“Bright Eyes meets Mumford & Sons” - American Songwriter

“Earnest, anthemic” - WXPN

Photo Credit: Sheva Kafai // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Earlier this month, Reuben and the Dark announced the release of their new LP un | love, and shared the album’s first single, “faultline”. Today, the band is sharing the video for the single directed by Brock Mitchell who says, “the video tries to encapsulate the emotion and spontaneity of recording in the studio. It’s a portrait of these artists creating together in harmony and brotherly bond."

Reuben Bullock, the alt-folk band’s frontman, calls the song an intimate portrait of internal struggle and soul-searching, caught between past and future. “It feels like a reflective song. Driving on the highway late at night. Looking back over your life. The plans you made. And the way those plans can change. Driving while your passenger sleeps beside you. It’s about trust and self-destruction. Feeling power and, simultaneously, a lack of control.”

WATCH AND SHARE “FAULTLINE” HERE

This past week Reuben and the Dark’s track “Black Water”, from Funeral Sky, was featured in the new trailer for El Camino : A Breaking Bad Movie. “I am a huge fan of Breaking Bad so it’s hard to express how surreal it really is.. seeing those images set to my music,” says Bullock. “The song is perfect too, like it was written for this the whole time. I have so much respect for all of the actors and everyone involved in this show. The music has always been so thoughtful...so strong..it’s such an honour to be in the trailer.”

WATCH AND SHARE EL CAMINO TRAILER HERE

un | love, is Reuben’s most honest and captivating album to date, opening a window into one of the most dramatic times in Bullock’s life. The spirited Canadian band’s third record – following 2018’s Arms of a Dream, and 2014’s debut Funeral Sky – tells Reuben’s story of endings and hope for the future. The forthcoming collection is a bare, cathartic exploration of life’s undeniable crossroads, and the fateful depths that await there. 

Produced by Reuben and the Dark with Marcus Paquin (The National, Timber Timbre, Local Natives) and Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene), un | love evokes the raw emotion of the songs with anthemic, atmospheric sound. In comparison to the polished songs of Arms of a Dream, the new album shows a drastic turn in Reuben’s ease as a writer and freedom as a recording artist. His voice is at once unbridled and fallible. Through the dense imagery of his poetry shines a light shot straight from Reuben’s soul in a natural way unlike any time before. 

Reuben and the Dark continue on the road next month with a run of dates in Canada and will embark on a Winter Tour in 2020 beginning February 8. Full dates can be round below. The band has shared stages with the likes of Vance Joy, Serena Ryder, The Strumbellas, Boy & Bear, and The Paper Kites. Besides Breaking Bad, Reuben and the Dark's music has been heard in Handmaid’s Tale, The HIghwaymen, A Million Little Things, American Gods, Grey’s Anatomy, Ray Donovan and more. 

PRE-ORDER UN | LOVE HERE

TOUR DATES
Oct 16 - Penticton BC - Dream Cafe
Oct 18 - Banff AB - Banff Centre
Oct 19 - Banff AB - Banff Centre
Oct 22 - Red Deer AB - Bo’s
Oct 23 - Jasper AB - Jasper Legion
Oct 25 - Camrose AB - Bailey Theatre
Oct 26 - Moose Jaw SK - Mae Wilson Theatre
Oct 28 - Invermere BC - Pynelogs Cultural Centre
Oct 29 - St. Albert AB - Arden Theatre
Feb 8 - Ottawa, ON - National Arts Centre
Feb 10 - Quebec, QC - L’Anti
Feb 12 - Montreal, QC - Le Petit Campus
Feb 13 - Paris ON - Dominion Telegraph
Feb 14 - Toronto, ON - The Great Hall
Feb 18 - Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern
Feb 19 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St. Entry
Feb 22 - Saskatoon, SK - Broadway Theatre
Feb 25 - Swift Current, SK - Lyric Theatre
Feb 28 - Calgary, AB - Palace Theatre
Feb 29 - Lethbridge, AB - Southminster United Church
Mar 2 - Kamloops, BC - Pavilion Theatre
Mar 4 - Victoria, BC - Capital Ballroom
Mar 5 - Vancouver, BC - Imperial
Mar 7 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theatre
Mar 8 - Seattle, WA - Sunset Tavern
Mar 10 - Nelson, BC - Hume Hotel Spirit Bar

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UN | LOVE TRACKLIST
01 rising
02 faultline
03 welcome home
04 weightlessness
05 breathe
06 underground
07 inner river
08 unlove
09 outrun the rain
10 wisemen
11 dancer

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GEOFF BERNER ANNOUNCES NEW LP, GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS

GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS DUE OUT NOVEMBER 1 VIA COAX RECORDS (CANADA) / COAX EUROPA (WORLDWIDE)

WATCH AND SHARE “WHAT KIND OF BEAR AM I?” HERE

CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN OCTOBER 12

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

On November 1, Vancouver singer/songwriter/accordionist/novelist/political activist Geoff Berner returns with new left-wing Jewish music for our perilous times. Grand Hotel Cosmopolis is the first new klezmer-punk album from Berner since 2015’s We Are Going To Bremen To Be Musicians. Released on Coax Records in Canada and worldwide via Coax Europa (an imprint for Coax on artist run record label GiveUsYourGOLD in Berlin), a new label set up as a european bridgehead for Coax artists. 

The album’s first single, “What Kind Of Bear Am I?”, was originally written for Gravediggers of Uzda, an experimental musical theatre production from director Jenny Romaine at the KlezKanada Laurentian Retreat. “Jenny told me we needed a bear song, for the bears working in the tavern scene, and handed me an academic paper by Robert Adler Peckerar,” says Berner.

“I am told that when the Polish Empire ran Belarus a long time ago, there were many restrictions for Jews and Roma people, but there was a special license granted to them alone. They were the only ones allowed to train and keep dancing bears. In the town of Smorgon, Belarus, there was a Bear Academy. They say that the whole town was devoted to the cruel work of the training of dancing bears. They say that when you arrived at Smorgon Station, a bear porter would take your luggage for you. That bears cleaned the streets with brooms. That bears served also in the hotel. All through the town.

Rob‘s piece talks about how dancing bears are symbols of the way Christians thought about Jews and Roma in a way similar to the way they thought about dancing bears—as creatures somewhere between animal and human..”

The video, by Jordan Lloyd Watkins, is the film noiresque journey of a bear through the less-polished spaces of Vancouver. “And as the lyrics go,” says Berner, “‘I pour the drinks, I hear the music, and I try not to dance, but sometimes I just can’t help myself no matter how I try, and you ask me, what kind of bear am I?’.”

WATCH AND SHARE “WHAT KIND OF BEAR AM I?” HERE

Since Whiskey Rabbi was released in 2005, Berner has been making klezmer music fused with the energy and rudeness of punk. The Globe and Mail called him “the avenging angel of klezmer,” and with songs like “Dalloy Polizei (Fuck the Police)”, Berner’s work is overtly political and controversial. 

The new album and its title song are inspired by the Grandhotel Cosmopolis, located in Augsburg, Germany. The ‘Hotel’ was started ten years ago, when a group of activists took over an abandoned high school. Their vision was to turn it into an artsy, inexpensive hostel for travellers of all kinds, as well as safe and free housing for refugees and asylum seekers.

Half of the space in the Hotel is taken up by families of displaced people from Syria, Somalia, Myanmar, and many other places. These people stay for free or on a pay-what-you-can basis. They earn money and their first German work experience by helping run the hotel.

The word “cosmopolitan” is a slur that anti-Semites have historically thrown at Jews. Stalin and his henchmen preferred the term “rootless cosmopolitan” for Jews during the Soviet pogroms. The basic idea was that Jews, being town people – as Jews were historically forbidden to own land – were disconnected from the soil, and therefore decadent and corrupt.

For Berner, the idea of a party at the Grand Hotel Cosmopolis, an oasis of welcome and relative safety for people on the run – in Germany of all places – is a perfect way to talk about Jewish solidarity with oppressed migrants, and about how good things are still possible. 

That’s the goal of Grand Hotel Cosmopolis – to use the Jewish leftist cultural tradition to inspire people to defend the human values of decency and the right of every human being to a life of safety and freedom, while having a fun time doing it. You’re welcome to come stay awhile.

To support the actual Grandhotel Cosmopolis, go to https://grandhotel-cosmopolis.org/de/

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GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS TRACKLIST
01 Not The Jew I Had In Mind
02 What Kind Of Bear Am I
03 Ven Kimsti
04 Would You Hide Me
05 Vilne
06 Grand Hotel Cosmopolis
07 The Drummer Requests
08 Oh You Survivalists
09 What Don’t We Just Take The Billionaire’s Money Away
10 Zog Nit Keyn Mol (Partisan Song)

TOUR DATES
Oct 12 - Prince George, BC - Theatre Northwest
Oct 19 - Chilliwack, BC - Tractorgrease Cafe
Nov 1 - Vancouver, BC - Chutzpah! Festival - Wise Hall
Nov 2-3 - Cumberland, BC - Woodstove Festival
Nov 19 - Vienna, AT - Klezmore Festival - Sargfabrik
Nov 20 - Viechtach, DE - Altes Spital
Nov 21-22 - Augsburg, DE - Grandhotel Cosmopolis
Nov 24 - Mainz, DE - Hafeneck
Nov 25 - Aachen, DE - Domkeller
Nov 26 - Köln, DE - Hängende Gärten von Ehrenfeld
Nov 27 - Speyer, DE - Eckpunkt
Nov 28 - Stuttgart, DE - Laboratorium
Dec 5 - Hannover, DE - Feinkost Lampe
Dec 10 - Dresden, DE - Societatstheater
Dec 11 - Bremerhaven, DE - Pferdestall
Dec 12 - Hamburg, DE - TBA
Dec 13 - Bremen, DE - TBA
Dec 14 - Berlin, DE - Supamolly
Feb 14 - Toronto, ON - TRANZAC
Feb 15 - Wakefield, QC - The Black Sheep
Feb 16 - Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo
Feb 21 - Peterborough, ON - The Garnet
Feb 22 - Guelph, ON - The ANAF

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