The foundations of Brooklyn’s Woods lie in the small rear-house apartment bedroom of Jeremy Earl, who took to recording his eerily somber acoustic songs in 2005 as little more than a humble personal outlet. After two early albums and several singles which saw Earl still honing his sound, Woods released “Songs of Shame” in 2009 to widespread critical acclaim and offered the band a chance to develop their live sound on the back of a massive touring schedule. During this period, the live line-up solidified with the inclusion of multi-instrumentalist Jarvis Taveniere, bassist Kevin Morby and cassette-collage maestro G. Lucas Crane. While the band’s early recordings had mixed haunting folk and distorted sound-scape journeys, their new live show offered Kraut-rock inspired fugues and Crazy Horse-style romps, infusing Earl’s dirges with an off-kilter energy and a sense of looming chaos.
With their live sound now in place, the band released the equally lauded follow-up albums “At Echo Lake” and “Sun and Shade”, which continued to explore their signature mix of sun soaked pop and psychedelic meditations. All were released on Earl’s Woodsist label which, in addition to being the band’s home, has achieved an influential status in its own right, releasing records from Real Estate, White Fence and Kurt Vile, to name a few.
While creating their newest record, “Bend Beyond”, the band abandoned their usual recording process, which favored immediacy above all – some songs were recorded just mere minutes after their creation – and instead sought to capture elements of their dynamic live sound. To this end, Taveniere joined Earl in his upstate home in the Fall of 2011 and the pair produced the twelve song album, which features the epic title song, a recent centerpiece to the band’s live set.
While the core sound of Woods will always be Earl’s strikingly pure falsetto voice spilling dark secrets and twisted images, the group has never been content to coast on established formulas or sonic habits. With the recent addition of Aaron Neveu on drums to the live band, freeing up Taveniere to focus solely on guitar, the ever-evolving group has extensive touring plans for the Fall of 2012 to coincide with the release of Bend Beyond.
- Justin Sullivan
News & Announcements
Ground Control Touring Artists to Play Pitchfork Music Festival 2013
Posted 03/28/2013
We’re so stoked to announce that seven Ground Control Touring artists will be part of Pitchfork Music festival this year! Belle & Sebastian, Daughn Gibson, Frankie Rose, Trash Talk, Merchandise, Parquet Courts and Woods will be playing the festival which takes place at Chicago’s Union Park, June 19-21. Snatch up…
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Ground Control Touring Artists on Best of 2012 Lists!
Posted 12/21/2012
Ground Control Touring’s Best of 2012: It’s a Wrap!
Bravo to all the Ground Control Touring artists who made 2012 an exciting year in music and landed spots on the “Best of 2012” lists. Soak up the glory and see how our artists performed this year in the list below.
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Ground Control Touring Artists Play at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
Posted 10/04/2011
Bright Eyes, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Justin Townes Earle, Kurt Vile & The Violators, M. Ward, Woods, Thurston Moore, and The Felice Brothers took the stage at this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The free festival spanned from September 30th through October 2nd on six stages at Speedway…
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Pitchfork 2011 Festival Wrap-Up
Posted 07/19/2011
Thurston Moore, Guided By Voices, Woods, Wild Nothing, Kurt Vile, and Superchunk all delivered memorable sets in sweltering heat over the course of the 2011 Pitchfork Music Festival, held July 15-17 in Chicago, IL.
On Friday, Guided By Voices’ performance made Billboard’s Top 15 at Pitchfork List. Read more…
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