When: 7.30pm on Saturday 14 March 2020
Where: YES (The Pink Room), 38 Charles Street, Manchester M1 7DB
PLEASE NOTE: Wolf Parade’s European tour has sadly been cancelled. Please contact your point of purchase for a refund, and watch this space for a new Manchester date in the future. Here’s a message from the band:
‘To our dear fans in Europe and the UK,
‘Wolf Parade is sad to announce we have decided to cancel our upcoming tour overseas. Due to the sudden rise of COVID-19 throughout different regions we were scheduled to play, and the current volatility of the situation, we feel strongly that it would be both globally irresponsible and potentially risky for the band to carry out the tour at this time. The amount of major airports, international driving, and crowds of people we would be interacting with – they all combine to form what is ultimately a bad idea; a recipe for a potential worst-case-scenario in which we could end up being unknown carriers of the virus across multiple borders, or end up ill and/or quarantined ourselves overseas. We did not arrive at this decision easily, but in the end, the band and our team all agree it is the right and responsible decision. We hope you understand.
‘A rescheduling of the dates is planned, but not set yet, so we advise all current ticket holders to get a refund for the cancelled dates now. We will wait in hopes that this virus passes quickly and that all those already affected pull through.
‘All the best – WP’
We’re delighted to be working with Wolf Parade again – this time, at YES.
Wolf Parade release Thin Mind, the group’s fifth full-length, on 24 January worldwide through Sub Pop. The ten-track album features the singles Forest Green, Against the Day, and Julia Take Your Man Home.
Every moment spent gazing at our screens is oversaturated with content, an ever-accelerated news cycle conditioning our ever-decreasing attention spans. The struggle to stay present, and to foresee a clear, sustainable future, feels very real.
Wolf Parade address this phenomenon head-on with Thin Mind, the band’s fifth full-length and second to be produced by John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Unwound).
‘Thin Mind refers to the way that being around too much tech has made our focus thin,’ says keyboardist Spencer Krug.
‘It’s opening one more page, scrolling one more thing,’ adds guitarist Dan Boeckner, ‘and the weird, sort-of hollow automaton feeling that you get from it.’
‘This record is very personal, but at the same time, we’re all coming from the same place of a general sense of anxiety,’ says drummer Arlen Thompson. ‘How do you deal with the constant barrage of having your opinions swayed by all these different actors when you don’t know who they are or what their purpose is? There is no normal anymore.’
Thin Mind marks a return to the original power trio of Dan, Spencer and Arlen, following multi-instrumentalist Dante DeCaro’s amicable departure from the group in 2018, after the conclusion of their world tour supporting Cry Cry Cry, their acclaimed album of 2016.
One month later, the trio got together at Risqué Disque, an old stone barn-turned-studio in the woods of Vancouver Island, to begin writing Thin Mind – emerging with an album about making sense of the present while reckoning with visions of the future.
Tour support comes from Joensuu 1685. Joensuu 1685, a rock trio from Finland, formed in Helsinki 2007 by two brothers Mikko Joensuu and Markus Joensuu, and Risto Joensuu (no relation). They are a band who drown their music in overtones, feedback and noise, and paint a soft but sizzling stream of big beauty – comprising repetitive bass riffs, powerful yet restrained drumming and pastoral organs in the core of their being. In 2010, in the last months of finalising their second album something strange happened, the band suddenly exploded in to pieces and Joensuus went on their separate ways. Markus and Risto formed Siinai and Mikko started to work on his own material. In the next eight years, with great critical acclaim, Siinai released five concept albums, two of which were a collaboration with Moonface, and Mikko Joensuu released his massive unity of music in a form of a trilogy album called Amen. In 2018 the band reunited at Flow festival in Helsinki and decided that it was time to return to the unfinished Joensuu 1685 album abandoned years ago. ÖB – their second album – is now finished and will be released in 2020.
PLEASE NOTE: Wolf Parade’s European tour has sadly been cancelled. Please contact your point of purchase for a refund, and watch this space for a new Manchester date in the future.
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