When: 7.30pm on Tuesday 11 February 2014
Where: Soup Kitchen, 31-33 Spear Street, Manchester M1 1DF

We’re excited to be bringing Ezra Furman to Manchester.

Following hot on the heels of the first CD release of his solo debut, The Year of No Returning, Oakland resident Ezra Furman is issuing Day Of the Dog, his second solo effort after a fruitful five year/four album stint leading Boston’s Harpoons.

Day of the Dog sees Furman progressing from the dark chamber-pop and gorgeous balladry of his solo debut and emerging as a stylish, Technicolor, pulse-quickening rock provocateur conjuring an intriguing selection of iconic vintage styles. The album was recorded with the members of his regular touring band The Boy-Friends. Furman supplied vocals, guitar and miscellaneous. Throughout the album, there is a sense of bold ambition and grand artistry in the tradition of songwriting giants of the past, but set apart by an undercurrent of deranged, ragged glory.

He formed his first band, Ezra Furman & the Harpoons, in 2006 while attending Tufts University. His lead singing and songwriting connected with listeners like a left hook to the jaw, a mix of stinging garage-rock and stripped-down acoustic numbers. He would write and record a total of four albums with this combo: Banging Down the Doors (2007), Inside the Human Body (2008), Moon Face (2009) and Mysterious Power (2011). Furman and the band toured extensively during this period, winning a cult of hardcore fans across the US as well as in Europe.

Ultimately, Ezra parted ways with that band, returned home to Chicago, holed up in an attic recording studio and wrote and recorded the cycle of ten songs, each assigned to particular months of the year, he titled The Year Of No Returning. His aim was the self-professed ‘lofty goal of real protest’. Initially self-released, The Year Of No Returning was picked up by Bar/None and released for the first time on CD in the Summer of 2013, in conjunction with a full band tour of the East Coast and MidWest.

‘This Chicago-based singer-songwriter offers a bratty, ragged take on New York Dolls, Spector-era Ramones and E Street Band carnival rock, revealing a gift for crafting freeway-cruisin’ tunes served with an extra helping of roadkill. Like Mac DeMarco, probably his closest peer, Furman draws from well-worn ’50s rock’n’roll tropes and coats them in fuzz’ – NME

‘Please take the five stars not as a statement that this is the best record of 2013, but as a delighted endorsement of a genre classic. Clever, funny, sharp and tuneful – a great rock’n’roll record’ – The Guardian

Tour support comes from Brooklyn’s rock n roll band of brothers The So So Glos. Their most recent album, Blowout, made Rolling Stones’ best albums of 2013 list.

Local support comes from Kiran Leonard, a mercurially talented 18-year-old musician from Oldham. His debut album Bowler Hat Soup was released on Hand Of Glory late last year, as a limited run of 300 vinyl copies. He’s featured in the Guardian’s New Band a Day column and received regular BBC 6music radio play. Listen to his song Dear Lincoln on Pitchfork here.

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