Just a reminder that Brah recordings artists Sightings are currently on a rare tour of Europe, remaining dates as follows:

April 4th - Berlin, West Germany
April 5th – Nijmegen, Extrapool
April 6th - London, Upset The Rhythm @ The Grosvenor
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/110050
April 7th - Tilburg, Incubated nights @ Paradox
April 8th – Paris, Sonic Protest Festival @ Salle Olympique de Gouges
April 9th - Nantes, D.A.F.
April 11th - Koln, Staedtgarden
April 12th – Brussels, Domino Festival @ Ancienne Belgique

“Name any rock band and chances are you can connect its music back to some formal antecedent—Chuck Berry, the Velvet Underground, the Beatles or even just the blues. Sightings are unburdened by—even outside of—that history. The trio’s lineup is as basic as they come: drummer, bassist, guitarist who sings. It’s just that those elements seem based on some intuitive science that the rest of humanity hasn’t quite gotten hip to yet.” – Mike Wolf, Time Out New York

Crafting a lasting personal aesthetic in the midst of our ephemeral music culture is as rare as it is cause for celebration. With the 2010 release of City Of Straw (on Brah Records, the imprint of Jagjaguwar run by Oneida), Brooklyn’s Sightings can be counted among the few contemporary bands who have forged a unique voice amongst the racket.

Recorded over a number of months in 2009 at The Ocropolis (Oneida’s Brooklyn, NY studio), the band’s seventh studio album becomes the crucible from which their grandest and most coherent statement finally emerges.

Sightings has never presented a particularly welcoming façade and their sui generis music has perhaps been passed over by less discerning listeners over the eleven years of their existence, but throughout this they have created a singular body of work appreciated and touted by the likes of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Andrew WK. If you’ve missed the boat up until now – City of Straw is the ideal venue to experience the band’s mastery of extreme timbres, astounding instrumental prowess and yes, extraordinary song-craft.

Chris Weingarten of The Village Voice praised City of Straw and said of Sightings: "the avant-bruisers have been making jagged, nauseous, pig-fucked chip-'n'-sizzle for over a solid decade and have only gotten better with age." Read the read the rest of Weingarten's assessment and an insightful interview with the band here:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2010/02/announcing_the_1.php

The Village Voice piece also contains the premiere of City of Straw lead track "Tar and Pine," of which Weingarten writes: "Opener 'Tar And Pine' starts as a precise piece of Mille Plateaux-ready glitch-dub before diving headfirst into oily pits of industrial wreckage, Flipper doom, and suffocating mounds of dirt." Yes, it's just like that. And it rules. Download mp3 here:
http://www.scjag.com/mp3/jag/tarandpine.mp3

Sightings will insist (and we agree wholeheartedly) that at their core they are a rock band working within the context of pop-song craft. As bassist Richard Hoffman told us recently, "I think everyone in the band tries to remember the value of minimalism. Ultimately, I think we try to write pop music, where there's no chaff and everything has it's place." To go a bit deeper with Sightings' Hoffman, guitarist/vocalist Mark Morgan and drummer Jon Lockie, there is a extensive interview now up on the Brah Records site, conducted by Oneida's Kid Millions. Do your homework on Sightings here:
http://brahrecords.com/katchin.php?brah=12

LINKS:
http://www.myspace.com/sightings
http://www.jagjaguwar.com/artist.php?name=sightings
http://www.jagjaguwar.com/press/sightings/sightingspress.php