Nina Nastasia's rare gift of a voice is an intimate, winged presence that is able to either freeze or melt your heart, that can powerfully soar and twist, or brush ultra-gently against you, suddenly summoning goose bumps. Mojo commented on its ability to "suck the air out of the room". Picking over themes of love, longing and loss, childhood, dreams and human dramas, her beautifully concise, hook-laden songwriting and the spare arrangements of her band have a certain gritty, rustic charm and intensity. Simultaneously tough and fragile, her songs crackle and smolder with an intimate emotional honesty and a dark undertow.
Her early work earned critical praise from veteran BBC DJ John Peel, who called it "astonishing" and said: "[Nina's] songs are very direct without being posy or too clever. There's an attractive air of melancholy without self-pity." In 2007, she released a collaborative album with Jim White, a perennial member of Nina’s backing band and the peerless drummer of beloved Australian instrumental trio, Dirty Three. Stripped back to just a two-piece (drums, guitar, vocal), 'You Follow Me' (FatCat Records) is a fantastically focused record - a taut, raw document of two incredible musicians in deep dialogue, exploring the boundaries of songform to find a rare and striking complement.An incredibly instinctive and distinctive drummer, Jim White has become a guest musician of choice for acts such as Will Oldham / Bonnie Prince Billy, The Boxhead Ensemble, Smog, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and countless others, yet this was the first record to bear his own name.
The Tren Brothers are an Australian instrumental rock duo, consisting of guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White (two-thirds of the critically acclaimed instrumental rock trio Dirty Three; additionally, Turner also is a solo recording artist working under his own name).
In addition to their own recordings, the duo served as Cat Power's band on her breakthrough album Moon Pix, as well as Will Oldham's band on the Western Music EP.
Tickets on sale noon Fri May 9 from Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), Cedar outlets, and Ticketweb.
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