New Raleigh Presents El Ten Eleven and More at Kings Barcade

July, 24, 2011 , by Jedidiah

Hearing a band (that you love) for the first time can be a memorable experience. Sometimes it's in a club and said (unknown) band is opening for another band that you actually paid to see. Sometimes it's on the radio. Other times, it's at a friends house. The list goes on and on.

I still remember the first time that I heard the Los Angeles duo El Ten Eleven's music. I was working for an architecture firm in Downtown Raleigh and we had organized a monthly movie series focused on design films. It was a Thursday night and Gary Hustwit's Helvetica was the film of choice. The meticulous opening sequence of letterpressing was beautiful, as was the music. The film continued along this streamlined path, as did the music. The fantastic score, by El Ten Eleven, matched the timeless yet edgy (for its time) nature of the font. Their music has been on constant repeat since. Helvetica on the other hand, comes and goes in my graphic design. Fast forward five years and El Ten Eleven (made up of the duo of 10-string double-neck bass and guitarist Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty) has decided to bring their melodic instrumental rock to Downtown Raleigh, only blocks away from that architecture office.

New Raleigh is proud to present El Ten Eleven with The Globes and Prussia on Sunday, August 7th at Kings Barcade. The show is only $8 in advance ($10 day of) and this cover of Joy Division's Disorder is worth that alone. If you are a fan of the orchestrations of Ratatat and Explosions in the Sky, this show is for you. Doors open at 9pm and the show is all ages. More info on each band below.

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El Ten Eleven - Los Angeles, CA

El Ten Eleven is a Los Angeles-based instrumental indie rock duo consisting of Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty. They officially formed in 2003, but Dunn and Fogarty have been working together musically for years in bands such as The Softlightes (first American band signed to Australia’s Modular label) and The Incredible Moses Leroy.

The densely textured, atmospheric instrumental sounds of their first two full-length albums (the self-titled debut El Ten Eleven and their follow-up Every Direction Is North) have been praised alongside the work of such post-rock elite as Tortoise, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mogwai and Sigur Rós. With their third album, These Promises Are Being Videotaped, the duo took a leap in a new musical direction. “I just became obsessed with electro music,” Dunn explains. “I’d been going to a lot of DJ events and listening to music by artists like Boys Noize, Justice, and Digitalism. A lot of that music is really digital and created on computers. It was challenging for us to try to create that style of music live with real instruments and looping pedals. There aren’t many bands doing it.” The end result, while in the vein of their aforementioned post-rock brethren, is more akin to the work of their contemporaries who are really pushing the dance-rock envelope such as Ratatat and Soulwax.

But what really separates El Ten Eleven from their musical peers is that they are only two musicians on stage creating pounding landscapes of sound with no laptops or sequencers. Kristian Dunn switches off (sometimes mid-song) between a double-neck bass/guitar, and a fretless bass, while his feet dance on an extensive floorboard of looping devices and effects pedals. He plays everything live, loops himself and juggles all of the layers of tracks on top of each other. Drummer Tim Fogarty switches between traditional acoustic drums, roto toms and electronic drum-pads, usually within each song. To add to the insanity, Fogarty will occasionally loop himself as well.

To date, the group has only performed shows within the United States and Canada, but their music has been heard loud and clear across the globe. “We have so many fans from all over the world,” exclaims Fogarty. “We get emails from Moscow, Estonia, Australia, Malaysia, Japan…it’s amazing!” This is due in part to the many placements of their music into the realms of television, film, and commercials. Of significant note are two PBS documentaries – “Helvetica” and “Objectified” – which were both nominated for Independent Spirit Awards. These films, directed and produced by Gary Hustwit, were scored by Dunn and prominently feature El Ten Eleven’s music.

This is a duo of road-warriors who have built up their fan-base the old fashioned way: by getting out on the road and touring their asses off. They have looped around America more times than they can remember and at each show, new members of the El Ten Eleven faithful are conceived.

The Globes - Spokane, WA

Hailing from Spokane, Washington, The Globes (Walters Ourada, Musselwhite and McCotter) formed in their teenage years, spending afternoons in their sleepy city collaboratively dissecting and interpreting the fundamentals of songwriting, experimentation and craft while forging together their own musical inspirations to fabricate a singular and precocious sound based on the traditional guitar, bass, drum lineup.

Carrying ambition and confidence in their creative potential to stay united post high school graduation, the band relocated to Seattle in 2007 to pursue their musical experiments in a more opportune environment. Somewhere between day jobs and school, The Globes managed to record an eponymous E.P. in early 2008 with engineer Jonathan Warman (Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band) in the dim and dusty basement of their little blue house. In the following year, the band spent fruitful time playing weekly shows in the Northwest and running up and down the West Coast, slowly catching the attention of humble audiences and local critics, while sharpening their own collective spirit.

After a time of travel, the Globes spent the fall of 2009 writing and recording new music with veteran producer John Goodmanson (Blonde Redhead, Death Cab for Cutie, Unwound), resulting in the release of the “Sinter Songs” EP, a conglomeration of 4 moody songs based on the intricate rhythms and dynamics of Ourada (drums) and McCotter (bass) overlayed by noisy and textural guitar work of Musselwhite and Walters. “Sinter Songs” marks of the debut of Musselwhite on vocals, and displays the bands penchant for precision while maintaining youthful angst and naivety. Like hairs on a head, The Globes continue to grow in all directions. Look forward to it.

Prussia - Pontiac, MI

Prussia’s music is energetic, poppy- and melodious. You feel like dancing, though there’s noway in hell you would describe this as dance music. Waltzes, African drum beats, acapella breakdowns, and the gentle ringing of sleigh bells all fit into their unique arrangements naturally.

The band formed on the first day of 2007, practicing in the A. C. Rich, a DIY venue in Pontiac,Michigan. Prussia later became connected with the legendary Scrummage University, a DIY space in Detroit that is interconnected with other underground venues across the country.

Fiery Furnaces, Quasi, Dr. Dog, Black Heart Procession, Thunderbirds are now, Islands, Beach House, tUnE-YaRdS, and Dent May are among the many well-known bands that Prussia has played with.

The band are currently finishing their highly-anticipated new full-length album, Poor English. Swaggering drum loops, intricate guitar compositions, and buttery vocal harmonies all support the sweet nasal crooning of singer Ryan Spencer on the new album. Stories of suicide, misogyny, sexual vacancy, and the crippling ennui of illusory love all weave in and out of catchy pop songs. Lyrically, it’s T.S. Eliot’s drunken scribbling on a bathroom wall.

While mixing Poor English, the band also created Prussia Goes to the Disco, a mixtape of allnew electronic Prussia songs. The simultaneous creation of two aesthetically different, but highly listenable releases proves that this is an unpredictable band that is going to do exactly what they want to do and that this is definitely for the best.

Prussia released their new EP, Four For Attention, on January 11, 2011.

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