Right now, as I am writing this, it about nine million degrees in my apartment – hello, early summer heatwave, how are ya? – and Blind Pilot are like a cool refreshing glass of lemonade.
There are six of them – Israel Nebeker (vocals, guitar), Ryan Dobrowski (drums), Luke Ydstie (upright bass, backing vocals), Kati Claborn (banjo, dulcimer, backing vocals), Ian Krist (vibraphones) and Dave Jorgensen (keyboards, trumpet) – and they come from Portland, Oregon, bearing delicious harmonies and lush, complex lyrics.
(Which they provide in PDF format on their website, thus endearing themselves to me even further. GO TEAM LINER NOTES!)
This is Half Moon, the first song on their new record, We Are The Tide:
And this is New York, the last song on the record, which I am posting partially because it is lovely and partially because they are playing here, in New York, at Webster Hall, on June 5:
After that the tour winds around quite a bit. And finally, for those of you squinting at festival line-ups and trying to decide which acts you’d like to catch: they’ll be at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, the Newport Folk Festival and Firefly.