Merge Records

Caribou

Caribou
From humble beginnings with the theft of a sampler gathering dust in his high school's music department, through four acclaimed albums and an absurd collision with a litigious wrestler, Dan Snaith's (aka Caribou) musical life has followed anything but a predictable trajectory.

As hinted at by the aforementioned penchant for abducting musical electronics, Dan began recording music in the solitary environs of rural Ontario, Canada when only 14 years old "Before I could drive, and living in the middle of nowhere in the countryside, there weren't many options aside from practicing music, playing music and recording music all in complete isolation," Dan explains but it wasn't until the release of his debut album Start Breaking My Heart then under the name, Manitoba - on the UK based Leaf Label that anyone noticed. His debut was praised worldwide as a unique statement in electronic music, fusing hopscotch melodies and filtered electronic sunshine with influences as diverse as the spiritual free jazz of the early 70's, North American indie music of the 90's and the post acid house UK techno.

The first twist in Snaith's musical narrative came when, having moved to London, UK in late 2001 to pursue a mathematics PhD at Imperial College, University of London, he confounded expectations by creating Up In Flames an album made by the same solitary means as its predecessor pieced together both of home recordings and samples of obscure records but which differed spectacularly in result. Up In Flames was an incendiary miasma of psychedelic rock and wall of sound production that belied the cramped confines in which it was recorded. Released by Domino Recording Co. in North America and The Leaf Label in the rest of the world, it took Snaith's music to new heights of exposure and critical praise.

This album was accompanied by a reinvention of Snaith's stage persona. From electronic performer and DJ, he re-emerged with a three piece band characterized by the twin pummelling of two drum kits, frenetic rotation between instruments as varied as the theremin and the flutophone, the day-glo videos of Dublin's Delicious 9 animation team and bear masks. Snaith and band toured throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia during 2003 and 2004, winning fans and sonically pulverizing audiences in equal measure.

In late 2004, in the most unexpected turn yet, Caribou was born out of the ashes of a lawsuit enacted by aging punk rocker turned wrestler Handsome "Dick" Manitoba. In surely one of the most bizarre trademark lawsuits in recent years Handsome "Dick" sued Snaith for unlawfully using the name Manitoba a name incidentally shared by one of Canada's ten provinces. Finding himself limited by the high-priced realities of trademark law, Snaith opted to take the high road and change his nom de rock to Caribou.

Unperturbed, Snaith returned to the studio and in the spring of 2005, released his most articulate and developed album to date with The Milk of Human Kindness. Inspired by the primal performances of bands such as Lightning Bolt and the Boredoms and by the motorik propulsion of the Silver Apples and early 70's Krautrock bands such as Neu!, Popol Vuh, and Can, it was ideally suited for live performance and in the ensuing nine months Caribou traversed the globe playing over 140 shows from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Guangzhou, China and nearly everywhere in between.

Following this period of exhaustive and exhausting touring Snaith returned home and for the first time, with his studies now completed and a bona fide Dr. of Mathematics, devoted himself entirely to recording. Entirely that is, barring weekly trampoline lessons. The result of a year buried in this compulsive and obsessive musical hibernation is 2007's Andorra, released by Merge Records in North America and City Slang in the rest of the world. The hard worked paid off: Andorra is Snaith's finest and most emotive album, where his trademark wide-screen production is married to a torrent of pop melodies which fall over one another as they leap out of the speakers. Each of the myriad precisely placed notes on the album were played by Dan himself with the exception of
"She's the One" - featuring the vocals of long time friend Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys.

Once again Caribou's live incarnation, now a four piece band consisting of Ryan Smith (guitars, keyboards, melodica, percussion), Andy Lloyd (bass, vocals), Brad Weber (drums, glockenspiel) and Dan (vocals, drums, guitars, keyboards, percussion, omnipresent flutophone), have been taking to the road in euphoric support of Caribou's development.

May there be many more surprises to come.

www.caribou.fm/site/
myspace.com/cariboumanitoba
05/12/09
Caribou mastermind, Dan Snaith took a break from recording the new Caribou album to update us on a few happenings this summer:


I’ve just added some summer festivals and DJ sets to our Live Dates. Hope to see you there!


In particular, the Flaming Lips have invited us to play at their ATP New York festival on September 13th. We’ve put together a special 14-piece band, named Caribou Vibration Ensemble, to play this show and a show at the Opera House in Toronto on Sept 10th.

Caribou Vibration Ensemble features Kieran Hebden (Four Tet, Fridge, Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid), Koushik (Stones Throw Records), John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac), Kathryn Bint (One Little Plane), Ahmed Gallab (Sinkane), a four piece horn section, choir, four drummers, etc.

In addition, for the ATP show only, we will be joined by MARSHALL ALLEN, Sun Ra Arkestra leader and Arkestra member for over 50 years!

At both shows we will be playing new and old Caribou songs reworked to make the most of this special line-up.


Also I’ve just done a remix of Cortney Tidwell’s track ‘Watusii’ under the name Daphni. It’s out on City Slang shortly.

Finally, Andy Lloyd who has played bass with us these last couple years is unfortunately not going to be playing with us in the future (apart from the Caribou Vibration Ensemble shows) as he’s now touring with our friends Born Ruffians. Andy is a dear friend and a great musician and will be sorely missed but we are very lucky that John Schmersal (Enon, Brainiac) will be joining Caribou and playing bass and singing with us from now on – starting with the upcoming shows this summer.

I think that’s it for now. Hope to see you at a show,

Dan

07.19.2009 Dour, Belgium Dour Festival
07.20.2009 Nijmegen, Netherlands de Affaire Festival Nijmegen, Saddlespan Valkhofpark
07.21.2009 Milan, Italy Parklife Festival
07.25.2009 Cambridgeshire, England Secret Garden Party
07.26.2009 Birmingham, England Supersonic Festiva
09.10.2009 Toronto, Opera House Caribou Vibration Ensemble
09.13.2009 Monticello, NY ATP NY Caribou Vibration Ensemble featuring Marshall Allen
People Eating Fruit single - Leaf 2004
Paul's Birthday single - Leaf 2001
Start Breaking My Heart CD/LP - Leaf 2001
Give'r single - Leaf 2001
If Assholes Could Fly This Would be an Airport single - Leaf 2003
Jacknuggeted single - Leaf 2003
Up in Flames CD/LP - Leaf 2003
Hendrix with KO single - Leaf 2003
Special Edition EP CD single - Leaf 2003
Up in Flames Special Edition double CD - Leaf 2003
Barnowl 12" single - Leaf 2005
Yeti 12" single/CD single - Leaf 2005
Tour CD CD - 2005
The Milk of Human Kindness CD/LP - Leaf 2005
Marino. The Videos DVD/Video - Leaf 2005
Andorra CD/LP - Merge Records 2007
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On Tour

American Music Club [+]

July
18 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge
19 Hudson, NY Jason's Upstairs
20 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell's
21 Cambridge, MA The Lizard Lounge
22 Albany, NY The Linda at WAMC
[see all]

Richard Buckner [+]

July
19 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg

Caribou [+]

July
19 Dour Dour Festival
20 Nijmegen de Affaire Festival Nijmegen, Saddlespan Valkhofpark
21 Milan Parklife Festival
25 Cambridgeshire Secret Garden Party
26 Birmingham Supersonic Festiva
[see all]

The Clientele [+]

July
19 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg

Destroyer [+]

July
17 Vancouver, BC Biltmore Cabaret
27 Atlanta, GA The Earl
28 Washington, DC Black Cat
29 Philadelphia, PA First Unitarian Church
30 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
[see all]

Lambchop [+]

November
13 Durham, NC Duke Performances @ Reynolds Theater

Oakley Hall [+]

July
21 Baltimore, MD Ottobar
August
02 Peekskill, NY Paramount Center for the Arts

Conor Oberst [+]

July
04 New York, NY Battery Park
07 Baltimore, MD Ottobar
08 Vienna, VA Wolf Trap Filene Center
09 Morgantown, WV 123 Pleasant St.
10 Wilmington, DE Frawley Stadium
[see all]

Pipe [+]

July
17 Chapel Hill, NC The Cave

Polvo [+]

July
30 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's
31 New York, NY South Street Seaport
August
01 Baltimore, MD Ottobar

She & Him [+]

July
26 Chapel Hill, NC Memorial Hall

Spoon [+]

July
09 Austin, TX Stubb's
10 Austin, TX Stubb's
11 Austin, TX Stubb's

Superchunk [+]

July
17 New York, NY Seaport Music Festival

Telekinesis [+]

September
05 Seattle, WA Bumbershoot Festival

M. Ward [+]

July
04 Utrecht Tivoli
05 Roskilde Roskilde Festival
23 Salt Lake City, UT Twilight Concert Series
27 Athens, GA 40 Watt Club
28 Nashville, TN Cannery Ballroom
[see all]

Wye Oak [+]

July
21 Baltimore, MD Ottobar
26 Chapel Hill, NC Memorial Hall
see all tour dates

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