Brooklyn band Clare and the Reasons has premiered their new video for ‘The Lake,’ the first single released off their new album, KR-51, out now on Frog Stand. Directed by Benn Berbank-Green, the stop-motion video was shot in Berlin, following the album’s theme of being written and recorded in the city. The band is excited to kick off a run of Northeast dates with DeVotchKa, including three NYC performances this week. The new album follows the band’s critically acclaimed 2009 Arrow LP, and its debut album, The Movie, which included a collaboration with Van Dyke Parks and Sufjan Stevens. KR-51 will seep into your bones.
After touring with My Brightest Diamond and Van Dyke Parks over the past few years, Clare and the Reasons needed a new setting – one that would make them see and hear differently. The group moved to Berlin for 8 months, got a 1968 Schwalbe moped – model KR-51, and dreamed up the sounds of the new record. After months of writing, they packed up a van and drove to Haldern-Rees, a little German village, to record KR-51. These new songs carry the meticulous orchestration and innovative songwriting the band is known for, with a little more sorrow, a lot more distorted guitar, with Lotte Lenya’s convincing delivery and a little bit of early Kate Bush – darkness comfortably looms. The great James McAlister (Sufjan Stevens) played drums on the album. An orchestra made up of some members of Orchestre de Paris materialized and was recorded live in Paris- something the band considers a miracle.
This album is their Berlin.
9/23 – New York, NY – The Standard East (“Annie O music series” in the penthouse)
