The Marfa Book Company and Marfa Public Radio are proud to present a performance with Lower Dens, of Baltimore, MD, at the West Texas Utilities Building, near the corner of Highland and Texas Streets. The show begins at 8 PM, and admission is $5.
To hear Lower Dens, visit their page on NPR Music.
Swarming guitar fuzz, bass waves, insistent drum throbs and Jana Hunter’s redolent, charred voice are the core components of Lower Dens. Hunter, sometimes known for intimate, ghostheavy weird-fi, now writes and plays with a group that might get filed under new wave, or drone pop, or post-punk. Marfa residents may remember Hunter from her solo performance at the Thunderbird Hotel in September of 2008.
Lower Dens formed in early 2009, when Hunter set about finding a full-time band. They spent the rest of the year sweating in attics and basements, and only stepped out of the shadows to do a quick tour and record.
Lower Den’s debut full-length record, Twin-Hand Movement, is eleven perfect songs long. From opener “Blue & Silver” (anxiety mounts at a quick clip until the final climactic release) to “Plastic & Powder” (a churning, narcotic slow-burner) to “Hospice Gates” (penultimate album cut, proud weirdo anthem, possible creative zenith), not one is a space-waster. They’re rife with the survivalist paranoia one expects from residents of a post-urban port hole (and this particular songwriter), crafted methodically and beautifully, and carry the listener enthusiastically out into the rolling breaks of industrial filth-water.
Tim Johnson of the Marfa Book Company will preview the Lower Dens concert during Marfa Public Radio’s “Talk at Ten” program on Thursday at 10 AM. The concert preview will replay at 6:30 PM. After the concert in Marfa, the band continues their tour in Austin, Houston, and New York.