Peter Sprague / Leonard Patton @ 98 Bottles, May 25
Robert Bush 5:13 p.m., May 24
The Drowning Men
Rory Dolan: Drums | Nato Bardeen: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Keyboards, Mandolin, Vocals | James Smith: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric), Vocals | Todd Eisenkerch: Bass guitar, Keyboards, Vocals | Gabriel Messer: Keyboards
Genre: Rock
RIYL: Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket
Breaking News
Their sophomore full-length All of the Unknown drops July 17, on the Borstal Beat label, followed by a five-week North American tour with River City Extension, hitting Washington DC, Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Chicago, and more.Upcoming Local Shows
No upcoming shows scheduled.
Discography
- Kill the Matador
- 2007
- All of the Unknown
- 2012
Related Links:
- Blurt: "Don't Take Exit 40" · Dec. 7, 2011
- Of Note: "Drowning Men Behead the Songbird" · Oct. 19, 2011
- CD Review: "Beheading of the Song Bird" · Jan. 3, 2010
- Blurt: "Men Be Drowning" · Dec. 3, 2008
Video
Synoposis
Influences: Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Flogging Molly, Alkaline Trio
Background:
The Drowning Men are five long-time San Diego friends, most of whom have grown up together and been in various bands with and without each other over the last 15 years, from fast punk to traditional Irish folk bands.
The founding core -- multi-instrumentalist singer Nathan (aka Nato) Bardeen, drummer Rory Dolan, and guitarist James Smith -- met in grade school in Oceanside. They had a long history of garage jamming. Before DM came together, Bardeen played in the Plug Uglies. When that band imploded, he went looking for his childhood bandmates to start something new. It was the right time for the melding of their Tom Waits–Nick Cave influences.
Their multi-instrumental, richly layered, sonic sound is evident on their self-released EP, Kill the Matador which features acoustic and electric guitar, electric bass, drums, synthesizer, mandolin, bouzouki, and fiddle.
The group experiments with their multi-flavored musical influences, blending folk and roots Americana with sing-along sea shanties and pirate chants, with side forays into Eastern European ethnic folk delivered with the rhythmic complexity of a Brecht-Weill opera.
“I love theatrical melodies and swells, and the purity of folk music from around the world”, explains Bardeen, the main lyricist and songwriter, whose personal influences include Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, and the bleak poetry of Nick Cave, whose novel And the Ass Saw the Angel inspired the band’s name.
Their 2009 album The Beheading of the Song Bird, produced by Pall Jenkins of San Diego’s Black Heart Procession, has the timeless conceptual feel of such contemporaries as Arcade Fire, the Decemberists and My Morning Jacket, blending folk and roots Americana with sing-along sea shanties and pirate chants, with side forays into Eastern European ethnic folk delivered with the rhythmic complexity of a Brecht-Weill opera.
After touring in 2011 with Flogging Molly, that band signed the Drowning Men to their Borstal Beat record label, with plans to reissue The Beheading of the Song Bird. Later that year, they toured with the Airborne Toxic Event, releasing a tour video featuring road footage set to their song “Rita.”
On November 18, 2011, another drive hit (and totaled) their van and trailer in Connecticut, while the band toured with the Airborne Toxic Event. They finished the tour by hitching rides with the headliners.
A new full-length was released in July 2012, All of the Unknown, on the Borstal Beat label.
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