Jarvis Cocker says Jeffrey Lewis is the finest lyricist of his generation and coming from him that’s quite an accolade.
We’re inclined to agree and really it’s quite undeniable when you hear him explain the history of communist China or being sexually assaulted on a train by Will Oldham through song with an ease that makes you forget he’s being limited by rhythm and rhyme.
Jeff’s the product of loving beatnik parents who raised him in New York’s Lower East Side in a tenement apartment with no television (it seems they’re on to something there). Before Jeffrey could even read he was crazy about comic books, which is probably why listening to his lo-fi anti folk punk rock feels a lot like reading one.
Jeffrey Lewis | Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=fiizrUsC_hY
Some of us actually get jealous the first time we’re just about to play someone Jeffrey, because they’re going to get to spend the next few months picking out favourite lines and hanging on every word until a story ends.
His songs are so full of self-deprecation, honesty, sadness, humour and truth that he’s nothing less than a gem to be held up and treasured. And in a world where a song that begins with the line “my life is brilliant” can stay at number one for over a month, we need that more than ever.
Jeffrey Lewis | The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=iP1mkWDXcY8
Freschard grew up in a farm in French Burgundy. She started organizing shows in the barn when she was about
12 years old. Aged 18 she moved to the big city, Paris, where she baked pies and cakes in a cafe. There, a local musician and regular customer called Andre Herman Dune wrote a few songs for her to sing.
She called her first E.P. “Neon Orange”. Homeless in Paris, she saved up just enough money to get herself a ticket to New York. There she found an old electric guitar and started writing her own songs. She recorded her second e.p., “Shower Gel”, with Mike Gomez on lapsteel guitar.
Freschard | Who The World Belongs To
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=O-ZTKSvh5b4
In 2004 she moved to Berlin, where she recorded her first LP, “Alien Duck”. Her second album, “Click Click”, recorded in 2006, features a drummer (Leo Bear Creek), and electric guitar by Stanley Brinks. On her third album, “moonstone”, she plays the drums herself. On her fourth and latest album “shh…” she also plays the flute.
Between tours, she works as a sound engineer and records her friends’ music. Among others she recorded “Yodels” by Stanley Brinks, “if you leave it alone” by the Wave Pictures. She also has a Calypso cover band with Stanley Brinks, called Kreuzberg Museum.
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Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard & Freschard LIVE
Sunday, 16 September 2012 | 20:00 CET
Festsaal Kreuzberg | Skalitzer Str. 130 | 10999 Berlin/Kreuzberg
thejeffreylewissite.com | freschard.bandcamp.com | festsaal-kreuzberg.de
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