• Hello Love
    January 25, 2012

    Hello Love,

    And now it is the year two thousand and twelve. If, as some have predicted, this is the last year of humanity, at least we had a pretty good run at existing. And now on to far more important things.

    I just took the first real vacation of my life. I’ve been traveling frequently for a long time, but I’ve never just gone somewhere hot and read books and enjoyed margaritas for a week. So that’s pretty cool. Go me. I needed it. I pretended that I’d never heard of things like Facebook or Twitter. I have since remembered that they exist. So that’s pretty cool.

    It’s already stacking up to be a busy year. To begin with, we’re going to Europe and Australia very soon. To boot, we’re going to be supported in Europe by one of my favourite Canadian bands Zeus. If you don’t know them, you should feel ashamed of yourself, but relieved to now know. For some of our European dates, we’ll also have our usual compadres The Crackling on board. That’s Kenton’s band – and he also plays drums when it’s my turn to sing. So that’s pretty cool.

    We’re also shooting TWO music videos in the next few weeks! Soon we will have visual accompaniment for two songs from Oh Fortune: “About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All” (directed by Stuart Gillies) and “Post-War Blues” (directed by Kevin Eastwood, who also produced an acclaimed feature film called “Eco-Pirate” about Paul Watson, an original co-founder of Greenpeace who now wages aggressive nautical war on illegal whale hunters through his organization Sea Shepherd)”.

    If I can be afforded a moment of pure vanity here, I wanted to also share the news of some recent press. Oh Fortune received unanimous glowing reviews from big British publications like NME, The Guardian, Q and Uncut. All this was topped off with a brilliant pull-quote from The Sunday Times in London: “On a beautiful record that balances lyrical bleakness with bursts of colour, Mangan confirms his position as one of the most thought-provoking writers of his generation.” So that’s pretty cool. Imagine that. We are now astronomically huge all over the world. Watch out, Beyonce!

    Here are the dates that I want you to know about. Join us, won’t you?

    CANADA
    Feb 3 | Guelph, ON | River Run Centre (Hillside Inside Festival) w/ The Wooden Sky, Lowlands | Tickets
    Mar 24 | Toronto, ON | The Indie Awards @ The Royal York w/ Passion Pit, The Sheepdogs, Rich Aucoin & more | Tickets

    AUSTRALIA
    Feb 22 | Melbourne, VIC (Northcote) | Northcote Social Club | Tickets
    Feb 24 | Sydney, NSW (Newtown) | Notes | Tickets
    Feb 25 | Byron Bay, NSW | The Norther | Tickets
    Feb 26 | Brisbane, QLD (Fortitude Valley) | Black Bear Lounge | Tickets
    Feb 28 | Adelaide, SA | The Grace Emily | Tickets
    Feb 29 | Perth, WA (Fremantle) | The Fly Trap | Tickets

    USA
    Mar 13-17 | Austin, TX | SXSW Festival (TBA)

    EUROPE
    Apr 7 | Eindhoven, NL | Effenaar w/ The Crackling | Tickets
    Apr 8 | Utrecht, NL | Tivoli De Helling w/ The Crackling | Tickets
    Apr 9 | Hamburg, DE | Uebel and Gefaehrlich w/ The Crackling | Tickets
    Apr 12 | Osnabruck, DE | PopSalon Festival | Tickets
    Apr 13 | Bremen, DE | Schlachthof w/ The Crackling | Tickets
    Apr 14 | Berlin, DE | Lido w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 16 | Erlangen, DE | E-Werk w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 17 | Vienna, AU | Fluc w/ Zeus | Tickets available soon
    Apr 18 | Munich, DE | Hansa 39 w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 19 | Cologne, DE | Gebaeude 9 w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 20 | Rotterdam, NL | Motel Mozaique | Tickets
    Apr 21 | Reutlingen, DE | Burning Eagle Festival | Tickets
    Apr 23 | Aarau, CH | Kiff w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 24 | Frankfurt, DE | Brotfabrik w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 25 | Trier, DE | Exhaus w/ Zeus | Tickets Available Soon
    Apr 26 | Antwerp, BE | Trixbar w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 27 | Brighton, UK | The Hope w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 28 | Manchester, UK | Castle w/ Zeus | Tickets
    Apr 29 | Glasgow, UK | Stereo w/ Zeus | Tickets
    May 1 | Newcastle, UK | Cluny 2 w/ Zeus | Tickets
    May 2 | Bristol, UK | Louisiana w/ Zeus | Tickets
    May 3 | London, UK | Bush Hall w/ Zeus | Tickets
    May 4 | Oxford, UK | Jericho Tavern w/ Zeus | Tickets

    I hope this is your happiest year yet – only to be outdone, perhaps, by the year after. And so on, and so forth.

    Much love,

    Dan


  • On a boat in Berlin part 2
    January 14, 2012

    “Leaves, Trees, Forest”.
    Part way through, a woman across the canal joins operatically.

    Shot/directed by Martin Jörg & Christian Plähn in Berlin for “Noise / Bunch.tv“, December 2011.


  • The Sunday Times reviews Oh Fortune
    January 5, 2012

    Great review London-side.


  • Oh alright I can’t stand it I must do a top 10 of 2011
    January 5, 2012

    After reading countless top 10 lists from the last year, my will power is gone and now I must throw in my two cents, which are deflating in value now that we’re technically in 2012. To make my offering even less valuable, I’m giving no insight or comments and confessing that it is unfairly Canadian.

    (in no particular order)

    Colin Stetson ~ New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

    Bry Webb ~ Provider

    Chad VanGaalen ~ Diaper Island

    Deleted Scenes ~ Young People’s Church Of The Air

    Radiohead ~ King Of Limbs

    Kurt Vile ~ Smoke Ring For My Halo

    Braids ~ Native Speaker

    Bon Iver ~ Bon Iver, Bon Iver

    Timber Timbre ~ Creep On Creepin On

    The Luyas ~ Too Beautiful To Work


  • On a boat in Berlin.
    December 30, 2011

    Shot/directed by Martin Jörg & Christian Plähn in Berlin for “Noise / Bunch.tv“, December 2011.


  • O. Henry House – Austin, TX – Kiyanna Project
    December 14, 2011

    Courtesy of Kiyanna Project.


  • Breakthru Radio
    December 13, 2011

    While in NYC this fall, the band did a session with BreakthruRadio. Here she be!


  • Praise for “Oh Fortune”
    November 27, 2011

    Well, Oh Fortune has now been available in North America (thanks to Arts & Crafts) for a few months now. This week, it embarks on its European release via Berlin-based label City Slang. We’ve been fortunate enough to receive an overwhelming amount of rave reviews and press. Here are some tidbits.

    “Packed with grandiose Grizzly Bear harmonies (highlight – ‘Rows of Houses’) and slow-building, orchestral touches (‘How Darwinian’), Oh Fortune spans a wider spectrum than its folky core might imply, adding a grandeur and a refreshing cerebral spin to proceedings.”
    - NME

    “This is a perspective that strikes, simply, as wise, a fact that is really what separates Mangan from similarly scruffy singer-songwriters, to say nothing of pop musicians in general: Oh Fortune is one of the rare albums that is a kind of education in how to be human in a strange and — as its namesake amply demonstrates — harsh world.”
    - The National Post

    “Canadian acoustic troubadour invents post-folk…a great artistic leap…Mangan serves up the welcome alternative”
    - Q

    “Oh Fortune offers deeper delights and songs you can truly sink your teeth into.”
    - Exclaim!

    “Hugely impressive… An album of songs with wry, razor-sharp, self-observational lyrics and arrangements that are deceptively complex.” (****)
    – The Times

    “He released a career defining record, and came back with something much bolder and self-assured than just another song writer record.”
    - Herohill

    “After hearing Oh Fortune, my heart dropped and my lungs were filled with anticipation. There simply was no room for air, let alone words.”
    - The Fulcrum

    “Oh Fortune offers musings on the darkness of our times, but the album really resonates because, deep down, these are really Mangan’s stories, his concerns and his questions, delivered with a reinvigorated wit and a reinvented sound.”
    - The Vancouver Sun

    “Mangan has created a land of dreams on Oh Fortune, showing the same signs of artistic restlessness which have characterized the output of bands like Radiohead and Wilco in recent years. Change can be painful and unsettling, sometimes it’s easier to turn back, but great artists know how liberating and exciting new music can be.”
    - The Line Of Best Fit

    “Textured, poignant and meticulous as an expressionist painting, Oh Fortune will leave an enduring print in your mind.”
    - Hour

    “With that fuller and more expansive sound, a Polaris Prize is certainly within reach.”
    - FFWD

    “A cathartic masterpiece, rectifies the unrest beautifully, earning Mangan a warranted likening to Bon Iver. What’s most impressive is Mangan’s ability to address difficult metaphysical questions without sounding too inflated.”
    - Vivoscene

    “[Mangan] has leapt ahead not one or two steps, but three or four. ”
    - NOW Toronto

    “Oh Fortune serves as a major landmark for Canadian independent songwriters, and will likely be seen as one of 2011’s strongest homegrown efforts.”
    - Western Gazette

    “Mangan’s raw, haunting timbre easily evokes the slate-grey skies, the foreboding trees and the damp chill of a sleepy Northwestern logging town where are nothing as they seem and hidden heartaches linger close to the surface (think David Lynch’s Twin Peaks). This is spine-tingling good stuff from one of Canada’s best songwriters. ”
    - Uptown

    “Dan Mangan’s always been an unusually sharp example of the singer-songwriter: packing clever hooks with world-wizened lyrics that seem awash in personal details while still being capable of delivering on some universal insight. I suppose that’s really the name of the game, but Mangan’s always been a little better, his songwriting a bit tighter and more confident, with more going on under the surface than. Oh Fortune, his third full-length, only further chisels that reputation into marble.”
    - Vue Weekly

    “The Vancouver folk singer’s second is much more full but still as stark and beautiful, brilliantly employing horns and strings to support his honeyed baritone.”
    - Philadelphia Inquirer

    “Warm, cold, up, down, dirty, clean, Mangan has mapped it all out quite astutely, with an impressive attention to even the most minor details. Like a tidal wave in a goldfish bowl.”
    -Rhythm Circus

    “Although the Vancouverite and Polaris Prize shortlister is the maitre d’, his voice perfectly able to become more gravelly should the crescendo warrant it, this neo-rootsy album feels like a collaborative journey, as if the entire village was needed to enthusiastically exorcise his own dark lyrical demons.”
    - Montreal Mirror

    “Oh Fortune refuses to take up residence in any pigeonhole”
    - Ottawa Express

    “it is “Rows of Houses” that blows everything else out of the pool here. I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s one of the songs of the year…Impressive.”
    - Impose Magazine


  • The Guardian
    November 27, 2011

    I’m proud to say I recently wrote an article for The Guardian newspaper. It’s not only a media point I frequently read, but a fine worldwide source for worldwide news.

    The article is more specifically for the Film & Music section – and talks about vulnerability in art, and what it means to truly get inside a performance. I kind of realized after the fact that even writing about vulnerability or talking about that aspect of performance is a vulnerable thing to do. How fitting.

    I would like to add that when I speak of vulnerability, I’m not talking about “sensitivity”. Those are two different things. I’m talking about being porous to the universe – being fully alive in the moment. The hardest, most intense punk-rock show I ever saw was vulnerable. I recently watched some old footage of Nirvana performing. Best believe they were vulnerable. It’s not about being soft, it’s about being honest. Sometimes, being honest might mean being soft, but the two are not one in the same.

    Anyhow – you can read the article HERE.

    Ciao,

    Dan


  • London Show Dec 8 | End Of The Road Christmas Shindig!
    November 15, 2011

    Christmas parties galore!