Die Bright Eyes werden im Herbst auf ausgedehnte USA-Tour gehen.
Mit dabei als Support-Act: Lullaby For The Working Class!
 
Diese Band mit dem sprechenden Namen wurde 1994 von Mike Mogis und Ted Stevens (Cursive, Mayday) gegründet. Lassen wir Mike Mogis, der seit ca. 2000 Bandmitglied von Bright Eyes ist (die einige Male selbst Support-Act von Lullaby For The Working Class waren), selbst erzählen:
 
„Lullaby for the Working Class was the band I was in before Bright Eyes. Ted Stevens (Cursive, Mayday) and I started the band as an experiment to try and make more folk-based music with all acoustic instruments. Up until that point we had only really played in loud punk and rock bands so it was an entirely new approach and a new world for us.
 
I learned so much from my time with Ted and Lullaby, both as a musician and engineer/producer, that I would go on to employ heavily when I started working with this weird, little kid who Ted was friends with named Conor. We also took Conor on some of the earliest Bright Eyes tours opening for Lullaby and us acting as his backing band.
 
And when we started recording and needed some trumpet on our first records, which were the Consolation EP and Blanket Warm, I heard about this high school kid Nate Walcott and got his number from a mutual friend. He ended up playing on all our records and going on some tours with us. I have great memories of us all piled into our old Chevy Transvan driving around the country playing anywhere that would have us.
 
We also went on a really long tour of Europe, in the fall of 1997, and that was the first time any of us had been there. Back then everything was strange, new and exciting.
 
Lullaby ran its course and I went on to play in Bright Eyes full time (along with Nate eventually) and Ted joined Cursive and continued making his own records in Mayday and other projects. We reunited once in 2010 when Conor organized the Concert for Equality in Omaha to fight against a racist anti immigration law that had passed in Nebraska. That is the only time we played this century!“
 
Und warum steht das hier in diesem Rundbrief?
Klar: Weil ich Europaagent von Lullaby For The Working Class war – die „really long tour“, die sie 1997 gespielt haben. Ich hatte die Band 1996 bei der SXSW in Austin gesehen – sie galten damals als „really hot shit“ und haben ein ausverkauftes Showcase in einem kleinen Club namens „Hole in the Wall“ gespielt, der tatsächlich genau das war, mit einer ellenlangen Schlange davor. 
Ihr Sound war einmalig, das, was später „Americana“ genannt wurde, hat sich gerade erst entwickelt. Aber ihre Musik war wunderbar, und das galt auch für ihre inspirierten Konzerte (und dass Mike und Ted außerdem noch sehr freundliche und interessante Menschen sind, machte die Zusammenarbeit umso angenehmer).
 
Ich habe mir jetzt nochmal ihre beiden Alben angehört, „Blanket Warm“ und „I Never Even Asked for Light“ (beide auf Bar/None), und sie gehören immer noch zum Besten, was ich aus dem Genre kenne.

Those were the days of wine and roses… 
Lullaby For The Working Class gehören zu den Bands, die mir in meiner nun über 38-jährigen Agenturgeschichte besonders wichtig waren.