Dan Melchior Signs Two Record Deal With Northern-Spy, Announces European Tour Dates

Brooklyn’s Northern-Spy Records is proud to announce the signing of the prolific spellbinder Dan Melchior to a two record deal, the first of which, Catbirds and Cardinals, is slated for release this September on vinyl and compact disc. The UK expat and current resident of Durham, North Carolina has released more than 15 full-length albums on a diverse set of independent labels including In the Red, Siltbreeze and Sympathy For The Record Industry, now finding a home at Northern-Spy. Although critics try to peg him as a bluesman or garage rocker, Dan Melchior shrugs them off with a direct, sardonic wit and poetic melody, snarling and lunging towards a hypnotically distorted singularity. From May 14th until May 28th, Dan Melchior Und Das Menace with be touring throughout the UK, Belgium, France, Germany and ending his jaunt at the prestigious Primavera Sound fest in Barcelona, Spain. More info below. PRESS “Off-kilter garage-meets-country & western rhythms serve as the fuzzy backdrop for Melchior’s shouted vocals and lyrics that are by turn absurd and brilliant.” – David Balthazar “It’s a fucking mess. Take that as high praise: Haunted and haunting…” – Grayson Currin “Melchior may not have the influence of an indie icon, but he’s of the most refreshing breed – a hard-working independent artist with ideas to spare.” – Spencer Hensel MORE ABOUT DAN MELCHIOR Starting out in London as a devotee of various blues and old time country musicians (Skip James, Dock Boggs, Robert Wilkins, etc) he soon found that slavish impersonation wasn’t the right route for him. After a period of mainly re interpreting traditional material, Melchior found a way to express his own concerns and ideas lyrically, and set about melding them to a backdrop of over driven, buzzsaw rock, with various collaborators. The resulting band was called the Broke Revue. Dan moved to NYC in 2000 to be with his (then girlfriend) Letha Rodman and to pursue playing in this band with American musicians including Brad Truax (Interpol). The Broke Revue released 5 albums on various underground labels, did a number of US tours, and eventually called it quits in 2004. Dan carried on writing and releasing records without respite, with ‘Hello, I’m Dan Melchior’ and ‘Firebreathing clones on Cellular phones’ emerging before he made the break and moved down to Durham NC in 2006. Since then, Melchior’s music has really come into its own – mostly under the moniker ‘Dan Melchior Und Das Menace’, (although no other musicians actually play on the recordings) successfully melding a hodge podge of disparate elements into a cohesive whole that brings to mind veteran UK and US underground bands like The Swell Maps, Andrew Klimek, Chrome and Alternative Television more than they do old blues men or the tweedy garage rock conservatives of his past. Catbirds and Cardinals is probably the most overtly ‘poppy’ Das Menace release, with songs like ‘Poison Pete’s Holiday’ and ‘English Shame’ lodging in the cranium like carpet warehouse jingles. The recordings retain the overdriven quality Melchior is known for but push the envelope sonically into some unexpected places, with the dream like synths of ‘Crow Radio number 1’ showing a marked departure from the overall guitar grime. DAN MELCHIOR UN DAS MENAS EUROPEAN TOUR May 14- Lyon (Grrrnd zero) May 17- London UK (Ryan’s Bar w Bomber Jackets) May 18- London (The Stags head w Pheromoans & Lot Lizards ) May 20- Kortrijk Belgium (The Pits) May 21- Hamburg (Komet) May 22- Munster (Gleis 22) May 23- Paris (La Mecanique de Ondulatoire) May 24- Bordeaux (The Ex-Saint) May 27- Barcelona (Primavera fest) May 28- Barcelona (Primavera fest) FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dan-MelchiorDan-Melchior-Und-Das-Menace/182570625115544 TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/DanMelchior ARTIST WEBSITE: http://danmelchior.net/ N-SPY ARTIST PAGE: http://northern-spy.com/artists/dan-melchior/ For interview requests, samples or booking contact Adam Downey: 949.300.2691 – [email protected]