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Today, The Barr Brothers released the first music video from their celebrated new album Queens of the Breakers (out now/Secret City Records). The video pairs the rollicking, burning blues of It Came to Me with visuals to match: a careening, down-and-dirty lawn mower race straight from the far reaches of Canada.
Watch It Came to Me premiering via Brooklyn Vegan // Rolling Stone France.
The video was captured at a hundred-year-old agricultural fair in Shigawake, Quebec (pop. 300). Though it’s 12 hours outside of Montreal, thousands of people flock to the fair every year. Many come for a newer addition, a music festival that's been organized for the past nine years by Meghan Clinton, the wife of drummer Andrew Barr, who is from the remote town herself. The Barr Brothers have performed at the music festival and this year decided to bring a videographer along, who captured some of the footage with a Super 8. The lawn mower mud-racing event shown in the video is a perfect complement to the down-and-dirty sound of It Came to Me mud-splattered, unapologetic, ecstatic. Watching it, you can't help but feel caked in mud, with the smell of booze and wood smoke hanging in the damp air.
« For us and everyone up there, [the music festival] has become the party of the summer…. This year when I heard that the video's director Vincent was coming to the fair to do some filming, I called him and requested he bring a couple good cameras and a rain poncho… Vincent dug in deep, making friends with the fairgoers, capturing some of the absurd moments and the seamless clashing of worlds that seems like it could only happen in Shigawake. » – Andrew Barr
Qeens of the Breakers has been met with raves from Paste (8.7/10), Under the Radar, Magnet, Q Magazine, Exclaim!, and more. The title track was premiered by NPR Music, who called it “a perfect illustration of the band's attention to musical detail with memorable results.” As the first radio single in North America, It Came to Me, has been #1 three times already on the CBC Radio2 chart in Canada while the band witnessed their strongest debut at radio in history in the United States.
Watch The Barr Brothers perform Song That I Heard off Queens of the Breakers in a glowing Relix session in New York last month and listen them discuss the origins of the album (and have a jam session using objects they found around the studio) on WNYC’s The Takeaway in October.
Featuring brothers Brad and Andrew Barr, and harpist Sarah Page, The Barr Brothers will embark on a massive international tour next month that begins with a European run with The War On Drugs followed by the band’s biggest-ever North American tour to date.
Queens of the Breakers takes its name from The Breakers, a Vanderbilt mansion perched atop Newport, Rhode Island’s rocky coastline. As teenagers, brothers Brad and Andrew Barr were part of a mischievous group of friends that would descend upon Newport dressed in their mothers’ clothing; the better to shock the tourists. It's a vehicle for reflection: a tight group of friends that grew apart, now seen through a Terrence Malick Tree Of Life-like haze.
« Their most richly-coloured record to date. ★★★★ » – Q Magazine
« Busy without ever feeling overcrowded, its liquid acoustics following the soft contours of Brad's vocals to telling effect. » – Uncut
« Shimmering vocal harmonies and a rolling undercurrent of acoustic/electric guitar and harp bring the brothers' summer memories to life - it's a remarkably visual album in this way. » – Magnet Magazine
« This is a rich and compelling record that deserves and rewards your close attention. 9/10 » – Exclaim!
« Meticulous dream-weaving. » – Mojo
« ★★★★ » – Rolling Stone France
« ★★★★ » – VOIR
« Gorgeous » – Brooklyn Vegan
Listen to Queens of the Breakers by clicking here.
TheBarrBrothers.com
    
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