“Cabic makes the kind of music you get more deeply hooked into over time, listening as a once-familiar sound builds and expands, prompting you to realize that, somewhere along the way, you have maybe grown and discovered a little too.” – Vogue
“…their neo-psych musings are always tender and accessible, as quirky and warm as a well-worn Nick Drake tape.” – Pitchfork
“Vetiver offer an antidote to everything gauche and obvious about guitar music…” – The Line of Best Fit
Following the release of his seventh studio album ‘Up On High’ (out now on Loose), VETIVER is heading out on a special tour of the UK and Ireland this Winter.
In something of a rarity, the upcoming dates will see Andy Cabic taking to the stage without the accompaniment of his backing band, as he performs tracks from his latest record and highlights from his growing repertoire. Speaking about the upcoming solo shows Cabic says:
“Closing out this year with my first time touring solo, in the UK. Couldn’t’ be more excited for you to hear the songs the way I heard them when I initially wrote them.”
Support at a number of the shows also comes from Loose label-mates Treetop Flyers, who will be playing as an acoustic trio for the tour.
Vetiver will play the following UK & Ireland shows this Winter:
04 Dec – LONDON Spiritland (DJ set)
06 Dec – SHEFFIELD The HUBS
07 Dec – LIVERPOOL 81 Renshaw*
08 Dec – MANCHESTER Yes*
09 Dec – DURHAM Old Cinema Launderette
10 Dec – EDINBURGH Sneaky Pete’s
11 Dec – GLASGOW Mono
13 Dec – LEEDS Headrow House
14 Dec – BIRMINGHAM The Cuban Embassy*
15 Dec – BRIGHTON The Brunswick *
16 Dec – BRISTOL Rough Trade*
17 Dec – LONDON O2 Academy2 Islington*
* with Treetop Flyers
Andy Cabic’s musical being is, like many curious 21st century musicians, shaped and sustained by divergent tangents. If he’s not crafting a melancholy folk rock diamond in his Northern California studio, he’s moving a dance floor with bossanova and house DJ sets, or helping curate a compilation of Japanese City Pop.
What’s magic about this new Vetiver LP Up On High is the way these tangents colour the ten songs without undermining a distinct move to more elemental, spacious and natural arrangements. At the heart of each of these ten songs is Cabic’s voice: sweet, tender and weathered – a welcome and soothing old friend if ever there was one. There are other familiar friends: the album also features longtime engineer and collaborator Thom Monahan and the same resourceful and versatile band that helped Cabic make the more dense and layered Complete Strangers from 2015.
Up On High was written on acoustic guitar. Having moved twice since Complete Strangers, increasingly accustomed to a life in and out of boxes, it was the easiest instrument to reach for in moments of inspiration. The basic tracking of the album took place over a few Spring days at a friend’s house in the high desert of California. This simple set-up captured the organic immediacy of a roomful of friends playing together on the floor. It’s alive and ever so subtly crackling with the intensity of a band working together, teasing out the melody and rhythms of songs with warmth and intimacy. Cabic and Monahan took the fruits of this session to Los Angeles and finished the album at Monahan’s studio over the summer as other friends popped by to lend their talents.
This album reflects the world that Cabic created and lives in: Jorge Ben phrasings peek out from behind Tom Petty’s Wildflowers outtakes, a gentle jangle lifts whispers of REM’s Murmur on a breeze up from Compass Point Studios. But Up On High is most clearly Cabic and his band inhabiting the realm the band was born in—sleek, economical, soulful, and sometimes sadness-tinged melodies riding on the gentle choogle and sway of an ensemble moving in beautiful unison. This is an album that breathes with you in real, lived in, natural time.
