Beirut | |
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Background information | |
Origin | Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 2006–present |
Labels |
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Members | Zach Condon Nick Petree Paul Collins Kyle Resnick Ben Lanz Aaron Arntz |
Past members | Jeremy Barnes Heather Trost Jason Poranski Kristin Ferebee Jon Natchez Tracy Pratt Greg Paulus Jared van Fleet Kelly Pratt Perrin Cloutier |
Website | www |
Beirut is an American band that was originally the solo musical project of Zach Condon. Beirut's music combines elements of indie rock and world music. The band's first performance with the full brass section was in New York, in May 2006, in support of their debut album Gulag Orkestar , [2] [3] though they performed their first show with Condon, Petree, and Collins at the College of Santa Fe earlier that year.
Condon named the band after Lebanon's capital, because of the city's history of conflict and as a place where cultures collide. [3] Beirut performed in Lebanon for the first time in 2014, at the Byblos International Festival.
Zach Condon was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on February 13, 1986. He grew up in Newport News, Virginia, and Santa Fe. [4] [5] Condon played trumpet in a jazz band as a teenager and cites jazz as a major influence. [6]
Condon attended Santa Fe High School, until dropping out when he was 17. [4] Work at a cinema showing international films piqued his interest in Fellini arias, Sicilian funeral brass, and Balkan music. [7]
Condon attended community college for a short period, then traveled to Europe at the age of 17 with his older brother, Ryan. [8] Condon's exploration of world music developed Beirut's melodic sound. [2] Zach's younger brother Ross Condon played in the band Total Slacker. [9] [10] [11] [12]
Returning from Europe, Condon enrolled at the University of New Mexico, where he studied Portuguese and photography. [4] Condon recorded most of the material for Gulag Orkestar alone in his bedroom, finishing the album in a studio with Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw), who became early contributors to the band.
Ba Da Bing Records signed Condon on the strength of the recordings. Condon recruited friends to play Gulag Orkestar's first live shows in New York in May 2006.
Beirut's first music video was for Elephant Gun , directed by Alma Har'el who also directed the band's second video "Postcards from Italy". Lon Gisland was the full band's first release in 2007.
In a review on Pitchfork, Brandon Stosuy called the album "an impressive and precocious debut." [13]
Beirut's second album, The Flying Club Cup, was recorded largely at a makeshift studio in Albuquerque and completed at Arcade Fire's studio in Quebec. The music on the album has a French influence due to Condon's interest in French chanson during its recording. [14] Condon has cited Francophone singers Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg, and Yves Montand as influences. [15] He also expressed interest in French film and culture, claiming this was his original reason for traveling to Europe. [16] The Flying Club Cup was officially released in October 2007. In September 2007 they did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon. The DVD Cheap Magic Inside was shot but quickly sold out; in December 2010, Beirut, Ba Da Bing, and La Blogothèque authorized its dissemination via digital download [17]
The Flying Club Cup has a score of 80 on Metacritic, meaning it is received generally favorable reviews. [18]
On April 3, 2008, Beirut canceled a previously announced summer European tour. [19] Already in 2006, Beirut canceled the European leg of the tour due in the fall because after two months of the US tour, Condon stated that he was exhausted. [20] Condon explained the cancellations in a post on the official Beirut website, stating that he wanted to put the effort into ensuring that any shows would be "as good as humanly possible". [21] In January 2009 the double EP March of the Zapotec/Holland EP was released, containing an official Beirut release based on Condon's recent trip to Oaxaca (March of the Zapotec ), and electronic music under the "Realpeople" name (Holland). [22] On February 6, 2009 Beirut made their debut television performance in the United States on the Late Show with David Letterman , performing "A Sunday Smile".
In early June 2011, amid touring the United States, Beirut announced that their newest album, The Rip Tide , which had been recorded the previous winter in upstate New York, [23] [24] was to be released on August 30. [23] [25] The band simultaneously released the single "East Harlem" (first recorded on Live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg), with the B-side "Goshen". The album was recorded, managed, and released under Condon's own Pompeii Records. [26] Reviewers and fellow musicians have noted that, unlike the prior albums which drew heavily on foreign music from Mexico, France, the Balkans, etc., this one has shown Beirut with its own, more pop-oriented sound; saying, "what emerges [on The Rip Tide] is a style that belongs uniquely and distinctly to Beirut, one that has actually been there all along." [27] One reviewer noted that "the Euro influences [of Beirut's previous albums] are still there, but the presiding spirit is old-fashioned American pop." [28] This album also differs from Beirut's previous albums in that the music was recorded as a band playing together rather than laying down individual tracks one at a time, though the lyrics were only added by Condon after all the music had been recorded. [7]
On June 1, 2015, Beirut announced their fourth album, No No No , released on September 11, 2015. [29] On the same day, the title track "No No No" was released for streaming. The album was recorded following a period of turmoil in Condon's life, facing a divorce and having been admitted into a hospital in Australia for exhaustion following extensive touring. Beirut also announced a tour for the album. [29]
On October 22, 2018, Condon announced Beirut's next album, Gallipoli , released on February 1, 2019. The album is named after the Italian town where Condon wrote the title track. [30] On January 10, 2019, the music video for Beirut's new song "Landslide" was released. [31] On February 9, 2019, Beirut appeared on the "Saturday Sessions" segment of CBS This Morning's Saturday program, playing selections from "Gallipoli."
The inspiration for Gallipoli started with an old Farfisa organ that Condon had shipped to New York from his parents' home in New Mexico. He acquired the organ in high school when a traveling circus left it in the warehouse of his old workplace. The organ had broken keys and functions, but he managed to write most of his first and large parts of his second albums on it. [32] Condon started writing the first songs of Gallipoli on this organ sometime in late 2016 at his home in Brooklyn. As songwriting progressed to the studio, Gabe Wax (the producer of No No No) was brought in to help usher in the particular sonic qualities of Gallipoli, which consisted of pushing every instrument and sound to its "near breaking point" (much as he did years ago with the old, broken Farisa organ), by channeling instruments through broken amplifiers, tape machines and PA systems. [33] Recording commenced in fall 2017, after travels through Europe, at Sudestudio in Guagnano, Italy, with the help of studio owner Stefano Manca. Gallipoli was completed with final vocals, mixing and mastering happening at both Condon's apartment and Vox Ton studios in Berlin, Germany. [34]
On October 20, 2021, Beirut announced their next album, Artifacts, to be released January 28, 2022, via the release of the single "Fisher Island Sound" on the band's official YouTube channel. [35] The album is a compilation of "collected EPs, singles, B-sides and early work," [36] including a re-release of the Lon Gisland EP. [37] The album was released via Pompeii Records on January 28, 2022.
On August 30, 2023, Beirut announced their next album, Hadsel , and released the first single "So Many Plans" on the band's official YouTube channel. [38] The album was released via Pompeii Records on November 10, 2023. The album is "named for the Northern Norwegian island where the performer spent time in 2020". [39] In a 4/5 star review in The Guardian Hadsel was described by reviewer Dave Simpson as "a triumphant celebration of life". [40]
Condon plays a rotary-valve trumpet and the ukulele as his main instruments. He bought the ukulele as a joke stage prop, but found he liked the sound and was able to play it despite a wrist injury that inhibited him from playing guitar. Condon also plays the piston trumpet, euphonium, mandolin, accordion, various keyboard instruments, and a modified conch shell that appears on The Flying Club Cup . [2] [41] [42] [43]
Live, Beirut's roster generally consists of:
Past members include:
The majority of the members of Beirut have performed live as well as appeared on recorded material.
Realpeople is Zach Condon's electronic side-project. It was under this name that Condon made his first (unreleased) album, The Joys of Losing Weight, and the name to which the Holland EP is credited. The Joys of Losing Weight, which was made when Condon was fifteen, has never been released officially, but has been leaked on the internet.
Condon has also released an EP, Small-Time American Bats, under the name "1971". The EP was recorded with his friend Alex Gaziano on guitar and vocals, when they were both around 16 years old (2002). Gaziano is a founding member of Kidcrash, another band from Santa Fe.
Soft Landing was a project started by Beirut members Paul Collins (bass) and Perrin Cloutier (accordion) and Mike Lawless. [44] Their eponymous debut album was released on October 12, 2010 on Ba Da Bing records, [45] and has been described as "a pop version of Beirut" [46] and freak-folk, [47] with a heavy emphasis on dance beats and sheer energy. [48]
Pompeii Records is the record label founded in 2009 by Zach Condon [49] in order to give the band and himself full control over their music. The first recordings released on the label were the band's double EP, March of the Zapotec/Holland EP.
Condon plays the mandolin, trumpet and ukulele on A Hawk and a Hacksaw's album A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble , and trumpet and ukulele on Alaska in Winter's album Dance Party in the Balkans . He appears on Get Him Eat Him's album Arms Down on the song "2×2".
Condon is featured on the song "Found Too Low RMX" by fellow Santa Fe-native Pictureplane and appears on the first and last tracks of the Grizzly Bear EP Friend .
Condon also appeared on The New Pornographers' fifth album Together. [50]
Rock group Blondie's 2011 album Panic of Girls features a ska cover of "A Sunday Smile" on which Condon plays trumpet. He also plays on "Le Bleu". [51] [52]
On the benefit album Red Hot + Rio 2 , Beirut performed a cover of the Portuguese-language song "O Leãozinho", written by Brazilian composer and singer Caetano Veloso.
Condon is featured singing on the track "We Are Fine" on indie rocker Sharon Van Etten's 2012 album Tramp .
Condon also contributed to four songs on Mouse on Mars' 2018 album Dimensional People.
Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Sales | ||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [53] | US Rock [54] | AUT [55] | FRA [56] | GER [57] | IRE [58] | NLD [59] | NZ [60] | SWE [61] | SWI [62] | UK [63] | |||||||
Gulag Orkestar |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| ||||
The Flying Club Cup |
| 118 | — | — | 64 | — | 51 | 54 | — | — | 94 | 69 |
| ||||
The Rip Tide |
| 80 | 15 | 20 | 42 | 69 | 89 | 28 | 26 | 52 | 29 | 49 |
| ||||
No No No |
| 46 | 10 | 12 | 24 | 38 | 62 | 13 | 39 | — | 38 | 37 | |||||
Gallipoli |
| — | 42 | 10 | 75 [66] | 21 | — | 36 | — | — | 21 | 61 | |||||
Hadsel |
| — | — | 40 [67] | — | 68 [68] | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. |
Again in 2011, they contributed a cover of Caetano Veloso's song "O Leãozinho" to the Red Hot Organization's most recent charitable album Red Hot+Rio 2. The album is a follow-up to the 1996 Red Hot+Rio. Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues.
Interpol is an American rock band from Manhattan, New York. Formed in 1997, their original line-up consisted of Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler, Carlos Dengler, and Greg Drudy (drums). Drudy left the band in 2000 and was replaced by Sam Fogarino. Dengler left to pursue other projects in 2010, with Banks taking on the additional role of bassist instead of hiring a new one.
A Hawk and a Hacksaw is an American folk duo from Albuquerque, New Mexico, currently signed to L.M. Duplication. The band consists of accordionist Jeremy Barnes, who was previously the drummer for Neutral Milk Hotel and Bablicon, and violinist Heather Trost. The music is inspired by Eastern European, Turkish and Balkan traditions, and is mostly instrumental. They have released six albums and have toured internationally. The first four albums and an EP were released on The Leaf Label and afterwards on their own label L. M. Duplication.
Gulag Orkestar is the debut album of Beirut. It was recorded in 2005 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Gulag was a Soviet government agency administering criminal justice, while orkestar is the Serbo-Croatian word for "orchestra".
Lon Gisland is an EP by Beirut, released on CD by Ba Da Bing! Records in January 2007 and on single-sided 12" LP by Chouette Records.
The Flying Club Cup is the second studio album by Balkan folk-influenced indie folk band Beirut, released on October 9, 2007 on 4AD Records. The album was released on iTunes on September 4, 2007.
No Age is an American noise rock duo consisting of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt. The band is based in Los Angeles, California, and was signed to Sub Pop records from 2008 to 2013. No Age's fourth studio album, Snares Like a Haircut, was released by Drag City on January 26, 2018. Drag City also released Goons Be Gone, their fifth studio album, on June 5, 2020, and their sixth studio album People Helping People in 2022.
Alaska in Winter is an American electronic band, consisting of frontman Brandon Bethancourt, who dropped out of art school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and reportedly, "spent a semester in a tiny cabin out in the middle of nowhere Alaska recording music on a laptop during the winter", and which later came to be known as the project, "Alaska in Winter".
Blind Pilot is an American indie folk band based in Portland, Oregon, United States. They have released four albums and one EP since 2008.
March of the Zapotec/Holland is a double EP by Beirut. March of the Zapotec contains music influenced by Zach Condon's then recent trip to Oaxaca, Mexico. The Jimenez Band, a 19-piece band from Teotitlán del Valle, backs Condon on this EP. March of the Zapotec also features one of Condon's favorite works, "The Shrew". Holland contains electronic music, credited to "Realpeople", one of Condon's pre-Beirut pseudonyms.
Wavves is an American rock band based in San Diego, California. Formed in 2008 by singer-songwriter Nathan Williams, the band also features Alex Gates, Stephen Pope and Ross Traver.
Together is the fifth studio album by Canadian indie rock band the New Pornographers. It was released on May 4, 2010 and debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200.
Sharon Katharine Van Etten is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She has released the albums Because I Was in Love (2009), Epic (2010), Tramp (2012), Are We There (2014), Remind Me Tomorrow (2019) and We've Been Going About This All Wrong (2022).
Kelly Pratt is an arranger and multi-instrumentalist best known for his horn work in the band Beirut and with David Byrne.
The Rip Tide is the third studio album by the American indie folk band Beirut, released on August 30, 2011.
Walk off the Earth is a Canadian indie pop band from Burlington, Ontario. The group is known for its music videos of covers and originals. The band is well known for covering pop-genre music on YouTube, making use of instruments such as the ukulele and the theremin, as well as looping samples. The band's recorded music and videos are produced by member and multi-instrumentalist Gianni "Luminati" Nicassio.
"East Harlem" is a song by indie folk band Beirut, from the band's third studio album The Rip Tide. The song was digitally released as a single on June 3, 2011 with "Goshen" as its B-side. The single was physically released on June 6, 2011 with limited copies and released on June 14, 2011 on Pompeii on blue, white, and red vinyl with a supply of 2,000 copies of each color.
No No No is the fourth studio album by indie folk band Beirut. It was released on September 11, 2015 on 4AD.
LNZNDRF is an American indie rock supergroup based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The group is a collaboration between Ben Lanz and Aaron Arntz, and brothers Scott and Bryan Devendorf.
Gallipoli is the fifth studio album by indie folk band Beirut. It was released on February 1, 2019 by 4AD. The album is named after the Italian town where the title track was written. It is supported by the singles "Gallipoli", "Corfu" and "Landslide". The band toured across North America and Europe in support of the album in 2019.
Hadsel is the sixth studio album by indie folk band Beirut, released on November 10, 2023, through Pompeii Records, the band's own label. Frontman Zach Condon wrote and produced the majority of the album himself. The album was announced alongside the release of the lead single "So Many Plans". It received positive reviews from critics.
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