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October 6, 2008

Department of Eagles - The Bell House 10.06.08


via iamtheeric

Beautiful. I had a stupid grin on my face the entire time. Department of Eagles had their record release show tonight at The Bell House, and I was lucky to get a ticket at the last minute (Thanks, Jason!). As you may know, DOE is another project of Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen. Along with Dan is his NYU roommate, Fred Nicolaus. Chris Bear and Chris Taylor, both from Grizzly Bear, also contributed to the new DOE album, In Ear Park. Despite all the Grizzly presence, DOE is not Grizzly Bear, minus Ed Droste, plus Fred Nicolaus. Well, musically speaking, anyway. To me, DOE's music has a very romantic, nostalgic quality. While listening to their music, I usually picture an old reel of my childhood. My idealized childhood, that is.

The night opened with Nat Baldwin, an experimental double bass artist from Maine. After his bit, he came back on with DOE as the bassist (Where was Chris Taylor? I didn't see him at all). As expected, Department of Eagles played plenty of material from In Ear Park, including "No One Does It Like You," which they said was their only "pop song." My personal favorite was "Sailing by Night," the first Department of Eagles song I had ever heard. While this was a release show for the new album, DOE whipped out a few pleasant surprises. They played the non-album "1997," which debuted on Stereogum last week. There were two new untitled songs, one of which was dedicated to Ed Droste. Still, the best dedicated song was Dan Rossen's cover of "Too Little, Too Late (JoJo)," the song that he recorded for Ed's birthday last year. It's too bad Dan didn't play "Deep Blue Sea," even though it was requested by the audience. Apparently, it's not something he does, despite that he had done it on a Takeaway Show, as someone pointed out.

By the way, I can't believe Dan Rossen is originally from LA? Says Wikipedia. He certainly has an accent, and I would have guessed Canadian or something. He's certainly not Southern, although the members of Grizzly Bear call him "Jimmy John" whenever he plays his banjo or does anything else that's remotely Southern. Reminds me of Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches back home.

In Ear Park is now available for purchase. Department of Eagles will perform again tomorrow for the Revenge of the Bookeaters Benefit.

No One Does It Like You - Department of Eagles


Floating on the Lehigh - Department of Eagles


Sailing by Night - Department of Eagles


Department of Eagles

5 comments:

McG on October 7, 2008 at 9:50 AM said...

saw chris taylor in the audience before the show, he was definitely there. how' bout nat baldwin's cover of "a little lost"? stunning.

mimi on October 7, 2008 at 9:57 AM said...

makes sense, i thought he would be there.

i agree, the arthur russell cover was the highlight of nat baldwin's brief set.

citizen analog on October 7, 2008 at 10:15 AM said...

Attended a taping of Conan O'Brien last Wednesday not knowing about DOE as they played "No One Does It Like You" live. I thought to myself "these guys sound like Grizzly Bear", which happens to be one of my favorite bands. Weird.

Anonymous said...

I didn't see chris taylor but I saw Ed Droste, he looked really happy and was cheering loud. Zach Condon was there too

mimi on October 7, 2008 at 4:33 PM said...

wow, zach condon! i should have kept my eyes peeled. didn't even notice ed droste, but heard that he has gotten a little scruffy.

 
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