Who? Le Loup is comprised of Sam Simkoff (banjo/keys), Christian Ervin (guitar), Mike Ferguson (guitar), Nicole Keenan (keys/French horn), Dan Ryan (bass), Robert Sahm (drums), May Tabol (guitar), and Jim Thomson (guitar. And everyone sings. The band just finished a week in New York for CMJ Music Marathon and are now touring throughout the South with Georgie James. Their debut LP, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, arrived on the Sub Pop imprint Hardly Art earlier this fall.
What’s the Deal? Le Loup sounds like a lonely trip in to the unknown, composed for banjo. “Planes Like Vultures” offers multi-tracked vocals to gloriously spooky effect, “Breathing Rapture” is a series of sweet nothings from the end of time, and “I Had a Dream I Died” spreads out and meanders distractedly like the best Broken Social Scene. Throughout, there’s sound layered upon sound layered upon sound swirling around each other and throwing out sharpened elbows for room to breathe. Live, the barely contained entropy of the songs manifests itself physically as the members play excitedly off each other, forever teetering beautifully on some line between art and noise.
Fun Fact: Le Loup started when Simkoff got a new computer. “I put [some songs] up on MySpace and started friending a bunch of bands that I liked,” Simkoff tells SPIN.com. “One of those bands was [the] Helio Sequence, and I got contacted by one of the guys in [the] Helio Sequence shortly thereafter, saying ‘Hey, I like the stuff, I’m sending it over to a friend of mine at Sub Pop, I hope you don’t mind.’ And I think later on that day, I was contacted by…Sub Pop saying [they] liked the stuff.” One problem: Simkoff didn’t have a band. “All the songs had been finished, and I had been sending them over to the folks at Hardly Art,” he says. “So that’s the point at which I pulled together the live band. I posted one or two advertisements on Craigslist, and within the first couple days a few people had responded.” What was one became seven.�
Now Hear This:Le Loup – “We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!” DOWNLOAD MP3
On the Web:Le Loup at MySpaceleloupmusic.net
Talk: Does Le Loup have you checking Craigslist?
